Hon Chairperson, hon members, as mentioned we are tabling a series of reports here that were discussed and adopted by the portfolio committee.
The Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources undertook no less than three oversight visits to the Northern Cape province between July 2010 and June 2011. The purpose of the visits was to ascertain the extent of compliance by the mining companies with the mining laws, such as the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, Act 28 of 2002, the Mine Health and Safety Act, Act 29 of 1996, the Broad-Based Socioeconomic Empowerment Charter for the South African Mining Industry and social and labour plans. We also wanted to assess the economic impact yielded by the investments in the mining industry in that province.
The portfolio committee interacted at various mines with the mine management teams; labour unions; health and safety representatives; officials of the Department of Mineral Resources; provincial legislature representatives, including the premier and some MECs; district municipality representatives; and various mining communities in the Namakwa and Kimberley regions.
We found that the mining companies were generally not complying with mining laws. In particular, they were not implementing the provisions of the Mining Charter. They were not even honouring their own commitments to social and labour plans. This is borne out by the fact that the mining communities are trapped in abject poverty, despite the fact that mineral wealth is mined in the areas in which they reside. [Interjections.] We are discovering that this is a common phenomenon across the country and it confirms the triple challenges that face the country, namely high levels of poverty, a high rate of unemployment and huge inequalities within our society, as confirmed by the Gini coefficient process.
This democratic government has inherited these social ills from centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid misrule. These high levels of poverty in the Northern Cape province and in the country must be counterpoised to the findings of Citibank, which found that South Africa is the world's richest country in terms of mineral wealth.
The question is how to redistribute this mineral wealth in a manner that ensures that the benefits of this common heritage accrue to all citizens of this country, as section 24(b) of the Constitution enjoins all of us to ensure.
The ANC, as a caring organisation, is addressing this matter directly through its proposal of the establishment of a state-owned mining company ... [Interjections.] ... which will, through legal means, amass the necessary resources to push back the frontiers of poverty and deal the huge economic backlogs a decisive blow. We are conducting research to determine a proper and co-ordinated manner of state-intervention in the mining industry.
In the face of these challenges, the role of the state in this industry cannot be limited to regulation only. The portfolio committee is also recommending that the Department of Mineral Resources improves its capacity, particularly regarding the inspectorate, to ensure compliance with mining laws by the mining companies.
The portfolio committee also undertook oversight visits to both Mintek and the Council for Geosciences in the period 2 to 5 August 2010. Mintek is the state's research institution and has become a leading provider of mineral- processing and metallurgic engineering products and services to industries worldwide. Mintek is also poised to play a key role in developing technologies that will assist the country to beneficiate all our minerals locally, thereby creating much needed jobs.
The Council for Geoscience is mandated through the Geoscience Act, Act 100 of 1993, to undertake systematic mapping, reconnaissance and documentation of the geology of the earth's surface, both onshore and offshore, and to undertake basic geoscience research on rocks and earth. This institution must also find advanced technology to curtail the unacceptably high rate of fatalities in the mines. As we speak they are working on early warning systems to detect occurrences of seismic events, like falling rocks and earth tremors, which have been discovered to be the greatest contributing factors to fatalities in the mining industry.
Both institutions are severely underfunded - a matter that we have discussed in the committee and are again raising here. Underfunding will pose a challenge to the endeavours of the country to build a democratic developmental state. In fact, South Africa must spend at least 3% of its GDP on research and development to be in line with international practice.
Chairperson, we hereby table all these reports. There was no debate.
Chairperson, I move:
That the Reports be adopted.
House Chairperson, the reports presented are actually not the reports agreed to in committee, so the DA objects to that.
Motion agreed to (Democratic Alliance dissenting).
Report on Oversight Visit to Northern Cape on 26 to 30 July 2010, dated 10 November 2010 accordingly adopted. Report on Oversight Visit to Mintek on 4 to 5 August 2010, dated 10 November 2010 accordingly adopted.
Report on Oversight Visit to Northern Cape on 22 to 26 November 2010, dated 10 August 2011 accordingly adopted.
Report on Oversight Visit to Council of Geosciences on 2 to 3 August 2010, dated 10 November 2010 accordingly adopted.
Report on Oversight Visit to Schmidtsdrift, Northern Cape, from 3 to 4 June 2011, dated 10 August 2011 accordingly adopted.