A new system is allowing South African mining companies to monitor the sale of shares to black investors, the training and hiring of black staff, and purchases of goods and services from black-owned companies.
The information is recorded on a “scorecard,” provided by the Ministry of Minerals and Energy.
Under South African law, mining companies must sell 26% of their assets to black investors within a decade. Companies can gain flexibility on the percentage if they invest more in training blacks, community development and the processing of goods before export.
The government has been putting pressure on businesses to increase black participation to make up for their exclusion under apartheid. The plan is for black investors to own 15% of the country’s biggest export industry within five years and 26% within 10. Also, within five years 40% of all managers are to be black and all mineworkers literate.
A proposed law to charge royalties on mining operations will be presented to Parliament during the first quarter of 2003 and will likely be approved by year-end.
Anglo American, the country’s largest miner, has suffered an 18% drop in its share price since the plan was unveiled, in autumn 2002.
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