Is Zwane simply stupid or motivated by something else?

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s new mining charter tops the charts of policymaking idiocy. The charter, now being challenged in the courts by the Chamber of Mines, reeks with the stink of another agenda from a minister now widely viewed to be among the most captured of his cabinet colleagues.

When the new charter was announced earlier this month it immediately knocked R50-billion off the value of mining stocks and gave the rand another knock on the chin. All exactly what we need to be happening as we languish in the downgrade gutter with further shocks on that front looming.

What is incomprehen-sible about the charter's publication is that it appears to be supported by almost nobody of any consequence, besides Zwane. The ANC has disowned it, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has criticised it, the Chamber of Mines, representing almost all South African mining companies, says it wasn't properly consulted and the banks say it's going to make it even more difficult to finance the sector.

If adopted, the charter threatens to destroy a sector already in terminal decline.

So, who wins? Among the few are our old friends from Saxonwold who will benefit from an expanded definition of black ownership which could now include naturalised citizens, such as the Guptas.

But it's difficult to see who else might see any long-term rewards from the charter as Zwane imagines it now. It will certainly not be the industry that sustains more than 400000 jobs in an economy suffering record unemployment.

Once again we are left questioning the motives of a minister and wondering if he is simply stupid or motivated by something else.