South Africa Delays Court Approach on Mines’ Black-Holding Rule
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South Africa’s mines ministry has yet to ask a court whether operators may claim to meet black-ownership rules even after shareholders have sold their stake in assets, missing an April deadline to obtain finality on the matter.
Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said in March the ministry wants a court judgment by April on the requirements of the 2004 Mining Charter, which compelled companies to sell 26 percent of their assets to black South Africans by the end of 2014 as a way to narrow economic disparities created by apartheid rule. Some investors acquired the so-called empowerment stakes at attractive terms and subsequently sold them, diluting the producers’ black shareholding.