Good day, hon Chair, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon Members of Parliament, captains of the industry, and ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all.
Let me take this opportunity in this Youth Month to salute all the youth of this country. Thank you very much for contributing to ensuring that democracy is restored in our country by voting for the ANC. Thank you!
I want to support this important Budget Vote, and my speech will focus on transformation in the mining sector. May I remind hon members that our Constitution not only enjoins us to heal the divisions of the past, but also renders the achievement of equality peremptory.
Equality is not only about inherent human dignity and the entrenched right not to be unfairly discriminated against. Equality is mainly about equal access, not only to opportunities, but also to resources. Such equality has to be based on positive discrimination to ensure that ownership of the means of production in general, and in mines in particular, vests with the majority of our people.
As citizens of this beautiful, rich and prosperous country on this continent, we can no longer allow a situation where the vast majority of our people do not enjoy and benefit from the mineral wealth that is endowed to us beneath our soil.
Our government has declared 2011 a job creation year. The President has called for an inclusive economy in which the black majority, women, people with disabilities and the youth participate fully and meaningfully in the mainstream economy.
The fact of the matter is that it is argued that efforts to transform the ownership of the mining sector serve to benefit a small group of elite businesspeople, while the majority of the country's black population remain impoverished and disempowered. There are undoubtedly cases that lend support to this argument.
However, there are also notable exceptions. For example, certain companies have implemented employee share ownership programmes, with varying degrees of success, while other companies have met ownership targets through empowerment deals in which local communities have been beneficiaries. The best known shining example of this was the deal between the world's second largest platinum producer, Impala Platinum, and the Royal Bafokeng nation in the North West.
South Africa has launched a new Mining Charter aimed at facilitating the sustainable transformation and development of its mining industry, with the emphasis on a target of 26% black ownership of the country's mining assets by 2014.
The launch of this charter comes after an assessment of the former charter showed that certain targets had not been met. According to the assessment, white men and women continue to dominate top management and technical positions in South Africa, earning much more than their fellow black counterparts, regardless of skills and experience. The racial ownership pattern of the country's mining assets remains largely unchanged, with only 8,9% black ownership attained by 2009, against a target of 15%.
We are saying as a committee that this scenario can no longer be acceptable. We need to turn it around. In fact, the only thing that does not change is change itself. The department should strengthen its work towards transforming the structures of ownership, acting against monopolisation of the sector, and promoting co-operatives.
A message needs to be sent out there that black economic empowerment, BEE, should never mean the enrichment of a handful, but rather the opening up of economic opportunities and improvement in living and working conditions for blacks as a whole.
By its nature the mining industry requires a large capital investment, and is thus not conducive to the participation of a large number of small entrepreneurs. We therefore commend the department for the successful launch of the state-owned mining company. We are convinced that the state- owned mining company will increase national income from the mining and minerals sector. It will advance job creation and destiny-changing community development projects for poverty alleviation and rural development. Lastly, we think that it will also improve the working conditions of mineworkers and also income levels.
The new Economic Growth Path is based on the premise that economic growth without corresponding job creation is meaningless, just as political emancipation without economic freedom is. The new Economic Growth Path, which also focuses on the mining value chain, is driven by the machinery of the developmental state with its strategic, organisational, and technical capacities, which are gaining strength as each day passes.
On the question of procurement of capital goods, we are saying multinational suppliers should contribute at least 0,5% of locally generated annual income towards a social development fund for the benefit of local communities, especially those residing in and around the mining areas.
Currently, in most communities residing in mining areas, for example a mining town like Barberton, where I come from, you can see poverty in the faces of the people residing in that area, where they have a high unemployment rate, poverty and a lack of basic amenities like schools, clinics and proper infrastructure.
We are saying that that should not be the case, when there is a presence in the area of big mining companies like Galaxy, De Beers and Anglo American, just to mention a few. Social responsibility and investment in the local community should be priorities to help arrest the situation. I am quite sure that, working together as government, local communities, financial institutions and the mining industry, we can turn the lives of our people around.
Another serious problem that is undermining the targets outlined in the mining charter is fronting, where companies misrepresent their BEE status to benefit their business. We are very happy to learn that the Association of BEE Verification Agencies is hosting a convention on fronting today - I think it is on right now - to determine the size and extent of this malpractice of fronting.
On the issue of the moratorium that was put in place by the department on the issuing of prospecting mining licences, we as a portfolio committee welcome the move as part of transformation. The moratorium, which took effect as from September last year, will allow the department to review gaps and inefficiencies.
In conclusion, as a committee we are aware of the concerns raised by big business, particularly the Chamber of Commerce, in regard to mineral beneficiation. Our answers to those concerns are that South Africa is a country full of possibilities. If we put our heads together and work together, like we did with the Soccer World Cup Tournament last year, we can do a lot. We can push back the frontiers of poverty. We can show the world that we, the people of South Africa, are a force to be reckoned with. Let us stop speculating and let us just do it for the sake of our people. Thank you very much. [Applause.]