SA needs to add value to raw minerals

PRODUCING raw minerals is not enough for the SA economy.

Industries need to tap into the greatest part of the value chain by transforming minerals into end products.

This is according to Department of Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, who seeks to industrialise the economy through the Black Industrialists Programme.

Davies said economic transformation depended on two inter-connected themes.

‘These are the radical change of the productive base of the South African economy, and the challenge of changing the patterns of participation in the economy, drawing from the skills capacity and entrepreneurial spirit of the whole of the population of the country.

‘This means that we have to move from being an economy that only produces and exports primary mineral commodities and an importer of finished goods.

‘That is the least valuable place we can be in the global division of labour.

‘The greatest part of a value chain is located in those parts of the chain where value is added,’ said Davies.

He said black industrialists must be an integral part of local beneficiation of minerals.

‘We have been trying to change the character of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) so that it relates to development in the economy and we have discovered that programmes that are sector-specific work better.

‘To mitigate this we have established a one-stop shop and I can report today that the Black Industrialists Funding Forum has met on 17 March and we have received fifty applications to date.’