Chairperson, hon Minister Shabangu and other Ministers present, Deputy Ministers, Chairperson of the Select Committee on Economic Development, other chairpersons and Whips, hon members, leaders of the trade union movement, leaders of the business community, comrades and friends, allow me to join the nation in paying tribute to the fallen mother of our nation, Mama Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu, who has gone to join other esteemed leaders of our revolution. We shall be eternally grateful and indebted to her for her warm, motherly embrace and guidance that shaped and touched all of us. Long live her undying spirit.
Last week I had the honour of delivering my maiden Budget Vote speech as the Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources. Today, as I stand in front of the NCOP, I am humbled that I have the privilege to do the same before this august House, which is charged with the responsibility of oversight for our provinces.
As experts would say, the real delivery by any government department happens at the local or provincial level. In the case of the Department of Minerals Resources, the delivery or lack thereof takes place at the provincial level. Mining assets do not exist in a vacuum.
Therefore, the conducting of mining activities has direct implications for the communities in those provinces - be it Mogalakwena community in Limpopo; the Bakgatlha ba Kgafela, Batlhaping ba ga Maidi and Batlhaping b ga Phuduhutswana in the North West; the Mkhwanazi community in KwaZulu- Natal; or the Prieska, Schmidtsdrift, or Namaqualand communities in the Northern Cape, to mention but a few.
These are some of the communities that we have specifically to answer to as the department, as well as to the nation in general as the regulator of this sector.
It has been a mere seven months since I was deployed by the President and our movement, the ANC, to this critically important portfolio in the Department of Mineral Resources. I would, therefore, once again like to express my gratitude to these two great institutions for having confidence in my ability to discharge these responsibilities.
Let me also take this opportunity, once more, to thank the Minister, Susan Shabangu, for her leadership and guidance.
The director-general of the department, Adv Sandile Nogxina, has served the department with distinction and has proved a solid anchor when storms tried to assail this ship. As we bid him farewell at the end of the month, we would like to express our sincere gratitude. Thank you, Tshawe, Mdengeentonga.
It would be remiss of me not to welcome, once more, two comrades, Duma Nkosi and Mandla Rasmeni, to the offices of the director-general and Deputy Minister respectively.
These two servants of the people were right here in Parliament during the period of the drafting of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, MPRDA, and will continue to serve as a nexus between the legislature, the executive and the department.
This month of June is pivotal in the history of our young democracy. The sacrifice of the young men and women should make us reflect on how far we have gone in implementing the vision of the Freedom Charter. At this point I would like to recognise, in this House, one of those young people who were at the forefront of the 16 June revolution that changed the course of history forever - hon member Dan Montsitsi. [Applause.]
The sacrifice of these young people is perhaps best captured in Nikolai Ostrovsky's How the Steel Was Tempered, and I quote:
Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for the liberation of mankind.
The mining industry has a duty to ensure that we do not fail young people. We must ensure that the 1,5 million children starting Grade 1 this year finish Grade 12 without disappearing from the system.
We know that a sizable number of those who walk the streets looking for work are youths between the ages of 16 years and 35 years. History will indeed judge us harshly if we do not do our utmost to honour the youth by providing them with opportunities for decent work.
In the recent history of this young nation, this month will also go down as a true test of the spirit and fortitude of South Africa. Not only did we host the best Soccer World Cup a mere 12 months ago, but we also confounded Afro-pessimists who wished the worst on us and we came through with flying colours.
Let the same unity of spirit of the Freedom Charter of June 1955, the uprising of June 16 1976 and the June 2010 World Cup continue to inspire us as we tackle the challenges that confront us as a society.
In a few weeks' time we will also be celebrating the 93rd birthday of our international icon, President Nelson Mandela, who, very much like president Oliver Tambo, is the unifier of the nation and the organiser of victory.
President Mandela, himself a former mineworker, was in fact elected in 1989 as the honorary life president of the National Union of Mineworkers, NUM, and I believe that there is no better tribute we can pay to him than to get mineworkers and mine owners to work together to improve the living conditions of people in the industry. We salute you Madiba, Sthwalandwe. Seaparankoe. [Applause.]
To this end, Parliament resolved in 2007 - and I keep on repeating this so that it can be implemented - that the living conditions of mineworkers be investigated and improved; to support the initiatives by the NUM to build a workers' museum; and that this democratic Parliament should consider naming some of these buildings after J B Marks, the leader of the African Mineworkers' Union. We are called upon to see to the implementation of these resolutions.
The Minister has already outlined the budget that has been allocated to the department. After all, what are budgets in this instance but an expression of policy in numbers? The Minister's budget statement represents a programme of the ANC-led government to use the vast mineral resources of our country to contribute to the overall objective of lifting our people out of the grinding poverty and underdevelopment that still afflicts our society.
It is now accepted wisdom that one of the best ways to extricate people from the morass of poverty is education. To this end, I am happy to report that the Mining Qualifications Authority, MQA, is forging ahead with creating a skilled workforce. The MQA's mandate is to ensure that the mining and minerals sector has sufficient competent people who will improve health and safety, employment equity and increase the productive capacity of our mining industry.
There is no province where the MQA does not have a footprint with programmes that include learnerships, artisan skills programmes and adult education. All projects are focused on having a rural reach with a special emphasis on women and people with disabilities.
One of these projects includes giving training to 200 learners, including women, in all the provinces on small-scale mining. The MQA also placed 627 learners with 20 mining companies to gain work experience.
Going forward, the MQA plans to develop training to support the gemstone processing and jewellery manufacturing industries. This dovetails with the beneficiation strategy that the Minister has spoken about. The authority will continue with the programmes which, amongst other things, include developing management capacity within designated groups, workplace coaches or instructors and the HIV/Aids and TB prevention programme.
This is in line with an identified need for collaboration with the SA National Aids Council, Sanac. We should use this window of opportunity to tackle the scourge of HIV and Aids in the mining industry and compliment the mining industry where it has pioneered centres of excellence in fighting this scourge.
Let us, therefore, work together to ensure that this is sustainable beyond the confines of the mining environment, so that those infected and affected continue to receive treatment, perhaps in concert with the public health system once the worker leaves the mining industry.
Let me just touch on one thing as I go. Our country is well endowed with mineral deposits. I want to touch on but one issue - the diamond industry, because it started in this province called the Northern Cape many years ago; over 100 years ago.
As instructed by the President in his state of the nation address, it is our belief that we can use the possibilities offered by the diamond industry to meet the twin imperatives of job creation and economic growth. Areas that are known to have diamond deposits include the North West, the Free State, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape.
These areas have contributed to making South Africa a major diamond producer ranking sixth in the world in terms of volume - that is carats - and fourth in terms of value.
It is, however, worrying that we remain a small player in the downstream sector of the diamond value chain, with a disproportionately small and underdeveloped beneficiation industry. The development of the beneficiation industry holds immense potential to stimulate further economic activities and to create thousands of new jobs.
It is precisely for this reason that we have, through consultations with the diamond producers - under the banner of the diamond task team of the Chamber of Mines, the State Diamond Trader, the SA Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator, the United Diamond Association of SA and others - sought to gain a better understanding of the factors that have constrained the sustainable development of our country's diamond beneficiation industry.
The findings of our consultative engagements have revealed that there are four broad categories of challenges that need to be addressed systematically in order to reposition and revitalise our downstream diamond beneficiation industry for sustainable growth and development.
If time permits, I shall come back to the details of the four identified constraints, which are: a lack of access to finance, a shortage of skills, a lack of access to markets and a lack of security of supply. Those are the ones that I shall return to, if time permits.
With regard to health and safety, the safety record in the South African mining industry continues to be a matter of great concern to the department, although the mining industry has in the last year managed to record a year-on-year reduction in fatalities due to mine accidents.
This year alone, 53 fatalities have been recorded against 49 for the same period last year. As things stand, it looks like the improvement which saw 127 fatalities in 2010 against 168 the previous year will be negated. This is unacceptable and we shall continue to engage the mining industry to do its utmost to ensure that no miner loses their life.
These accidents are avoidable. Fall of ground, FOG, accidents still remain the largest accident category and the predominant cause of fatalities, followed by transportation and machinery categories, respectively. Occupational health impacts are not immediate and hence difficult to quantify. Silicosis, to give an example, remains a major cause of premature retirement and death at South African mines due to excessive dust exposure.
Also, TB continues to be a serious challenge for the mining industry and this is exacerbated by the HIV/Aids pandemic. Noise-induced hearing loss is also a significant health hazard due to exposure to high levels of noise in the workplace.
An underground fire was detected at Harmony Gold's Phakisa Mine in the Free State and two proto teams were sent down to investigate. An explosion took place, resulting in three members of the proto teams being fatally injured. Another two members subsequently died from their injuries.
During May 2010, a FOG accident killed three mineworkers at Simmer and Jack, Shaft 5 in the Stilfontein vicinity. Another massive FOG was responsible for the demise of five mineworkers at Aquarius's Marikana Mine close to Rustenburg. There are two regions that succeeded in having a fatality-free year, namely the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape. Two other regions managed to maintain the same number of fatalities, namely the Northern Cape and the Free State. The Free State had an increase in fatality rates of 17,4% while the Northern Cape had a reduction in fatalities of 1,3%.
While there has been an overall improvement of 8%, this trend is negated in Limpopo, which has shown a marked increase in injuries. This is partly due to ... I can hear the bell ringing; let me conclude. [Laughter.]
In closing, I would like to quote Franz Kafka who honoured the youth by saying:
Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
Finally, I want to thank the staff in the department and the Ministry, as well as my family for the continued support. Together, indeed, we can do more. Thank you. [Applause.]