By Alec Hogg
Cyril Ramaphosa was a popular attraction yesterday at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town – the annual opportunity for industry executives to head south for a networking extravaganza to escape the North’s mid-winter chill.
The content at the event is generally dull. Not surprising since much of it comprises paid-for presentations: a strange business model given the apparent agenda of those doing the talking, but if it ain’t broke, the Indaba’s American owners certainly aren’t about to fix it.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___Ramaphosa told the miners and the assorted hangers-on what they wanted to hear: SA is working on achieving a secure supply of electricity; accelerating economic reforms; tackling illegal mining; and improving regulation. The polite applause told the story of an audience who had heard it all before.
Is it different this time? Maybe. I wish an experienced hand would remind the Prez how, during the 1990s and noughties, the industry transitioned from the dead hand of mining houses into efficient on-site managed independent units. And how the likes of Pouroulis, Harmony, and most recently Sibanye, proved that human ingenuity succeeded where centralised bureaucracy did not. If it worked for Anglo et al., why not Eskom?
Read more:
- RW Johnson on Putin’s teetering empire, and the threat it now poses to South African democracy. Click here.
- When Does Elon Musk Sleep? Billionaire Speaks of Limits to Fixing Twitter and His Back Pain. Click here.Â
- English soccer champions Manchester City could be relegated after the Premier League said the club breached 115 financial regulations over the past 14 years. Click here for the official statement. And click here for how the club intends defending itself.
