Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, chairperson of the portfolio committee, Comrade Gona, officials of the Department of Mineral Resources under the stewardship of Dr Ramontja, hon Members of Parliament, guests in the gallery and organised labour, I greet you this afternoon. I gladly follow those that have spoken before me in the quest to call for meaningful transformation in the industry.
South Africa is one of four countries that are ranked by the World Bank as having upper middle-income economies in Africa. South Africa has the largest economy in Africa, yet, surprisingly, almost a quarter of the population are unemployed. How can that be possible? Whilst we know that this massive unemployment is historical, we believe that the industry can turn this around.
But let us look at how it evolved. As a result of the systematic marginalisation of blacks - the majority of South Africans - by the former lily-white government, historically disadvantaged South Africans were prevented from owning any means of production and from any meaningful participation in the mining sector, and this included all major economic sectors. In essence, blacks in South Africa were relegated to being objects of no value in the economy, except to being made by legislative means to grow wealth for the white minority. This industry we are talking about is known to have been notorious for that.
The liberation ushered in by the ANC in 1994 sought to transform the economy in order to benefit all South Africans. This would therefore be a genesis of defeating the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality. The ANC's vision of economic transformation emanates from the Freedom Charter's clarion call that "the people shall share in the country's wealth".
As we are busy designing a developmental state, it becomes our responsibility therefore as government to lead and shape the process towards the transformation of the economy and, in this case, the mining sector.
At its 52nd National Conference, the ANC resolved that:
A developmental state must ensure that our national resource endowments, including land, water, minerals and marine resources are exploited to effectively maximise the growth, development and employment potential embedded in such national assets, and not purely for profit maximisation.
As mineral resources are the common heritage of all the people of South Africa, it is clear from this resolution that the intention is that our mines should not be a source of income for some, but should benefit the communities in which they are located and the country in general. These resources must be used to maximise growth and development for the surrounding communities. One wonders why these mines are not the absolute source of employment for the surrounding communities.
Because we in the ANC sought to address this - the inequalities existing in the mining sector - the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, Act 28 of 2002, was enacted. The objective of this piece of legislation was to transform the mining industry and facilitate the meaningful participation of historically disadvantaged South Africans in the mining industry.
Section 100(2)(a) of the Act provides that:
...the Minister must within six months from the date on which this Act takes effect develop a broad-based socioeconomic empowerment Charter that will set the framework, targets and time- tables for effecting the entry of historically disadvantaged South Africans into the mining industry, and allow such South Africans to benefit from the exploitation of mining mineral resources.
This is in line with the provisions of the Mining Charter, also signed in 2002.
In terms of the legislation and the Mining Charter, the captains of industry and the department must do a comprehensive assessment of whether the mining companies are meeting the provisions and targets set by the legislation and charter on the transformation of the mining industry. The report revealed that minimal progress had been made by the mining industry, as no targets had been met as set in the Mining Charter.
An analysis of data showed that even black economic empowerment ownership initiatives did not reach this target. The underlying issue identified was that the funding model was such that actual ownership of the mining assets intended for transformation purposes end up being tied to the loan agreements.
The assessment also showed that only 26% of the mining companies had met the Mining Charter target of 40% participation of previously disadvantaged South Africans at management level. Consequently, very few historically disadvantaged South Africans are found in top management decision-making positions in the mining industry. The effected pieces of legislation seek to change this and these measures should be implemented if we are honest and committed to the transformation agenda.
The assessment also revealed that there is ... [Interjections.]