Creamer Media Login

Mantashe to mining CEOs: Stop insulting the state

25th May 2022

Font size: - +

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, has warned that a growing tendency by mining executives to "insult the state" is detrimental to the resources sector.

"We have observed a growing temptation to insult the state by strong and powerful mining executives.

"Such executives have no regard for the industry’s international ratings and its relations with government which makes it difficult to process industry issues," he said when addressing the Minerals Council South Africa ahead of the industry body's AGM on Wednesday.

'Attacking the state'

"When a mining executive writes an article to say there is no leadership in the country and we are rated 75 out of 84 [mining jurisdictions] by the Fraser Institute ... these negative articles talk to that rating," he said, likely referring to recent comments made by Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman in this regard.

"If you say there is no leadership in the country, you are attacking the state, you are attacking the mining sector," Mantashe said.

"The industry must further discuss the role of business associations who also find it fashionable to insult government and the governing party - the ANC - projecting themselves as speaking for the sector."

The minister appealed to the industry to communicate a positive message about itself.

"It must state, without exaggeration, the challenges before us and propose reasonable solutions on how we should all overcome them," he said.

Edited by News24Wire

Comments

The functionality you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

Click Here

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

➕

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

➕

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION

➕