House Chair, the colloquium was a necessary platform to reflect on the need for beneficiation. There are two revelations that came out of the colloquium.
One was a correct diagnosis of the problem that the country is facing with regard to the question of beneficiation and industrial expansion. I think all of us agreed that South Africa continues to be an exporter of raw materials and an importer of finished goods and services, and that that should change. We agreed that the manufacturing sector is insignificant, as compared to the primary natural resources production sector and the services sector. That is not sustainable if you want to absorb your entire workforce, or the majority of it.
So the diagnosis is correct, but the remedies that are being applied by the ANC government are inadequate and are not going to take the country forward.
Industrialists who came to make presentations there pointed out the fact that we have a spineless government with spineless legislation and inappropriate policy interventions to deal with this phenomenon of South Africa's being an exporter of natural resources and an importer of finished goods and services.
Even in instances where you have legislation that provides for local beneficiation, no one seems to be doing anything about that. Let's look at section 26 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. Section 26(1) says that the Minister may initiate or prescribe incentives to promote beneficiation of mineral resources in the Republic. Is that happening? The answer is obviously, no.
Section 26(3) provides:
Any person who intends to beneficiate any mineral mined in the Republic outside the Republic may only do so after written notice and in consultation with the Minister. Are these mining corporations getting permission to export our mineral resources? No. Virtually all the mineral resources that are extracted from beneath South Africa's soil are taken to other parts of the world for beneficiation and industrialisation.
We must emphasise that it must not just be beneficiation, because beneficiation can be costly, with the smelters, for example, but it must pass the beneficiation stage and go on to industrialisation, so that we are able to absorb the entire workforce.
Another very painful revelation that came out of the colloquium is the fact that you have basic commodities and products that do not have tariffs. That is neoliberalism, hon Majola, where the state can't impose tariffs on basic consumption goods like plastics, and timber for furniture purposes. We compete with the rest of the world on a basis of no tariffs at all. Even the World Trade Organisation is on the left of the ANC when it comes to tariff imposition and proposals with regard to some of the strategic sectors. Why is the state not doing so? It's one of the things that you must look into. [Interjections.]
Also, you have a crisis. Yes, the hon chair of the committee is correct with regard to import parity pricing, particularly by former state-owned enterprises, Sasol and Mittal Steel. They are stifling industrial expansion because metals and steel are vital industrial inputs that should be available here in South Africa at an affordable, accessible price. However, it's not the case because they are owned by greedy private monopolies which are dealing with those issues in a different way.
The only solution ultimately is to nationalise the key strategic industrial inputs so that we are able to drive a sustainable industrial expansion programme. These are some of the issues you must deal with. Thank you very much. [Time expired.] [Applause.]