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SHREDDING DEMOCRACY
By: Darlene Creamer 14th April 2017 President Jacob Zuma’s recent actions have, once again, demonstrated just how far he has veered from the values and principles that defined the struggle for liberation in South Africa and helped shape the current democratic dispensation. As Barbara Hogan, a former Cabinet Minister and Ahmed... →
GOLDEN MILE
By: Martin Creamer 7th April 2017 There was a time when the gold and platinum seemed joined at the hip, but those days are long gone and currently platinum would be doing brilliantly if its price could just keep up with gold. Why the lapse? At last month’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention, Bank of... →
SINKING FEELING
By: Darlene Creamer 7th April 2017 “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others,” was one of the late President Nelson Mandela’s many pearls of wisdom. Perhaps it could serve as something of an inspirational lifeline for South Africans thrashing in... →
SITING DUCK
By: Martin Creamer 31st March 2017 The future of Anglo American has been thrown up into uncertainty by Vedanta’s purchase of 13% of Anglo’s shares, which has given rise to speculation that Vedanta would like to take over Anglo’s South African iron-ore, coal and platinum mines. The Indian company used its Volcan Investments vehicle... →
REDISCOVERING DIALOGUE
By: Darlene Creamer 31st March 2017 Without doubt, social media has empowered citizens and activists to influence national and international debates like never before. However, these technologies have a dark side. Besides the unsettling phenomenon of fake news, an atmosphere unrestrained hostility is also prevalent. For South... →
PRICE PRISONER:
By: Martin Creamer 24th March 2017 Platinum remains oversupplied on lack of production discipline, especially in South Africa. Provided miners eliminate 300 000 oz to 400 000 oz of yearly supply, platinum could rally, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said at the yearly Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention, in... →
POLICY & SELF CORRECTION
By: Darlene Creamer 24th March 2017 The African National Congress released nine discussion documents earlier this month in the run up to its June policy conference. It is far from clear whether the documents will help facilitate the ‘self correction’ that has been promised by the fractured governing party. In all likelihood that... →
PULLING THE RUG FROM UNDER MINING 
By: Martin Creamer 17th March 2017 South Africa’s current economic growth is hopelessly inadequate to drive the socioeconomic changes that are so desperately needed. But while one would expect improved economic growth to result from an end to minerals legislation delays and Mining Charter uncertainty, the status quo may be a... →
CRACKED CREDIBILITY
By: Darlene Creamer 17th March 2017 The credibility of President Jacob Zuma’s administration is arguably already cracked beyond repair. However, the recent social-grants fiasco brought into sharp focus not only incompetence of certain close allies of Zuma, but also how little regard some Ministers have for the rule of law and the... →
FACTIONAL FARCE
By: Martin Creamer 10th March 2017 Factionalism is rife within government currently and very sad to behold. It also comes with a lot of unintended consequences. One of those is the manner in which the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and hurt the South African Revenue Services (SARS), even though everything points to them... →
ALTERNATIVE PATH
By: Darlene Creamer 10th March 2017 Trade protectionism is back in fashion, with US President Donald Trump leading the march against free trade, which he blames for destroying American industries and jobs. The backlash is fuelled by growing discontent about the shape of globalisation, which is associated with unacceptably high... →
FIXING FOR PROFITS
By: Darlene Creamer 3rd March 2017 The mechanics of how currency traders manipulated the buying and selling process to maximise profits and avoid losses are complicated. It is also far from clear whether the collusive actions of these South Africa, American and British traders had any major influence on the level at which the rand... →
TRANSPARENCY TRUMPED
By: Martin Creamer 24th February 2017 On June 27, 2016, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to approve regulations to implement Section 1504, or the Cardin-Lugar Amendment, of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 1504 requires any oil, gas or mining company filing an annual... →
NONVIOLENCE AT RISK
By: Darlene Creamer 24th February 2017 South Africans have arguably become somewhat numb to the violent disruptions that have now become commonplace in Parliament. However, indulging this sort of behaviour carries serious long-term risks, not only for democratic process, but also for the way societal disagreements are resolved more... →
TRUMP THUMP
By: Martin Creamer 17th February 2017 President Trump signed two directives last week that roll back key financial regulations of the Obama era. He has decided to put a match to the Dodd-Frank rule that requires companies to disclose whether their products contain conflict minerals from a war-torn part of Africa. The now-repealed... →
YEARS OF THE CHICKEN
By: Darlene Creamer 17th February 2017 Last year, South Africa “played chicken” with the US, which threatened to withdraw some of the country’s preferential trade access under the African Growth and Opportunity Act unless restraints on American chicken imports were eased. This year, attention has turned to the European Union, whose... →
DOWN DMR'S DRAIN
By: Martin Creamer 10th February 2017 Instead of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) thinking up plans to boost South African mining, recent court judgements demonstrate how the DMR is sending this country’s invaluable minerals endowment down the drain. Urgent steps should be taken not only to put an end to this, but to make... →
STORM WARNINGS
By: Darlene Creamer 10th February 2017 The political weather reports have become increasingly extreme over the past year, with storms breaking out almost daily since the Brexit vote. The dangers have grown all the more intense, though, since the shock election of President Donald Trump, whose ‘America First’ mission statement seems... →
DMR FIDDLES WHILE MINING BURNS
By: Martin Creamer 3rd February 2017 Under current leadership, the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has broken with the collective public-private approach of the past and is choosing haphazard engagement that is unfair to this country’s rich resource endowment. While the DMR fiddles, mining companies are being forced to derisk... →
LIFEBOAT IN JEOPARDY
By: Darlene Creamer 3rd February 2017 Debate is raging domestically about the motives behind the resurfacing of the so-called Bankorp/Absa ‘lifeboat’ saga, which dates bank to the dying days of apartheid when the South Africa Reserve Bank governor at the time, Dr Chris Stals, extended unlawful support to Bankorp, which was then... →
BULLS TAKE ON BEARS
By: Martin Creamer 27th January 2017 Are the bulls gaining the upper hand in mining? That will be thoroughly discussed at this year’s Mining Indaba, where panellists on both sides of the divide will ponder the prospects mining’s recovery in 2017. The Fitch Group’s research arm BMI believes that the growth outlook will improve... →
SOCIAL MANIA
By: Darlene Creamer 27th January 2017 Social Media has become an increasingly powerful weapon for winning hearts and minds. US President Donald Trump was incredibly effective in using Twitter to shape the election narrative and has given no indication that he intends giving his thumbs a rest during his stay at the White House.... →
MINERAL 'WRONGS'
By: Martin Creamer 20th January 2017 A company applying for mineral rights ended up getting mineral ‘wrongs’, the High Court has found. The court found that Aquila Steel South Africa was being treated unfairly by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), which had opted to do the bidding of the Pan African Mineral Development... →
ANTI-TRADE WINDS
By: Darlene Creamer 20th January 2017 Free trade is under attack and anti-trade winds are blowing across the global economy. First there was the surprise Brexit vote, followed by the stunning victory of populist Donald Trump in last year’s US election. Both events point to growing scepticism about the virtues of free trade and... →
STREAKING AHEAD
By: Martin Creamer 16th December 2016 Diversified mining and marketing company Glencore enters 2017 with a fully restored balance sheet. The London-, Hong Kong- and Johannesburg-listed company’s 207% year-to-date share price rise is showing up yesteryear’s BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. The tragic Samarco slimes dams deaths in Brazil... →
NEW YEAR RISING
By: Darlene Creamer 16th December 2016 Globally and domestically, 2016 has been a taxing year. South Africa’s economy has stalled, unemployment is on the rise and social and racial tensions abound. Then there have been the political shocks out of the UK and the US to contend with. While there are few signs that 2017 will be a dramatic... →
MINING ON KNIFE EDGE
By: Darlene Creamer 9th December 2016 The South African mining industry has been placed on a knife edge by the errant Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), which is threatening to gazette deleterious new mining levies before year-end. The DMR is ignoring mining’s huge contribution to exports, foreign exchange earnings and foreign... →
SHORT FUSE
By: Darlene Creamer 9th December 2016 None of the initiatives aimed at unseating President Jacob Zuma have, to date, been sufficient to light the fuse to end his Presidential term. The recent surprise motion of no confidence brought before the African National Congress’ National Executive Committee arguably came the closest. There... →
DICTATOR OF MINERAL RESOURCES
By: Martin Creamer 2nd December 2016 The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) can with justification now be referred to as the Dictator of Mineral Resources. Since the DMR’s sudden departure from the labour, business and government tripartite arrangement, nobody can get anything out of it, not even Parliament. It is hell-bent on... →
UNEQUAL PAY
By: Darlene Creamer 2nd December 2016 In the same week that the R3 500-a-month figure was unveiled as the suggested national minimum wage for South Africa, Bloomberg released a survey showing that South African CEOs were the seventh best remunerated globally. In fact, using a ranking that compares CEO pay to income generated per... →
MINE STOPPAGE STOPPED
By: Martin Creamer 25th November 2016 A judge of the Labour Court has ruled that the errant Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) should desist from using sledgehammers to crack nuts. In decrying the irrational manner in which the DMR inspectorate has been closing entire mines without valid reason, judge André van Niekerk also noted... →
NATURAL ANXIETY
By: Darlene Creamer 25th November 2016 The biggest supermoon since 1948, which was on spectacular display last week, offered something of a happy distraction from far less soothing political developments both at home and abroad. One of the major looming uncertainties relates to the election of Donald Trump as America’s forty-fifth... →
REHABILITATION CONSTERNATION:
By: Martin Creamer 18th November 2016 The management of the rehabilitation guarantees that mining companies are legally obliged to lodge needs to be interrogated in the light of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s observation that the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has allowed Gupta coal mining company Tegeta to bank the... →
STORM WARNINGS
By: Darlene Creamer 18th November 2016 Political developments around the world continue to shock and surprise. The astonishing election of Donald Trump as the next President of the US, followed only months after the bombshell Brexit vote in the UK. South Africa, similarly, has various political storms of its own under way. Talk about... →
PLATINUM BULLS WAKING UP
By: Martin Creamer 11th November 2016 The platinum bears are starting to call on the platinum bulls to awake from their slumber and begin putting in a bullish shift. Bloomberg reports that a couple of South Africa’s biggest fund managers are betting on higher future platinum prices. With platinum mining going ex-growth, a regaining... →
EGG ON FACE
By: Darlene Creamer 11th November 2016 The credibility of the National Prosecuting Authority and the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shaun Abrahams, is at an all-time low following the institution and subsequent withdrawal of dubious fraud charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. Likewise, the Hawks unit of the South... →
SHARING MINING'S PAIN AND GAIN
By: Martin Creamer 4th November 2016 As African Mining Network guest speaker, Bobby Godsell last week identified sharing risk and reward, pain and gain as a necessary feature of future successful mining on the African continent. As mining follows exploration, the former AngloGold Ashanti CEO and outgoing Business Leadership South... →
EXACTING A TOLL
By: Darlene Creamer 4th November 2016 Developments in South Africa’s political, economic and social environments are becoming increasingly difficult for South Africans to bear. The violent disruptions at tertiary institutions, the dubious fraud charges against the Finance Minister and the ongoing weakness of the economy are just some... →
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