Chairperson, I move without notice:
That the Council -
(1) notes that during the recent Provincial Week programme and the visits to different mining operations and mining communities, and in the midst of the grand operations excavating the nation's minerals, one was again struck by the immense poverty and the people aimlessly waiting for some economic and social benefit;
(2) notes that while mining has been productive and profitable for almost two centuries, despite the government and the mining industry having signed the Mining Charter in 2002, with the express purpose of integrating the economy whilst ensuring that ownership and management were diversified, real transformation has not taken place in the mining sector and the issue of the skills shortage is still used as an excuse for the lack of real transformation of the industry, while the people's outcry in search of economic and social justice is ignored;
(3) calls on the mining industry to honour its obligations in terms of the Mining Charter and to transform itself in such a way that will fundamentally change the magnitude of the mining sector's contribution to economic upliftment and development of the relevant communities and to environmental sustainability; and
(4) further calls on the government as well as the Department of Mineral Resources, the Chamber of Mines, unions and local government to ensure robust monitoring of the implementation of the Mining Charter.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.