‘Stability in southern Africa has big spin-offs for Gauteng’

Stability in Southern Africa and more broadly sub- Saharan Africa poses great opportunities for business in Gauteng. “Not only does this stability present additional prospects to invest in those economies for companies in Gauteng, but it also serves as a market for our beneficiated products,” says Susan Shabangu, Minister of Mineral Resources. “The same can be said of infrastructure investment which will come after stability has been further enhanced – something that the SADC and African Union are working on at the moment.” According to Shabangu, Gauteng businesses also have the same advantage when one sees the potential arising from the demand in Asia. “And this can be done with a significant local value-add with strong linkages with other sectors of the economy,” she said. “In this regard, in 2008 gross revenue from sales of all minerals mined in South Africa amounted to just below R300 billion. Of that just over R86 billion was generated from processing of base metals, precious metals and other minerals, which represented 11% of the total volume of minerals produced.” Shabangu said this represented not just Gauteng, but national opportunity lost in export revenue and employment creation opportunities. She said mining remained a long-term project and consequently those involved in it did so because they knew that it would take time to reach their targets.