Namakwaland Mineral Resources Workshop, Namakwaland
15 August 2006
Programme Director
MEC Pakes Dikgetsi
Honourable Mayors and councillors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Sustainable and higher economic growth rates in the Northern Cape province
hinge on broadening economic activity across sectors already identified in the
Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS), such as manufacturing,
procurement within the province, tourism and Small and Medium Micro Enterprise
(SMME) development as well as spreading activities on a spatial front.
Our provincial economy poses a serious challenge of stabilising economic
growth as a pivot to achieving the six percent target by 2014. The most
critical challenge is to develop strategic interventions that will halt the
flow of leakages out of the provincial economy.
This workshop is also part of a fulfilment of a promise made by the
President of our country Mr Thabo Mbeki in the last Presidential imbizo held in
this region.
This promise was made against the backdrop of a plethora of issues raised in
the Presidential imbizo held this year. In the main, a large portion of the
questions raised by the community related to issues that were largely mining in
nature.
The Minister of Minerals and Energy, Mme Buyelwa Sonjica made a commitment
that the Department of Minerals and Energy would hold a Mining imbizo to unpack
the issues related to mining and seek common solutions to the hiccups
experienced by our people who are already in mining and those who wish to make
inroads into this sector. I am pleased to announce that Minister Sonjica will
be officiating at the mining and investment indaba to be held at the end of
this month in Kimberley.
We as a province recognise the significant role that mining has played in
our economic sphere and recognise that mining has a life span and therefore it
is important that we look at other downstream mining activities that can
contribute towards creating a better life for all our people.
We have a joint responsibility of ensuring that residents of this region
benefit from the mineral wealth that is present in this district and that the
exploitation of these minerals positively impact on the lives of our
people.
It is also important that those unexploited deposits in some areas of our
province are correctly managed not to create dependency and see our communities
as providers of cheap labour only but owners of the means of their own
produce.
It is therefore an economic imperative that we need to pursue in as far as
continued mining activities are concerned within our country and our province
in particular rather than just a noble political ambition. Beneficiation in
both Mining and Agricultural sectors is another area that remains critical to
ensuring that our people share in the accelerated growth.
Many of us are aware of the fact that although the Northern Cape and
Kimberley in particular led the industrial revolution and remains the capital
for diamonds in South Africa but there is very little for the city to show off.
In fact today the economy of the Province faces tremendous challenges as a
result of closure of mines.
The more concerning aspect is the fact that diamonds produced in South
Africa have only served to benefit and enrich the rich Western countries. The
challenge for us is to ensure that the raw material we mine and export in an
unrefined manner or with little if any value addition is significantly made
available for the downstream economy.
Our long term view as the Provincial Government is that mining activities
should be complimentary to other economic activities. The adoption of the new
mining legislation in our view presents us with an array of options with regard
to mining as an economic activity that not only ends with the actual raw
production of the commodities.
We are taking an extended view of these resources as a province and we see
downstream mining activities contributing significantly to our economy.
Particular emphasis can be placed on the completion of commodity value chain
and minerals beneficiation.
In the State of the Province Address, we mentioned the undertaking of
feasibility studies with regard to the mining of other minerals such as
granite, travertine, sandstone and slate.
We are pleased to announce that baseline research has already commenced on
these minerals and their economic viability in as far as their mining,
quarrying and processing into high end products is concerned.
This, we hope, will provide a different approach to how we view mining. Not
as an activity that should only be seen as dominated by a single mineral which
is diamonds.
We would, in the context of our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy,
anticipate that these initiatives will be able to diversify our economic
activities in as far as mining is concerned.
This particular research is aimed primarily at determining the availability
of these minerals in order to allow us to packaging investment opportunities
appropriately. We have found deposits of granite around Concordia, Garies,
Poffader and Nababeep areas.
There is an operation currently underway at Garies which primarily
concentrates on the manufacturing of tombstones and to a lesser extent usage
for decorative purposes.
We need to ensure that these initiatives are not left to die a natural death
but are supported in order to encourage other downstream mining activities.
Our province contains a variety of deposits that lend themselves to small
scale mining activities the development of which is usually hindered by lack of
technical expertise and financial resources.
It is our collective responsibility to ensure that these limited resources
are managed and regulated in a manner that will support small scale mining
activities.
It is our intention as Provincial Government to ensure that we establish
Small Mining and Minerals Development Centres in both Kimberley and
Springbok.
These centres would primarily be responsible for providing support to small
scale miners and act as a conduit between the Department of Economic Affairs
and the Department of Minerals and Energy in the province.
It is also important that small scale miners engage established corporations
with a view to forming innovative joint ventures which are mutually beneficial
to all parties.
We need to realise that in some instances we own land that have rich mineral
resources but do not have the necessary capital layout. It would therefore be
in our own interest to engage financial services providers for capital and
established businesses for technological and technical expertise.
These relationships can be used to benefit all involved without necessarily
compromising each others interests. I am particularly pleased that this
workshop is held during womenâs month, as we need to collectively support women
who wish to make inroads into mining.
We are inundated with grievances from women led companies in many parts of
the province, who are experiencing extreme difficulties in getting involved in
the mining business and continue to articulate their frustrations in relations
to their inability to get funding.
Ladies and gentlemen, the 50th anniversary of the womenâs March celebrations
is held against the theme of Age of Hope. This therefore means that the 50
years represents hope for all women, hope informed by our experience that today
is better than yesterday, and tomorrow will indeed be better than today.
Clearly then, it is important that we do not just talk about women
empowerment because it seems fashionable to say so, we must continuously
measure the progress we are making in this regard so that we can determine what
we should do next to improve on our performance.
Women should use workshops such as these to expedite the process of
empowering themselves and assess whether government is doing what should be
done to advance the objective of the emancipation of women.
The empowerment of women does not mean having a few women in top positions
or having a few shares for compliance purposes or fronting for men. The
empowerment must mean that ordinary women in rural or urban areas have an equal
opportunity and that they should be freed from the daily strenuous and
back-breaking tasks of walking long distances to fetch water from the river and
wood from the veld.
This emancipation must mean that, women should be part of the decision
making structures and contribute meaningfully in the growth and development of
their own lives. We should make sure that women are armed with the relevant
knowledge and skills that enables them to participate in the economic and
social development opportunities that are available in our country.
We cannot fail our women who have placed their trust and hopes in us.
I hope that through your deliberations today you will be able to address
these concerns and together find solution to common problems that have a
bearing on our common destiny as South Africans and people of the Northern Cape
Province.
We do not come with solutions but are here as government in order to allow
us to engage with each other to find common solutions.
I hope that the presentations that have been made and the input from all the
speakers have shed light which will help us understand the issues while at the
same time responding to our concerns as people of the this province. I wish you
well, may your resolutions drive us towards a path of growth and
development.
I thank you
Baie dankie
Ndiyabulela
Ke a leboga
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government
15 August 2006
