Johannesburg attorney, Dineo Peta’s article on ‘The effect of the “once empowered always empowered” rule on the mining industry’, has won her the 2016 LexisNexis Prize for Legal Practitioners for the best article by a practising attorney published in leading legal journal, De Rebus.

Commenting on the article, which was published last November, Peta said she was compelled to research the matter following the release of the draft Reviewed Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Charter for the South African Mining and Minerals Industry (Mining Charter) on 15 April 2016. She concluded that “the rule of ‘once empowered always empowered’ can have no legal standing in a constitutional democracy with a founding value of equality.”

“When the draft amendments to the Mining Charter were published and received resistance from industry, it became thought provoking as to what the constitutional effect of this rule would be, further considering relevant international and national laws,” she explained. “I wanted to conduct research on the issue because I felt the rule impeded transformation, which is the primary objective of the Charter in question.”

The 35-year-old Pretoria native runs her own legal practice, which specialises in Mining Law, Energy Law, Environmental Law and Commercial Law. Her prize from LexisNexis includes a Lenovo Tablet, as well as one year’s free access to one practice area of LexisNexis Practical Guidance to the value of over R11 500.

“I am sincerely humbled to have won and to receive recognition of this nature. The inclination to write the article was based purely on how passionately I felt about the application of certain legal considerations. It didn’t cross my mind it would be considered for an award. I am grateful to De Rebus as the award is quite empowering and a great accolade to myself and my firm,’ said Peta.

Entries are open for 2017 submissions. Interested attorneys are encouraged to send in an article not exceeding 2,000 words in length which should comply with the general De Rebus publication guidelines. The article must be published between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2017.

Peta’s complete piece “The effect of the ‘once empowered always empowered’ rule on the mining industry,” can be read here.