INVESTMENT in mining figured highly in an agreement between the South African government, the country’s unions and the private sector, described by Bloomberg News as an unprecedented recovery plan.
The proposals mark a rare moment of compromise between labor unions, which are allied to the ruling party yet often bicker with it about economic direction, the government and a business sector whose views have been largely sidelined since the end of apartheid in 1994, said the newswire.
Infrastructure spending is central to the recovery plan along with long-awaited advances in telecommunications as well as evidence that corruption would be met with swift justice.
Of interest to the mining sector is an undertaking in the agreement to reduce red tape in order to improve the ease of doing business in the country. The mining sector has often complained that it takes too long to have exploration and mining licences granted, and that corrupt interference in applications is a regular hazard.
The Minerals Council said in August that fresh discussions with government were promising and that a page might be turned in South Africa’s economic policy-making.
“Hand on heart, we have done our utmost to explain how to get the South African economy back on track,” said Roger Baxter, CEO of the council. “We hope they will be taken forward,” he said of the sector’s proposals.
“We will see in the next six months.”
