Honourable Chairpersons of the Portfolio Committees of Science, Technology, and Innovation and Mineral and Petroleum Resources;
Honourable Members of both Committees:
Thank you for this opportunity to present to this historic joint sitting of the Portfolio Committees of Science, Technology, and Innovation and Mineral and Petroleum Resources.
As Minister and the Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation, we always value the opportunity to interact with Parliament and believe this regular interaction enriches our work as the Department.
Historical context
As Members would be aware, over the last 150 years, mining has played a central role both in the creation of the Union of South African in May 1910 and the plundering of our mineral wealth, in particular our diamonds and gold, as part of colonial accumulation.
Over the same period, mining has also shaped the nature and evolution of the South African economy, influenced town planning and the design and location of residential areas, which in turn shaped things such as urbanisation, the migrant labour system, and the entrenchment of racialised and gendered inequality.
Therefore, the legacy of the mining industry in our country includes immense wealth for one section of our society, exclusively white, while also generating significant social and economic inequality for the Black majority.
Therefore, the current racially skewed economic structure in our country and the persistence of inequality cannot be separated from the genesis and the evolution of mining during the 1800s.
Current context
Today, the mining industry remains one of the most important sectors of our country’s economy. A presentation that was delivered at this year’s Mining Indaba in Cape Town, titled ‘The State of the Mining Nation,’ made the following observations:
- The South African mining industry contributed 6% of the country’s total nominal GDP during the first three quarters of last year. In money terms, this amounted to R432.7-billion;
- Minerals accounted for 45% of the country’s exports (worth about R800-billion) for the whole year, last year;
- The mining industry paid 14% of all corporate taxes in South Africa (totalling R42.6-billion) during the financial year 2023/24; and
- During the third quarter of last year the sector employed 471 882 people, or 4.5% of the country’s total work force. The earnings of these employees totalled R189.2-billion, or 5.7% of the country’s total workforce earnings.
In spite of its significant contribution to our national economy, our country’s mining sector continues for face enormous challenges, some of which include declining production, the need for modernisation and a low uptake of technology.
As a consequence, our country’s mining sector is performing far below its actual potential and is under immense pressure to adapt a rapidly changing global economic and technological landscape.
Modernisation of mining as a strategic pillar of country’s Decadal Plan for STI
One of the strategic pillars of our country’s Decadal Plan for Science, Technology, and Innovation (2022-2032) is the modernisation of mining. In 2023, our entity the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) launched a collaborative research project with the Mineral Council of South Africa (MCSA) and the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS).
This research project observed that “we can unlock as much as R153 billion in value by 2026, through the modernisation of mining.” To enable this, we have undertaken initiatives such as the Mandela Mining Precinct- which is a national coordination hub for mining Research Development and Innovation (RDI) and drives the South African Mining Extraction RDI Strategy or SAMERDI.
A call to action
To realise the objectives of our Department’s Mandela Mining Precinct and SAMERDI, we will require the active support of the Science, Technology, and Innovation and Mineral and Petroleum Resources Portfolio Committees in the following ways:
- Reinforcing budget protection and expansion for RDI programmes in mining and beneficiation;
- Strengthening oversight to ensure greater youth participation and localisation in technology deployment;
- Championing cross-departmental collaboration (e.g., DSTI, DMRE, DTIC, DHET) to integrate STI in mining communities, skills development, and economic zones; and
- Using the parliamentary constituency to engage in outreach that promotes awareness and involvement in efforts to realise a just energy transition and benefit from the opportunities that come with the modernisation of mining.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we believe that the Mandela Mining Precinct and SAMERDI initiatives represent a progressive and successful model for public-private collaboration and in order for these initiatives to achieve their stated goals, it will require massive and coordinated political and policy support.
This political and policy is absolutely critical to enable mining to drive industrial development, youth and community empowerment, and sustainable socio-economic transformation.
It is for this reason that the visionary step of taking a joint approach by the two Portfolio Committees must be commended and it is my wish that we sustain this approach.
Chairperson and Honourable Members, we usually state that, our country can’t hope to achieve its core development objectives if it fails to make meaningful investments in science, technology, and innovation and we have seen how meaningful investment in STI, has resulted in significant levels of development and industrialisation for many counties across the world.
We are therefore of the firm belief that, in order to address some of our country’ urgent challenges such as inequality, persistent youth unemployment, producing critical skills and to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth, we need to among others, intensify the modernisation of our country’s mining industry.
Towards this end, today’s presentation will seek to give Honourable Members an overview of our Department’s efforts under the auspices of the Mandela Mining Precinct to modernise our country’s mining sector by driving RDI investment, human resources development, improving mining technology and driving beneficiation.
With those few remarks, through you Chairperson, may I call on the Deputy Director-General responsible for Socio-Economic Innovation Partnerships, Dr Mmboneni Muofhe and the team to make the presentation.
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