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Mines and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said he wanted the sector to grow and contribute more to South Africa’s GDP than the 8% it does today. (Photo: Flickr / GCIS)
If you’re having a virtual investment conference aimed at, well, investors, it’s probably best to have your online platforms running smoothly. That was not the case with the third South African Investment Conference, which got off to an absurd start.
Tuesday’s leg of the conference was a completely virtual session, but it seemed like the organizers were stuck in the 20th century.
The conference was supposed to start at 2pm, but the virtual portal had a downside: it didn’t work because the server crashed. That perhaps underscored the need to accelerate the deployment of the spectrum.
Eventually, the organizers managed to email links to various events (forget trying to log in through the website) with mixed success. The session on land reform was going reasonably well, but suddenly he died.
The subsequent sessions went reasonably well. At the mining session, Mines and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said he wanted the sector to grow and contribute more to South Africa’s GDP than the 8% it does today.
“We are inviting investors to come and tell us where there are obstacles,” he said, adding that those obstacles could be removed. That certainly hit the spot. Mantashe, with its union roots, takes negotiation and dialogue naturally.
He also said that “we have identified exploration as the lifeblood of the industry.” That is certainly true. Exploration must be done before a mining project can be conceived, which can take years to get off the ground. South African Minerals Council Executive Director Roger Baxter said the council was of the opinion that exploration could be increased three or even five times from current levels.
But the usual limitations, such as unreliable power supplies, remain strong. Mantashe recognized that “self-generation” for the industry was crucial. However, Gold Fields is still waiting after three years for permission to start a solar project to help power its South Deep mine. Many of the barriers to investment in the sector are already known, but have not been removed.
One of the objectives of the conference is to ensure that investment promises worth more than R660 billion, made by companies in 2018 and 2019, do not evaporate in the face of the economic crisis and the challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In his weekly “President’s Desk” letter, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday:
“Most of the investments are being made. Of the 102 projects that were announced at the last two investment conferences, 12 are in the early stages of implementation, 19 have been launched, and 44 are currently under construction or in implementation. This year’s conference is about implementation and turning commitments into physical projects in our cities and towns. ”
Ramaphosa will give the keynote address on Wednesday, November 18 at 2:00 p.m. The timing is clearly aimed at investors in the Americas. Hopefully the server manages to put up with that. BM
