South Africa Rejects Mining Tax

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

03 September 2010

South Africa's Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu, attending the Paydirt Africa Downunder Conference in Perth, has said that her country would not introduce a new mining tax, as is being proposed in Australia.

She confirmed that the South African government has never thought about such a tax, and pointed to the still-unresolved political and industrial problems the current mining tax proposal has caused in Australia.

She admitted that South Africa has its own problems in the mining sector, which came out of new reforms introduced by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) of 2002. The government had noted a growing negative sentiment regarding South Africa’s mining sector, specifically in relation to its regulatory framework.

She said that, while the government will take care how it proceeds with further changes in the mining sector, it is now in the midst of a moratorium on prospecting licences and the formulation of amendments to the MPRDA. She confirmed that it is probable that the time taken to approve both prospecting and mining licences will be halved, as part of those further reforms.

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