Madam House Chairperson and Minister, if things are going so well in mining, why is the industry in such bad shape? We have heard fine words from our ANC colleagues, but things have regrettably gotten worse. Since we discussed the budget of this department a year ago, the mining industry has slid from the uplands of viability towards the trough of failure. The ANC government is shambling from one disastrous policy decision to the next. Things have gotten worse for mineworkers. Many of them have lost their jobs or are going to lose their jobs.
Things have also gotten worse for mining companies. As many as two thirds of our platinum mines are losing money. The platinum index has just hit a seven-year low. We see job cuts and reduced investment at Goldfields and AngloGold. Mining output was down 12,5% last year.
What do you do if the industry is in trouble? Well, if you are the ANC, you lay plans that will only make it worse. The new Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill, MPRDA, is set to squeeze more out of the industry, while making operating conditions even more onerous. It will dry up our already shrinking pool of mining investment. The government will earn less tax and more people will lose their jobs.
One of the main criticisms of the MPRDA, since it was first passed, was that it left too much decision-making in the hands of the Minister and her officials. That discretion meant that the law could be unevenly applied and, worse, it was impossible to predict the conditions under which mining investment would take place. Investments began to dry up and the industry began to shrink.
We were assured that the new amending Bill would take care of this, but the reverse has happened. In the old Act, there are 26 instances where officials or the Minister have discretion. Well, there are 34 such instances in the new Bill. This is not logical for anybody with the priority of encouraging new investment. There must be some other priority in the ANC's thinking.
Some members on that side of the House are great followers of theories of class. What a pity they confine their studies to the sayings and writings of two pale, male Germans of 145 years ago. [Laughter.] They should spend their time far more fruitfully studying a more relevant class - one that explains much of what afflicts South Africans today, and in particular South Africans in mining. This is the class of insiders, of people who are connected to government, of tenderpreneurs, the cronies - who are effectively our new ruling class. [Interjections.]
It's no coincidence that some of the more prominent scandals in mining over the past few years have involved companies that are connected to members of ruling party royalty. [Interjections.] Look at Aurora, the now infamous granting of mining rights to a company linked to Zuma and Mandela relatives, a deal that resulted in jobs being lost and workers being robbed by looting company owners. [Interjections.]
Then there is the case of Imperial Crown Trading. Despite being without visible assets in either money or expertise, but connected to representatives of the Zuma, Mandela and Motlanthe families, this company is being assisted by the Department of Mineral Resources all the way to the Constitutional Court. [Interjections.] Assistance, incidentally, which the department is not keen on talking about in the portfolio committee; a reluctance which is supported by the ANC in that committee. [Interjections.]