South Africa to make oil, mining announcement in says, ANC says

Bloomberg News | September 6, 2018 | 9:59 am Energy Africa

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(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s government will make an announcement within days regarding separate rules for the country’s oil and mining industries, according to the ruling African National Congress.

An agreement has been reached on separating laws for the country’s oil industry and dropping a bill to govern the two sectors, Enoch Godongwana, head of the ANC’s economic transformation committee, said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill has been stuck in a legislative quagmire for years and the decision to separate the rules may help bring more certainty to both the mining and fuels industries.

The ANC doesn’t support the stance of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters calling for widespread land expropriation, Godongwana said. Expropriation without compensation will only be used “in specific circumstances,” he said.

The party “isn’t concerned” about the impact of the recession announced in South Africa this week on its prospects in next year’s elections because the ANC is “comfortably ahead of the pack,” the ANC official said. It doesn’t need to resort to populist measures in an attempt to drum-up electoral support, he said.

(By Francine Lacqua and Amogelang Mbatha)