By: The citizen

Mining experts are calling for South Africa to assert greater control over its mineral resources to stimulate domestic economic growth, create jobs, and reduce its reliance on raw material exports.

David van Wyk, a senior researcher at the Benchmark Foundation, has highlighted a critical issue: while South Africa is a leading global producer of minerals, it derives limited economic benefit because the resources are largely exported in their raw form by foreign-owned mining companies.

The Export Paradox: Wealth in Resources, Poverty in Value

“The truth is that South Africa produces a lot of minerals, but we don’t own them,” Van Wyk stated. “The mining firms just pay tax and take them all to process and sell in the international market. The money they are making is huge.”

He pointed to coal and iron ore as prime examples of this lost opportunity. “The best coal is leaving the country, and we are now running even our power stations with diesel,” he said. Furthermore, despite being one of the world's largest iron ore exporters, South Africa lacks the capacity to produce its own steel. “We have all the raw material used to produce steel, but we can’t,” Van Wyk lamented.

A Call for Economic Sovereignty and Industrialization

To reverse this trend, Van Wyk urged South Africa to emulate the economic models of nations like Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. These countries, he noted, do not depend solely on exports and actively promote local consumption and production.

“If a government is in control of its economic policies, it decides what needs to be produced, when and how,” Van Wyk argued. “But if it is not in control, that is impossible. We should try to emulate these countries.”

However, another perspective highlights the significant challenges to this vision. Mining analyst Bruce Williamson pointed to a critical skills and funding gap, noting that the problem with industrialization is that South Africa lacks the necessary mining expertise, innate entrepreneurial capacity, and capital required to develop mines independently.

The debate underscores a pivotal challenge for South Africa: balancing the attraction of foreign investment with the strategic imperative to capture more value from its natural resources within its own borders to foster sustainable industrial development and job creation.