Against the backdrop of South Africa’s wilting economy and ANC-inspired state failure, minerals beneficiation remains a pipe dream – and there is some potent dagga in that pipe.
A Minerals and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has a great idea: let’s stop exporting our raw commodities and build stuff right here with the minerals.
“The time for exporting raw commodities has come to an end,” he said on Tuesday at a critical minerals conference in Sandton.
“Our iron ore must be processed here…We are exporting wealth and we are exporting jobs.”
This echoed remarks made by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Liberation Movements Summit on Sunday.
“Rather than export rock, sand and soil, we should be exporting finished products that the world needs,” the president said.
This is a mantra that periodically gets aired by senior ANC leaders, and it must be said that it is a noble goal.
Africa was long exploited and colonised for its resource wealth: ivory, rubber, gold, diamonds, oil, you name it. And the continent remains the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped.
Viewed through this prism, the solution is to stop exporting raw commodities and start “beneficiating” – an ugly word that my…
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