Zwane usurped Parliament's powers on charter – chamber

Minister of Mineral Resources Mosebenzi Zwane has exceeded his powers with the publication of the 2017 Mining Charter. This assertion is contained in the founding affidavit of the Chamber of Mines‚ which wants the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to review and set aside the third Mining Charter published in June. The chamber also said it was inconceivable that Zwane could honestly have believed that the publication of the charter constituted a legitimate exercise of power under section 100(2)(a) of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), notes a TimesLIVE report. The section provides for the Minister to develop a broad-based charter that will set targets for entry of historically-disadvantaged South Africans into the mining industry. The review application‚ filed this week‚ will be heard on 13 and 14 December. The charter will not be implemented until after the application has been finalised. The chamber said in publishing the 2017 charter‚ the Minister had purported to exercise powers which resided exclusively with Parliament. One example the chamber cited was Zwane’s replacement of the definition of ‘historically disadvantaged person’ in the MPRDA with his own definition of ‘Black Person’. ‘In short‚ the Minister cannot replace the definition adopted by Parliament with one more to his liking‚’ said Tebello Chabana‚ the chamber’s senior executive in charge of public affairs and transformation‚ in his founding affidavit.