Programme director
Minister of Mineral Resources, Ms Susan Shabangu
President of National Union of Mineworkers, Mr Senzeni Zokwane
President of the Chamber of Mines, Mr Sipho Nkosi
Distinguished members of the Chamber
Guests, ladies and gentlemen
As you all know, mining is dear to my heart. I spent many years in the National Union of Mineworkers, including as General Secretary. So I have met the Chamber many times over the years, sometimes in a friendly atmosphere and sometimes in not so friendly circumstances. In all our encounters, however, it has been common cause that the mining industry has a central role to play in forging a better life for all South Africans.
Our challenge is that mining plays a dual role in our society. For over a century, the industry has been central to our development in both the good and the bad. It was the bedrock of industrialisation and growth, and still contributes over half of our exports.
But it was also, undeniably, an architect of the apartheid system centred on migrant labour. There began what continues to haunt our country and the region: breaking of African families as men left their homes to live in hostels, apartheid spatial planning which skewered resource allocation to town councils serving rand-lords and complete neglect of social and economic amenities required in African communities.
The question we now face together is how to build on the best in the industry, our world-class expertise, competitive technologies and rich natural resources to overcome our troubled legacy and establish a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable economy. As government, we see the creation of decent work opportunities as the central path to this end. The question is: how can the mining industry do more to help us in this crucial process?
Programme director
The Chamber has a critical leadership role to play in helping its constituency, and indeed the mining industry as a whole, to be more responsive and sensitive to the challenges of our times.
South Africa is now in its second decade as a democratic State which endorses and upholds the principles of private enterprise within a free-market system.
When the people of South Africa bestowed upon us the mandate to govern this country in 1994, we had some understanding of the depth of the structural reforms and the transformation we would have to undertake in order for us to adequately deliver on this mandate.
Our mandate simply required us to create a better life for all by, among others, restoring the dignity of the majority of South Africans that was eroded by years of degradation and oppression, moving away from the oppressive labour regime that had underpinned employment relationships under the apartheid rule, building a sustainable and competitive economy and generally creating conditions in which the wealth of our country could be equally shared and exploited by all of our people.
Fulfilling this mandate has required extensive changes in the legal framework and regulations affecting the industry. Our challenge is to ensure that transformation to benefit the majority of our people goes hand in hand with measures to strengthen the mining value chain.
Ladies and gentleman
These policy interventions embody commitments that have been, after extensive consultations and discussions, accepted by all stakeholders in this industry as a vehicle to help us effect a decisive break with our past.
It is therefore appropriate that we pause and reflect on these commitments. This will help us to redefine our role in the next 120 years of the industry.
While there are a number of achievements that we should be proud of as an industry, there are challenges that still lie ahead of us.
As always, a particular challenge remains improving health and safety. We need to curb the fatalities and injuries that have characterised our mining industry for more than hundred years. I am confident that over time more investment in the relevant technologies coupled with training and appropriate monitoring will minimise accidents and thereby prevent loss of human life as far as possible.
We must also recognise the emergence of HIV and AIDS and the persistence of tuberculosis (TB) and other communicable diseases as a particular problem for the mining industry. We see the Chamber as an important partner in the fight against this scourge.
Addressing these challenges will help the mining industry to deal with the accusation that it prioritises profits over the health and safety of the workers. More recently we have had to deal with the international economic crisis, which has seen a sharp fall in most commodity prices and only limited recovery so far. Although South Africa has weathered the global financial storm so far, our mining, particularly the diamond and platinum sectors, has been under tremendous pressure.
We are very concerned about the impact of these trends not only on our companies, but also on workers. In the past year, the mining industry has lost thousands of jobs –some seven percent of its total employment, according to the Labour Force Survey. These job losses have imposed huge costs on some of the poorest households and communities in our country. We are grateful to organised business for working with us to limit retrenchments, but much more needs to be done.
Ladies and gentlemen,
For quite some time now, there have been concerns that the industry has not transformed as quickly or sufficiently as it could. It is these concerns that have fuelled a call for nationalisation of mines from some quarters of our society.
Whilst this healthy debate continues, the sector should take comfort in knowing that there are no immediate plans from the state to nationalise the mines. Public discourse should be separated from public policy. The latter is an outcome of extensive multi-sectoral consultation within ANC-led government.
However, we do need to expedite the transformation of our industry. That transformation cannot be limited to changing the nature of ownership, but must enhance the contribution of the industry to development, the creation of decent work opportunities and sustainable growth.
I am told that the Department of Mineral Resources is finalising its assessment of the progress that has been made in achieving the objectives of the Mining Charter, as agreed upon by the industry stakeholders when the Charter came into effect in 2004.
I urge you all to cooperate in this exercise so that we can enrich our discourse on transformation. We as government are committed to broad and meaningful consultation with all our stakeholders. We need to ensure that the implementation of the Charter benefits, above all, our communities and workers and our economy as a whole.
A particular concern around transformation is to ensure the mining industry contributes to diversification and growth of our economy. To enhance the value of exports, localise imports and create sustainable jobs, government has developed a beneficiation strategy which seeks to encourage the mining industry to facilitate downstream minerals beneficiation.
This is necessary to facilitate economic diversification, expedite progress towards a knowledge-based economy, achieve incremental GDP growth in mineral value addition and create opportunities for enterprise development and skills development. Our core concern is to explore how we can together support final fabrication of metals, rather than focusing on smelting and refining. That kind of activity may seem beyond the competency of the mining companies. Still, it is important that we collaborate in achieving our aim of industrialisation as far as possible.
Beneficiation presents numerous opportunities for investment in the country by both South African and foreign investors. We look to the Chamber to help us realise the opportunities that arise from adding value to our rich natural resources.
Ladies and gentlemen,
A credit to the industry, and the Chamber as its voice, is the high level of cooperation and trust that it maintains with its stakeholders. We appreciate the efforts made to ensure meaningful transformation.
Our people have high expectation on the mining industry to maintain and expand its socio-economic development in the country and the region. In meeting this demand the Chamber will need to persist in its commitment to the inevitable processes of change that are so critical to recognise and respond to. You must be the brains-trust and provide intellectual leadership.
For its part, government also recognises that the success of the next 120 years of the industry can be greatly facilitated through creating the environment that enables the industry to perform optimally and perpetuate its established role as a creator of jobs and a generator of wealth. We will in particular prioritise our public investment programme that aims to ensure sufficient infrastructure as well as skills development.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
2 November 2009
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)
