Chairperson, hon members, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, director-general and staff of the Ministry, captains of industry, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all.
Let me start by expressing my support for this Budget Vote and take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences to the families of our beloved comrades, Comrade Sicelo Shiceka, Comrade Roy Padayachie and Comrade Florence Nyanda, who passed away unexpectedly. May their souls rest in peace.
Lalani ngoxolo. [Rest in peace.]
At its 52nd National Conference held in Polokwane in 2007, the ANC adopted, among other things, the following resolution:
The use of natural resources of which the state is the custodian on behalf of the people, including our minerals, water, marine resources in a manner that promotes the sustainability and development of local communities and also realises the economic and social needs of the whole nation. In this regard, we must continue to strengthen the implementation of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, which seeks to realise some of these goals. Our programme must also deepen the linkages of the mineral sector to the national economy through beneficiation of these resources and creating supplier and service industries around the minerals sector.
In deliberating on this Budget Vote, we need to remind ourselves that the sovereignty of a nation lies in part in its ability to institute the necessary mechanisms for the development of mineral resources on a sustainable basis, in order to address the economic and social needs of the nation.
The Freedom Charter of 1955, which is the lodestar of the ANC and a fundamental source of policy which shapes government programmes, focused itself on the necessary measures to redistribute the mineral wealth which is our common heritage - to be shared by all.
The challenge therefore for the developmental state is to ensure that it has the ability and capacity to lead and shape the national agenda in respect of mineral resources, and that it has the organisational and technical capacity to deliver on its programmes, which will result in the greater redistribution of mineral wealth and thereby directly tackle poverty and inequalities.
Legislation is an expression of policy. The Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources embarked on a process of public hearings in 2011, between May and September, to solicit the views of civil society on the intention to establish the state-owned mining company and other proposals to address the inequitable distribution of mineral wealth. This process included an international study tour to Chile and Bolivia by our committee to study different models of state mining companies. We were informed in our approach by research which demonstrated that South Africa is the richest country in terms of its mineral resources, which account for 88% of known global resources of the platinum group metals, 80% of manganese, 72% of chrome, 32% of vanadium, and 30% of gold.
Notwithstanding this, the majority of South Africans still live in abject poverty. The country is ranked as the most unequal society in the world, followed by Brazil. South Africa has a high unemployment rate, regardless of whether a narrow or expanded definition of unemployment is used.
What informs us is the position that the state must be enabled to secure the supply of minerals of strategic significance, such as energy, infrastructure and precious commodities. The state must further assume its rightful position in the global economy through the identification of more strategic mineral commodities and must lead in the production and supply of these minerals worldwide.
Furthermore, the state must intervene and deal decisively with the abject poverty that engulfs almost all mining communities as a result of the serious challenges of the socioeconomic backlog inherited from centuries of colonialism and decades of apartheid rule.
Local beneficiation of our minerals is central to this, given the huge potential for job creation, skills development, development of small-scale business enterprises and rural development. Therefore, the drawing up of a comprehensive beneficiation strategy that will enhance the industrialisation drive of the state must be concluded speedily.
In order that there should be no confusion about what I am saying, the African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation, which is popularly known as Somco, was already an existing state company dating back to 1944 and is not the state-owned mining company we are speaking of. Its future will be determined by the establishment of the state-owned company, and the necessary legislation will address this.
The state-owned mining company should be established through a constitutional Act of Parliament, should have a competent board to run it, and should be directly accountable to Parliament through the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources. The consolidation of all state investment in the mining sector will fall under the state-owned mining company and will be wholly owned by the state. [Applause.]
The state-owned mining company will certainly focus on ensuring an increase in national income and/or state revenue from the minerals sector, including the capturing of economic rents so that the state can increase budget allocations for social and economic development. It will help advance and deepen broad-based transformation of the mining and minerals sector and ensure job creation and destiny-changing community-development projects for poverty alleviation and rural development.
Investment in exploration and in minerals-based knowledge generation, including research and development, will need focused attention. The ANC supports the Budget Vote on Mineral Resources. Thank you. [Applause.]