Echoing the national strategy of President Jacob Zuma, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu stressed iron steel making ebook free ebooks downloadthe need for job creation when she spoke at the official opening of midtier gold miner Great Basin Gold’s Burnstone mine, in Mpumalanga.
“When [the President] delivered his State of the Nation address, he highlighted key areas of job creation that the country needed to focus on, two of which were mining and beneficiation. This call by the President is consistent with what the ruling party has been saying since 1992, when it was still preparing to take over the reins of power. The key policy themes are, firstly, that minerals in the ground are part of the nation’s wealth, and that workers and the nation should get their fair share of the wealth generated, and, secondly, that minerals mined are integrated into the rest of the economy through beneficia- tion before export,” said Shabangu.
She added that she was acutely aware that, in the field of employment, the company had made it a point to hire as many locals as possible.
“It is, however, telling and disappointing that, in terms of the management team [at the Burnstone mine], there is no local person. But I am confident that you will find local leaders as the students graduate and take their correct places in the boardrooms here and abroad,” said Shabangu.
Of particular interest to Shabangu is GBG’s social labour plan.
“I am aware of the involvement of this mining house in this area, with investments in bursaries and with local students being trained in critical skills, especially in the fields of mining and electrical engineering, finance and metallurgy. However, the country’s skills challenge calls on all of us to think up better ways not only of creating these skills but also of retaining them,” said Shabangu.
She went on to highlight the true extent of the skills crisis and its effects on the South African mining industry.
She said that it was projected that South Africa would face a shortage of over 500 mining engineers by 2013 and the skills shortages were exacerbated by the transportability of these types of skills into other sectors of the economy, or the lure of international recruitment of these skills to work in other mining economies.
She stressed the importance of involving all parties in the mining process, specifically the increased role that women can play.
“Government would be pleased to see more women being involved in the core function of mining. There is no reason why women should be relegated to minor tasks and not be taken seriously in the core function of mining,” concluded Shabangu.