Minister of minerals and petroleum Gwede Mantashe delivers the Mining Indaba keynote speech

 

 Minister of mineral resources and petroleum Gwede Mantashe delivered the keynote address at the Mining Indaba on Monday at the Cape Town International Convention Center.

The minister thanked ministers for attending the event as it creates a new aspect to mining indaba. Mantashe said that foreign funding from other countries makes our lives as South Africans very difficult. Seeing that it was the 31^st mining indaba the minister said it was a milestone to celebrate 31 years of mining indaba.

 It’s been 70 years since the South African freedom charter was disseminated. Mantashe says the freedom charter was drawn up for South Africans to share the country’s wealth. The minister says that the mining industry is made to share wealth and distribute it equally instead of keeping it. As Africa has a lack of minerals among others it not only is bad for them, but it is a bad reflection on Africa as a whole.

 The minister said that people need to differentiate between mining and gold mining as it is two total different things.

 Mantashe encouraged investors to invest in South Africa and claimed that it won’t be a trial and error if they promise to not just create jobs, but other opportunities as well. In 2021 the gold mining sector declined, but was still able to employ workers despite its’ decline.

 One of the biggest challenges that the mining industry faces are illegal mining. With the issue of the Stillfontein illegal miners that continues to resurface from mine shafts underground it becomes a problem for legal miners.

Mantashe says that Africa needs to take advantage of its’ minerals as it will be mandatory for the future of minerals. With the United States president Donald Trump’s decision of banning and withholding aid from Africa, it created a widespread of havoc in hospitals and HIVS/AIDS patients who depend on treatment. Mantashe continued to say that if the US withholds funding South Africa will withhold minerals.

A methodology was created to access critical minerals across a number of criterias. Mantashe says a safe workplace is a productive workplace and the expectations that most people have is that a mine is safe and that miners should come back safely without any harm. Although, fatalities within the mining sector have reduced yet, it still does not make the job any safer.

The minister says that we should build the Africa we want for it to be a success.

Done by Shaneca Cupido