Mantashe's announcement of another delay in rollout of cadastre system 'just extraordinary', says mining expert
The Money Show's Stephen Grootes gets comment from Peter Leon, partner at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe at the 2022 African Energy Week at the V&A Waterfront, in Cape Town on 18 October 2022. Picture: @GwedeMantashe1/Twitter
The long-awaited rollout of South Africa's cadastral system has been delayed once again.
The system aims to facilitate investment in exploration and address the backlog of mining and prospecting licences.
This online database for mining rights is now expected to live by October, after Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe announced a three-month delay during his budget vote speech in Parliament.
It had been scheduled to go online in the Western Cape on 1 July.
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It's expected that the overall project timeline 'will not be significantly impacted' as the experience from the Western Cape process will be applied in other provinces, Mantashe said.
This latest delay is extraordinary on a number of counts, says mining expert Peter Leon.
"This issue has been going on for so long; in fact the new system's been promised for the last 15 years."
Peter Leon, Partner - Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (Africa Group)
"The paper-based system gives rise to all sorts of issues; particularly fraud, corruption and the rest of it. That is why most African mining jurisdictions like Namibia and Botswana for instance, have online cadastral systems and in fact have had them for more than 10 years."
Peter Leon, Partner - Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (Africa Group)
Leon also notes that the Minerals Council South Africa offered to donate a bespoke system to the Department of Mineral Resources about two years ago, which was refused.
It then went back to tender, a process beset with problems.
"One can only hope that once the system is rolled out later this year, initially in the Western Cape, that it's actually going to work... but clearly we can't continue working with the current system."
Peter Leon, Partner - Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (Africa Group)
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