Madam Deputy Speaker, before I give the challenges that we are experiencing in the course of implementing this Act, I think we need to acknowledge that we can hail the charter as one of the most important instruments that have facilitated the participation of black people in the mining sector. But in terms of challenges, there are a number of them confronting us.
Fronting is a problem whereby there is a "rent-a-black" situation. Companies will employ black people as BEE employees or partners and in the process they come back to own the whole project. So, that is the problem and this amounts to dilution. Because our people do not have capital or funds available to enable them to participate as equal partners in these projects, they have to allow for dilution. This means, therefore, that the parent company would come up with capital, and in the process the smaller company would have to give away its rights to the parent company and, so to speak, the very rights go back to the parent company. That does undermine the transformation process.
The other challenge is the minimal participation of women in the industry. We still have a long way to go in terms of ensuring that more women participate in the industry.
The challenge also, as raised by the industry, is that some of the aspects of the Act are onerous for them and then it becomes difficult for them to comply with the requirements because they feel that some of these aspects are onerous. These are matters that we are beginning to address. For example, when it comes to the processing of the environmental management plan they do encounter problems when it comes to that, because of what the National Environmental Management Act requires of them.
So, we are beginning to address some of the areas without compromising on what the objectives of the National Environmental Management Act are. But we are looking at all of those. Those are the challenges that we have, Madam Speaker. [Time expired.]