Madam Chair, the top 10 companies have during the past three weeks indicated that they have broadly achieved the Mining Charter targets set for 2014. In fact, whilst the Department of Mineral Resources, DMR, has indicated that the mining houses have achieved only 8,9% in terms of ownership targets, the Chamber of Mines and all the mining companies have indicated that the industry norm on ownership targets has been 26,8% - in fact, already the target set for 2014. Cancelling mining licences without agreed figures between the mining sector and the DMR will have highly litigious consequences and be an investment time bomb.
In the light of the above, will the Minister consider appointing an accredited auditor's firm to factually, and not politically, establish the extent to which the targets for 2014 have been met. Thank you.