Chairperson, Ministers, hon members and the public, there is no doubt that mining will also benefit from the 500 000 jobs earmarked by the President in his state of the nation address. By the same token, we applaud the Ministry of Labour's forward-looking announcement that unemployment benefits will be increased and prolonged to apply for one year. This confirms beyond all doubt that the ANC-led government is indeed an activist government.
Mining is undoubtedly one of the key economic drivers of South Africa with a large endowment of minerals, particularly coal - a fact that gives South Africa an electricity production system that is highly carbon intensive. As a country, South Africa generates two thirds of Africa's electricity, 90% of which is generated from coal. Mining has a long history of creating employment in this country, particularly for black people not only from South Africa but also from our neighbouring African states. This dates back to the discovery of gold on the Reef.
It is common knowledge therefore that mining has to do with mines that are excavations from which minerals are extracted. Mining constitutes 7,7% of South Africa's GDP. In 2007 the mining sector directly employed 495 474 people compared with 458 600 in 2006. In the first quarter of 2007, the mining sector's output grew by 4,2%, while the level of employment grew by 8,8%. During the fourth quarter of 2008, the mining sector declined by 5% while employment grew by only 4%.
Currently, the mining sector continues to face difficulties. According to recent statistics, the mining sector contracted 1,7% in the first quarter of 2009, the current year, while employment did not grow - a very sad state of affairs. This unfortunate economic scenario in the mining sector compels us as a nation and as a department to interrogate the role of domestic micropolicy in shaping current developments. South Africa has a long history of mining, as has been said. I personally grew up in the mining town of Vryheid, northern KwaZulu-Natal, where many of my uncles, cousins and other relatives worked in coal mines like Coronation, Nyathi, Hlobane, etc. Therefore I have personal and family experience of mining and I am familiar with all the problems.
Related to the creation of job opportunities in mining is the aspect of regulating minerals and the mining sector in order to promote economic development. The ANC-led government realises that mining plays a big role in beneficiation. Like farming, mining as a sector is divided into large- and small-scale farming. Large-scale mining offers employment, naturally, to a large number of people. It becomes problematic when mines, large or small, are closed down, as happened in some parts of South Africa a few years ago. I have in mind here mines such as Dannhauser, Hlobane, Utrecht and many others.
Such a state of affairs obviously leads to unwarranted unemployment within the mining sector resulting, of course, in a poor quality of life for those who depend on mining. For some odd reason there has emerged in recent times the phenomenon of illegal mining in which one or more persons become pirates by infringing on other persons' rights by mining illegally. In this respect, I endorse the Minister's remarks on the illegality of so-called illegal mining.
I want to close with a few remarks in my mother tongue, isiZulu.
Izimayini zineqhaza elikhulu kabi ekuletheni umsebenzi nasekwakheni amathuba omsebenzi. Siyazi sonke ukuthi abanumzane nezinsizwa bebesuka emakhaya beyosebenza emgodini eGoli ukuze bakwazi ukuthola imali yokondla imizi yabo, yokuthenga izinkomo nokusenga,nokufuya zikhokhe ilobolo. Ngiyabonga. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[Mines play a big role in creating employment as well as job opportunities. We all know that family heads and young men used to leave their homes and head to Johannesburg to work in the mines so that they could get money to maintain their families, to buy cows for milking and farming and to pay lobola. Thank you. [Applause.]]