For the mining towns and workers whose livelihoods depend on new projects getting off the ground, the rules that govern who owns what in South Africa’s mines are not abstract policy. They are the difference between investment arriving or going elsewhere. That was the message mining professionals carried into a conference on October 7, where they argued that the country’s empowerment regime must be reshaped so that it welcomes investors while still serving the communities the industry operates among.
Minerals Council South Africa president Paul Dunne, who is also CEO of platinum group metals producer Northam Platinum, told the gathering that the industry needs legislation that works for both sides of the table. “We need finality to our legislation, and need a legislative backdrop that is acceptable to the needs of the country in terms of economic transformation and participation in the economy, but which is also acceptable to the investor community. This can be done,” he said.
The mood among mining professionals darkened in May 2025, when the draft Mineral Resources Development Bill was released. Industry figures viewed the draft as neither encouraging nor sustaining growth and investment, and one proposed change in particular raised alarm: the sitting Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister would have to give permission before the beneficial ownership of a mine could change hands. For investors weighing where to place capital, such a requirement looked like a discouragement.
There has since been movement. Dunne said engagements around the legislation have been fruitful, and consultations have moved into the processes of the National Economic Development and Labour Council. “While the work is confidential, on the whole, this is a working piece of legislation that we can guide through Nedlac and Parliament to deliver a law that the industry needs,” he said.
Minerals Council CEO Mzila Mthenjane highlighted a different frustration, one that lands squarely on the people trying to comply with the rules. Investors understand South Africa’s need for transformation, he said, but their biggest concern is inconsistency. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources holds one view of how empowerment should be effected, and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition holds another, and the mining sector must conform with both. “We must address this inconsistency between the empowerment regulations of different departments. The biggest concern of investors is certainty of transformation policy. We should rather have one law that all sectors abide by,” he said.
Mthenjane also urged that transformation laws be redesigned so their benefits reach the bottom of the economy, where people actually live. “Not every member of a community must have a share in a local mining company; rather empowerment rules should find ways to change people’s lives.” He noted that several infrastructure and municipal services duties have already been delegated to the mining industry, work the industry carries out well, and argued that laws must balance South Africa’s needs with the commercial realities of mining.
On the government side, Ntokozo Nzimande, deputy director-general for Mining, Mineral and Policy Development at the DMPR, acknowledged the fragmentation. Improving predictability is a critical pillar of the department’s 2030 Strategic Plan, she said, and the DMPR is working with the departments of Water and Sanitation and of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to align licensing timelines. She added that talks about transformation are often reduced to equity, even though the sector performs well on social and labour plans.
By contrast, Mthenjane pointed to the longer investment horizon. Quoting US businessperson Larry Fink, he noted that investors have a fiduciary duty exercised through the investments they make. They need line of sight to a return within their investment horizon, which in turn requires security of tenure. The Medium Term Development Plan 2024 to 2029 requires the whole of government to coordinate to achieve 3.5% economic growth, and the current lack of coordination was flagged as a key weakness.
Momentum, though, is building. The government and business partnership formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, coordinated through the Presidency, has entered its third phase. After focusing on electricity supply security and transport and logistics, it now targets agriculture, mining and tourism. Mthenjane expressed confidence that public announcements would come with simultaneous commitments to project teams, saying the industry is “not only fixing one thing at a time, but are fixing an ecosystem.”
Whether the Nedlac process delivers the finality Dunne called for remains the open question for the communities and workers watching from the mining towns. Fuller context on the conference and its arguments can be found at https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/south-africas-mining-industry-needs-an-empowerment-regime-that-welcomes-investors-2026-10-08