South Africa mines minister calls for industry to 'shape up'

Speaking at the mining industry's annual 'mining indaba' in Cape Town, Oliphant said "the time for transformation in a meaningful way is actually now", the African News Agency reported.

"If we don’t rise up to the challenges of transformation we might be put under pressure by society to do things which we might regret," the mines minister added.

#MiningIndaba Oliphant urges mining industry to "shape up" or the ANC might be forced to back to conversations the industry doesn't want (nationalisation).

— Tehillah Niselow (@tehillahniselow) February 8, 2018

Last summer the ruling ANC party updated the country's mining charter to increase the minimum threshold for black ownership of mining companies to 30% from 26%. Originally introduced in 2002, the charter is designed to increase ownership of the mining industry by black South Africans, who make up four fifths of the country's near-56m population.

But the charter, which is part of the country's wider Black Economic Empowerment movement that aims to redress the long-lingering effects of the apartheid regime, was quickly suspended and is still awaiting a judicial review forced by fierce industry opposition. London-listed companies that operate in the country include FTSE 100 giants Anglo American and Glencore, as well as South32, Firestone Diamonds and Impala Platinum.

Oliphant offered a constructive tone at the indaba meeting, saying: “We are going to find a way to deal with this by working together.”