Mantashe defends BEE

TRANSFORMATION: CHANGING FACES ISN'T ENOUGH, SAYS MINISTER

- Vhahangwele Nemakonde

The mining industry should not be ashamed of the country's transformation policies, which have enabled the historically disadvantaged to participate in economic activities, says Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe.

On Friday, Mantashe engaged with the mining industry to discuss the current realities affecting the industry, including illegal mining, transformation and critical minerals.

He said people had been misled into thinking the ANC was their biggest problem when, in fact, it was the one that had spearheaded transformation.

"In your vocabulary, there was never apartheid; apartheid was never a problem and in your vocabulary, colleagues, your problem is the ANC. We're saying that cannot be factual," said Mantashe.

"Today, we are participating in the economy actively and nobody boasts about the coal mining that is owned and managed by black South Africans, something that we'd never imagined."