Chairperson, in the debate earlier on, the Minister of Science and Technology, said on the Intellectual Property Bill that overseas investors come into our country and dig up our resources. Now, hon Minister, if they dig, they pay for what they had dug up, and that money will remain with the people of South Africa.
This is essentially what this Bill does. As the hon Minister had indicated, there was a very extensive consultation process. This Bill has been on the table for the past five years, and I know hon Lucas has been telling me about this. We want to acknowledge the efforts of National Treasury in accommodating the concerns and uncertainties within the mining sector, without diluting the state's rights to recoup a user fee for nonrenewable mineral resources that belong to all South Africans.
Treasury had to walk a fine line between the state's interests as the custodian of our mineral wealth and the long-term survival and viability of the mining sector, which continues to play a vital role in our economy. It is the IFP's position that a sensible balance has been struck and we applaud all stakeholders for their positive contributions.
It goes without saying that the IFP was concerned that the Bill would do away with royalties that are currently accruing to traditional communities and which are used to uplift those communities, as is the case with the Ingonyama Trust in KwaZulu-Natal, whose income from these sources is almost R10 million.
We are assured, however, by item (ii) of Schedule 2, which protects these existing royalties and ensures that the traditional communities will continue to benefit from them now and in the future. We have accepted Treasury's assurances in this regard and the hon Minister also alluded to this when he opened the debate.
The hon chairperson of our committee spoke about the environmental impact. We also would like to bring in the issue of safety, particularly, not only with underground mining, but also with sand-mining companies, because we have read about a lot of incidents where young people have drowned because safety measures are not into place. We would also like to encourage the department to work with communities to ensure, where equity is sought in these mining companies, that the department must assist communities so that they can get equity. We want our people to be partners, shareholders and directors in these operations and not merely tax collectors or royalty collectors.
A wonderful example is what happened in the Royal Bafokeng community and I think this needs to be emulated all over. As the IFP, we wish to support both the Bills, the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Royalty Bill and the administration Bill. Thank you.