Mantashe’s mining bill: A card trick against the Constitution - Patrick McLaughlin
Key topics:
Mining Bill bypasses SEIA and NEDLAC, undermining constitutional safeguards
MRDB threatens farmers’ land rights, food security, and water resources
Legal and investor risks grow as Parliament faces challenge on due process
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By Patrick McLaughlin*
South Africa’s mining industry has weathered decades of shifting policy, hostile bureaucracy, and contradictory political messages. But the new Mineral Resources Development Bill (MRDB) now before Parliament represents something even more dangerous: the deliberate bypassing of South Africa’s own constitutional safeguards.
The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMRE), under Minister Gwede Mantashe, has pushed the Bill forward without conducting a Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) and without submitting it to NEDLAC — both mandatory steps in the law-making process. These omissions are not small oversights. They represent a calculated attempt to short-circuit scrutiny and push through a law that serves political ends rather than national interest.
Why an SEIA matters
The SEIA process exists for a reason. It is Cabinet policy that all new legislation must be tested for economic, social and environmental consequences before it reaches Parliament. A SEIA examines risks to jobs, communities, business confidence, and the environment. Without it, Parliament is flying blind.
The omission is glaring. As AgriSA has pointed out in a recent press release bitterly complaining about the Bill now before Parliament, the MRDB opens the door for small-scale miners to gain access to private agricultural land, without clear rules on landowner consent or compensation., the MRDB opens the door for small-scale miners to gain access to private agricultural land, without clear rules on landowner consent or compensation. The risks to food production, water security and property rights are obvious — and a SEIA would have made them unavoidable. By ignoring this requirement, the DMRE has shielded itself from the uncomfortable truths the assessment would have revealed.
Dodging NEDLAC
NEDLAC, the National Economic Development and Labour Council, is another constitutional checkpoint. It exists so that government, labour, business and community can debate laws with clear economic and labour implications. Mining law, which governs land, jobs, investment and empowerment, falls squarely within its scope.
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Why would the Minister avoid NEDLAC? The answer could be political. Having faced years of criticism from the Minerals Council, international investors, and now agriculture, Mantashe seems intent on avoiding any platform where his Bill could be delayed or fundamentally reshaped. In effect, he is saying: “Parliament will rubber-stamp this; we cannot afford debate.”
A constitutional question
This is not only a policy failure — it may be unconstitutional. Laws passed without SEIA and NEDLAC are vulnerable to court challenge, adding a new layer of risk for the very industries they seek to regulate. Investors who already fear South Africa’s unpredictability will think twice before committing capital if Parliament itself is seen as complicit in short-circuiting due process.
If the MRDB is passed in its current form, we may see litigation not only from industry players but from civil society. Farmers have already drawn their line in the sand. Others may follow.
Mantashe’s card trick
The Minister’s long-standing preference for centralised, state-led mining control is no secret. He has clashed repeatedly with the private sector, accused of “killing exploration” and holding up investment. His new Bill continues that tradition — strengthening bureaucratic control, imposing empowerment quotas even at exploration stage, and allowing state entities to dominate the field.
But the real trick is procedural. By skipping SEIA and NEDLAC, the Minister has attempted to deal the cards himself — hiding them from scrutiny and stacking the deck in favour of ideology. What looks like efficiency is in fact a political card trick, played at the expense of constitutional process.
Why business should care
For business, this is not an academic debate. The risks are concrete:
Legal risk: A Bill passed without proper process can be struck down.
Agricultural risk: Farmers face mining incursions without consultation or compensation.
The MRDB is not just another piece of mining law. It is a test of whether Parliament will enforce its own constitutional guardrails — or allow the executive to bypass them in pursuit of party goals. The stakes are too high. The time to call the card trick is now.
*Patrick McLaughlin is a parliamentary affairs analyst and publisher of ParlyReportSA.com. He writes regularly on legislative developments affecting South African business and economic governance.