Bid to suspend 'bad faith' charter under way

In what marks the beginning of a long haul through the courts, the Chamber of Mines laid out its grievances with the new Mining Charter in a 274-page founding affidavit yesterday, notes Legalbrief. It is asking the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) for an urgent interdict to suspend the charter, pending an application to set it aside as unlawful. The new charter was an ‘extremely intrusive and damaging’ document, it argued. The third version of the charter had been negotiated in ‘bad faith’, it said, ahead of launching two court challenges, notes a BusinessLIVE report. The chamber, which represents 90% of SA’s annual mined value, launched a broadside at Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and his department. It said he was acting beyond the powers granted to him under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and the charter would cause ‘irreparable harm’. ‘Extremely intrusive and damaging provisions of the 2017 charter are immediately applicable and as long as the 2017 charter remains implantable, mining companies will continue to haemorrhage value and live in an environment of acute regulatory uncertainty, which will encourage divestment and lead to further job losses,’ said Tebello Chabana, the chamber’s executive in charge of public affairs and transformation. Drawing on perceived violations of the Constitution, the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, international treaties and the Mining Act, Chabana outlined the main grievances with the charter as a prelude to what the chamber would base its arguments on in a future application for a review of the charter. Ultimately, notes the report, many of the arguments are grounded on the belief that Zwane overstepped his powers and tried to make the charter – which is a policy document or a set of guidelines – a regulatory document.