Programme director,
Premier of the North West province, Mr Kagiso Mokgosi; executive mayor of the Bojanala Platinum district municipality, Cllr Suzan Nthangeni;
Members of the executive council; executive mayors and mayors; traditional leaders;
Representatives of business, labour and civil society; academia and research institutions;
Captains of industry; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen; good morning.
It is both a privilege and an honour to address this Bojanala district economic development symposium convened under the theme:
"Charting a new economic consensus for the recovery and rebuilding of Bojanala district."
I wish to commend the Bojanala Platinum district municipality for convening this important gathering and for recognising the need to build a shared economic vision for the future of this district.
The theme of today's symposium is as instructive as it both timely and necessary.
It recognises that sustainable economic development requires more than good intentions.
It requires a common diagnosis of our challenges, a shared understanding of our opportunities and a collective commitment to implementation.
Today we congregate here not merely to discuss economic challenges but to summon both wit and courage to confront them.
We gather to chart a new path for growth, investment, industrialisation, job creation and inclusive development.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you know: the South African economy was built on minerals discoveries and mining.
The discovery of diamonds in Kimberley in 1867 and gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 transformed South Africa into one of the world's leading mining economies.
Mining became the foundation upon which railways, ports, financial institutions, manufacturing industries and modern cities were built.
However, this economic growth was not inclusive.
The economy that emerged concentrated ownership, wealth and productive assets in the hands of a minority while excluding the majority of South Africans from meaningful participation in economic activity.
The 1994 democratic breakthrough notwithstanding; transformation of the economic structure inherited from apartheid, remains one of the greatest tasks of our democratic state.
Three decades later, inequality in South Africa remains stubbornly high.
The challenge before us therefore; is not merely economic growth.
The challenge is economic transformation.
Transformation requires us to fundamentally change patterns of ownership, production, investment, skills development and economic participation.
The national development plan correctly recognises that growth without inclusion is unsustainable, while inclusion without growth is impossible.
It is therefore perfectly obvious that South Africa requires both growth and transformation.
Programme director, as we reflect on our economic history, we must also confront our economic reality.
The South African reserve bank and the international monetary fund have both highlighted a common challenge: South Africa's economy remains resilient, but growth remains too low to significantly reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Current forecasts suggest that economic growth will remain around 1 to 2 percent over the medium term.
While positive, these growth rates remain well below the levels required to fundamentally transform our socio-economic conditions.
Our economy is growing too slow to absorb the growing number of young people entering the labour market every year.
According to stats SA, our population growth rate is approximately 1.3 to 1.5 percent annually.
Every year hundreds of thousands of young South Africans enter the labour market in search of opportunity.
The labour force grows whether the economy grows or not.
If economic growth lags population growth, unemployment inevitably rises.
This is precisely why growth matters.
It is not an abstract economic concept.
It is the difference between opportunity and exclusion.
It is the difference between hope and despair.
It is the difference between a demographic dividend and a demographic crisis.
Today South Africa's official unemployment rate remains about 32 percent, while youth unemployment is at approximately 46 percent.
These realities represent one of the greatest threats to social cohesion, economic stability and long-term prosperity.
Bagaetsho, it is clear what the urgent tasks of economic and social transformation are.
We need to urgently industrialise our economy, deepen localisation and strengthen domestic backward linkages especially in the mining value chain.
We must expand opportunities for SMMEs, cooperatives, women owned enterprises, youth-owned enterprises and black industrialists.
We must strengthen municipal capability and improve infrastructure to ensure that economic growth translates into tangible improvements in the lives of ordinary South Africans.
Programme director, the economic significance of Bojanala cannot be overstated.
The North West province contributes approximately six percent of South Africa's economic output and remains one of the country's most strategic mining provinces.
Bojanala is globally recognised as one of the most important platinum producing regions in the world.
The district is endowed with some of the largest platinum group metal reserves on earth.
Every year billions of rands worth of mineral wealth are extracted from this region and exported to markets across the globe.
Mining remains the dominant economic sector in Bojanala and continues to drive economic output, exports, investment and employment.
A fundamental question therefore is:
How do we ensure that the wealth extracted from beneath our soil creates sustainable prosperity above the soil?
How do we ensure that mining communities become centres of development rather than mere sites of extraction?
How do we ensure that future generations inherit thriving economies rather than depleted resources?
These are the questions that should guide our deliberations today.
For decades, many resource rich regions across the world have functioned as extraction economies.
Raw materials are extracted and transported elsewhere for processing, manufacturing and export.
The value addition takes place elsewhere.
The industrialisation takes place elsewhere.
The jobs are created elsewhere.
The future of Bojanala cannot be limited to this model. Mining must become the foundation upon which we build a diversified and industrialised economy.
The most successful resource economies in the world have used mining as a catalyst for manufacturing, engineering services, logistics hubs, and research institutions.
Mining must therefore become a catalyst for structural transformation.
This approach is fully aligned with South Africa's national economic agenda.
The national development plan calls for an economy that is more inclusive, diversified and employment intensive.
The South African country investment strategy recognises that investment is a prerequisite for inclusive growth and seeks to position South Africa as a preferred destination for domestic and foreign investment.
The strategy aligns investment promotion with the national development plan, the economic reconstruction and recovery plan, the reimagined industrial strategy, industrial policy action plan, sector master plans and the district development model.
It identifies key sectors that must drive South Africa's next phase of growth, including manufacturing, mining, transport and logistics, agriculture and agro-processing, energy and business services.
This symposium therefore, has to think very deeply and carefully, about how Bojanala positions itself.
Ladies and gentlemen, South Africa remains Africa's most diversified economy, with sophisticated financial markets, world class industrial infrastructure, strategic access to continental markets through the African continental free trade area and a mineral endowment that is critical to the global green energy transition.
The future of economic development will largely be driven by the three Ds:
Decarbonisation. Diversification.
Digitalisation.
One of the most important indicators of long-term economic development is gross fixed capital formation.
Gross fixed capital formation measures investment in productive assets such as infrastructure, factories, industrial facilities, machinery, logistics networks, telecommunications systems and energy infrastructure.
Programme director, South Africa's gross fixed capital formation currently stands at approximately 15 percent of GDP.
This remains substantially below the levels achieved by rapidly growing economies and far below the national development plan target of 30 percent of GDP by 2030.
No country has achieved sustained industrialisation, structural transformation and high economic growth without significantly increasing investment levels.
Countries that consistently achieve growth rates above five percent generally sustain investment rates of between 25 and 35 percent of GDP.
Increasing gross fixed capital formation is therefore not simply a national objective, it is an economic imperative.
The reality we must confront is that the fiscus cannot close South Africa's investment gap on its own.
Government remains a critical investor in infrastructure, education, healthcare and social development.
However, the scale of investment required to transform our economy exceeds the resources available through the national budget.
The future of development financing will therefore require stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors.
It will require innovative financing mechanisms capable of mobilising capital at scale.
Across the world, successful economies increasingly utilise blended finance, infrastructure funds, public-private partnerships, development finance institutions, pension fund investments, climate finance instruments,
green bonds and catalytic capital to crowd in private investment.
South Africa must pursue the same path.
Government must lead, however it cannot do so act alone.
Municipalities must improve project preparation and implementation capacity.
Social partners must align around a common investment agenda.
Economic transformation will ultimately depend on our collective ability to mobilise investment at scale.
One of the most important lessons from successful developing economies is that transformation does not happen by accident.
It is driven by deliberate investments in catalytic projects that unlock growth across multiple sectors of the economy.
Network industries such as energy, water, transport, logistics, telecommunications and digital infrastructure are not simply sectors of the economy. They are enablers of all economic activity!
I have a proposition to this symposium: That catalytic infrastructure investment must become a central pillar of the Bojanala economic blueprint.
We must identify projects with the highest economic multiplier effect.
We must intentionally seek the projects that fundamentally alter the trajectory of the district economy.
For Bojanala, these catalytic projects could include strategic water infrastructure, energy projects, logistics corridors, industrial parks, equipment manufacturing, digital infrastructure, artisan development centres, innovation hubs and mineral beneficiation facilities. In this regard, Bojanala possesses a unique advantage.
The district hosts some of the country's largest mining companies.
Collectively, these mining companies invest through social and labour plans in, enterprise development initiatives and community development programmes.
The question we must ask is whether these investments are sufficiently coordinated and aligned to a long-term development vision.
Too often social and labour plan investments are fragmented across numerous projects that deliver limited long-term economic impact.
The time has come to rethink this approach, I am making this proposition fully aware that mining is a national competency.They should become strategic development instruments.
The next generation of social and labour plan investments should increasingly focus on catalytic social and economic infrastructure that unlocks sustainable growth.
If aligned with the district development model and the district economic blueprint, these investments can support strategic water infrastructure, renewable energy projects, industrial parks, artisan academies, supplier development hubs, digital infrastructure and innovation centres.
The objective should be to leverage every rand invested through social and labour plans to crowd in additional public and private investment.
The outcome of this symposium must be more than a discussion document.
It must be a practical and implementable district economic blueprint.
The Bojanala economic blueprint, must articulate a clear pathway towards industrialisation, localisation, investment attraction, economic diversification and job creation.
It should be fully aligned with the national development plan, the district development model, the provincial growth and development strategy, South Africa's
investment strategy and the national industrialisation agenda.
Such alignment will enable Bojanala to leverage national programmes and attract strategic investment.
The minerals beneath our soil have given us a competitive advantage.Let this symposium mark the beginning of a new economic consensus. The residents of Bojanala deserve nothing less.
I thank you.
