SA will reach “a point of no return” if the government enacted damaging populist policies that destroyed hope of restoring investor confidence, warned Neal Froneman, CEO of SA’s largest gold and platinum mining company.

His comments reflect industry concern about whether the latest Mining Charter can reconcile the expectations of the governing party’s constituency and the need to attract investment into a deeply troubled sector that has seen the number of jobs halve in three decades to about 460,000.

Debate on land expropriation without compensation has further unsettled investors at a time when sentiment towards SA is at a low, threatening President Cyril Ramaphosa’s drive to attract R100bn in investment.

“We’re very close to a point of no return where this is not recoverable,” Sibanye-Stillwater’s Froneman said in an interview.

“If we continue with policies that are not investor friendly and are totally populist that will be the end and there’ll be no recovery from it,” he said. The intention of the ANC to drive land expropriation without compensation — possibly amending the constitution — was drawing international attention. “It doesn’t sit well with investors in SA or abroad.

“Investors need certainty in their rights. If you’re going to promote a policy like this, then it should have been well defined to remove this uncertainty,” Froneman said.

The move on land by the ANC, and by extension the government, was seen as the start of greater interference in the broader economy.