HOW ironic that the executive director of Anglo American South Africa, who is also the vice president of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, Khanyisile Kweyama, should be declared Africa’s most influential woman in mining — at a time when her firm’s South African interests are dwindling and the local mining industry is becoming less influential by the day.
The accolade was bestowed on her by CEO Communications, which owns CEO Magazine. Kweyama, 49, is not sure she agrees about the decline in mining. But the industry she leads contributes just 4.9% of South Africa’s GDP, down from 21% in 1970 and 6% just three years ago. It is 64th out of 112 global mining jurisdictions.
“Even if it is declining in South Africa, relative to the rest of the continent South Africa is still a large mining jurisdiction,” she says.
But South Africa’s prestige and influence as a mining destination in Africa is slipping. It is now only the eighth most important mining country on the continent, out of 16. “That is worrying,” Kweyama says.
To what extent does the local industry have itself to blame for this, and to what extent is it the result of government policy?
“Apportioning blame is not necessarily the way to go and doesn’t solve the problem,” she says. The important thing, in her view, is to do something about it before it is too late.
“Hence the mining industry growth and development task team, which is focused on growth in the mining sector.”
She agrees that without more foreign investment in the sector, the team’s ability to “rejuvenate” it will be limited. She also concedes that the obstacles to investment are well known by now and should not have to be pointed out by a growth and development task team.
In a word, uncertainty.
“Nobody wants to invest in a sector or a company where they do not know what will happen in five or 10 years.”
One of the team’s jobs is to ensure that the regulatory environment contributes to investment. As things are, there is not enough regulatory certainty, says Kweyama. But she sees light at the end of the tunnel.
After much “tough negotiating” between the industry and the government, parliament passed the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill this year.
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