This report is an assessment of the extent to which the mining policies and legal frameworks
of SADC countries are in line with the aspirations of the 2009 adopted Africa Mining Vision
(AMV), whose goal is to promote “transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development”. The study focuses on selected eight SADC countries, i.e. Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Given the significant role of the mining sector in the economies of these countries, particularly mining exports and mining revenue contributions to total government tax revenue, the assessment was solely focused on the fiscal issues of mining as guided by the AMV Action Plan Cluster One on Mining Revenues and Mineral Rents Management. This cluster aims “to create a sustainable and well-governed mining sector that effectively garners and deploys resource rents”. It identifies a variety of activities and monitoring indicators for promoting two expected outcomes namely an enhanced share of mineral revenue accruing to African mining countries and improved management and use of mineral revenue. It is against these activities and/or monitoring indicators that the countries’ mining polices and legal frameworks are evaluated in this study. The study used a qualitative analysis approach to address the objectives set out in the Terms of Reference. The main findings of the assessment for Malawi are summarised below.
Mining in Malawi is primarily governed by the Mines and Minerals Act of 1981 and the
Mines and Minerals Policy of 2013. The archaic 1981 Act has become irrelevant to the
changing national and global economy and has presented Malawi with various structural
challenges that manifest in lack of technical capacity coupled with poor administration of
the sector. Although the law specifies the royalty and taxes payable, the general fiscal
regime in mining remains negotiable, leading to delays in finalising mining development
agreements and thus opening opportunities for corruption and unnecessary rent seeking
behaviour. A new Mines and Minerals Bill was gazetted in 2016 but has neither been
adopted nor discussed in parliament. The goal is to make the mining industry in the country
attractive and competitive in the region thereby attracting more investment in the sector.
