Johannesburg - Organised labour has added its voice to an outcry by mining companies that the new "watered down" draft of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Bill ignores the concerns of mineworkers and bosses alike.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said yesterday that the new bill failed to deliver on a tripartite agreement reached last year.
Humbulani Tshikalange, head of collective bargaining at the NUM, said the draft law did not adequately tackle the deracialisation of the mining industry or lay out plans for the acceleration of transformation. "The bill is simply not people centred enough," he said.
"Yes, there is a lot of pressure on the minerals bill to change the status quo but because the country's natural resources are so intertwined with wealth creation and socioeconomic development, we simply cannot afford to get it wrong."
The resources development bill seeks to overhaul the mining sector by transferring mineral rights to the government.
The Chamber of Mines, representing the bulk of the local mining majors, said on Monday that the draft legislation needed further fine-tuning.
This is the second time the bill has met with a barrage of criticism. Mining companies and the government were at loggerheads over the initial Minerals Development Bill, primarily because of insecurity of tenure, which is seen as a threat to the local industry and foreign investment.
Tshikalange said the revised draft bill had made changes, but for the worse. He said the importance of socioeconomic issues had been downplayed.
The union's original concerns over the role of the state, issues of transformation of ownership, working conditions and an industry labour plan still stood.
Tshikalange said the union was calling for the department of minerals and energy to revisit concerns and provide significantly more details.