Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu admitted on Tuesday that debate inside the ruling ANC about possible nationalisation of the mining sector was hurting investment and job creation, but stopped short of dismissing the idea.
Instead, Shabangu used a breakfast meeting of mining executives to repeat the mantra that nationalisation of the mines in Africa’s biggest economy was “not government policy”.
“I am aware that the investors, and equally members and supporters of the ANC who want to see investments and jobs in the mining industry, will be disappointed because they want certainty and clarity,” she said.
ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has been leading the charge for state ownership of the mining sector, and has forced the issue on to the agenda of a major policy conference next year.
Shabangu said the industry was itself partly to blame for the political pressure because of the “abject failure” of some firms to accept more black managers and shareholders, in line with the wider “black economic empowerment push to redress the imbalances left by decades of white-minority rule.
She described this sluggish reform by the industry as “fertile ground giving impetus to the current debate about nationalisation”.
Malema’s rhetoric, which has also touched on the seizure of white-owned farms without compensation, has unsettled investors, not least for its parallels to the disastrous policies of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
‘Reckless debate’
Shabangu’s comments echo those by Minister of Public Enterprises Malusi Gigaba, who said on Monday the government was aware of the harm the debate on nationalisation was doing to the country’s image.
“We who run the country know the harm this reckless debate is doing to the good image and investments of the country,” Gigaba told an American Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Johannesburg.
He said the concerns raised by those calling for the nationalisation of the country’s assets were legitimate, but a solution was needed to unite the country instead of dividing it further.
“Ultimately it’s the ANC and not those who stand on public platforms in front of mikes who take the decision,” he said.
A task team established by the ANC to investigate nationalisation would probably deliver its report by the end of the year, he said.
The ANC would then “engage” with the report, and ultimately take a decision “in the best interest of the mining sector”, he said. – Sapa