Legal services

The primary purpose of the Minerals Council’s legal team is to facilitate and/or co-ordinate legal inputs necessary to act on behalf of our members in promoting, opposing or influencing legislative and other measures affecting members’ interests and/or mitigate legal risk which has a direct adverse impact on the interest of the Minerals Council and/or that of its members. The focus is on constructive policies that are consistent with national interest.

Critical team members

• Ursula Brown: Head: Legal

Context

South Africa’s legislative and regulatory landscape has changed dramatically since 2004, and nowhere has this impact been greater than in the mining industry. Not only is the industry required to act in compliance with the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002 (MPRDA), but there is a multitude of other existing, new and emerging legislation with which the industry is bound to comply, or where the regulations that follow legislation are not entirely clear or even in place.

See the section on transformation

Key activities

The Minerals Council team is involved in the preparation and making of submissions, both written and oral, on behalf of its members. In some cases, legal content takes up the major part of the submission; in others it is a necessary but not predominant part. This simply recognises that, in order for our lobbying and advocacy activities to be successful, they cannot be confined within the circle of a single discipline. Both politically and intellectually, our lobbying and advocacy is necessarily polycentric.

Some of the legal team’s key activities include:

• Policy and legislative impact analysis and formulation of mining industry responses in the areas of mineral policy, land reform, taxation, health and safety,  mine security and stability, social security, retirement reform and compensation for occupational diseases.
• Co-ordinating submission of members' collective views on matters of concern to them on the laws governing prospecting, mining rights, land reform, taxation, retirement fund, mine security and stability issues.
• Lobbying of and advocacy to Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, Parliament, the South African Revenue Service, National Treasury and other government departments.
• Representing the Minerals Council and its members on statutory and other structures, including the Mining Regulation Advisory Committee (MRAC), Business Unity South Africa (Busa), National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), the  National Coordinating and Strategic Management Team and the National Joint Operating Committee.