Beneficiation key to Africa’s development – Dlamini-Zuma

Industrialisation, value addition and the beneficiation of raw minerals are important in resolving the paradox of a rich Africa and poor Africans, says Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairperson of the African Union Commission.

“If you look at all these big economies and medium-sized countries that have developed, they have developed because of mineral resources. Even those who don’t have them… have used mineral resources to develop. What has Africa done? It has supplied mineral resources to those countries so that they can develop and Africa has been left under-developed,” she told reporters on the sidelines of The Junior Indaba.

Dlamini-Zuma, who delivered the opening keynote address at the Indaba, said the beneficiation and export of value-added goods would create jobs and give African countries a greater say in commodity markets. “As long as you are an exporter of raw materials, you cannot determine the price of any material that you produce,” she said.

She also called for stakeholders to take a new approach to mining so that it may contribute to the shared prosperity and inclusive development of the continent and its people.

The continent’s abundant natural resources are the common heritage of its people and that mining contracts should be negotiated in favour of African interests rather than that of individual companies, she said.

She said a skilled workforce is necessary to drive growth in the mining sector and called for the development of a critical mass of relevant African skills across the value chain and stressed the importance of education particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She said skills development isn’t the sole responsibility of mining companies and called for them to partner with governments in training programmes.

“It is time Africans take charge of our own resources and use them to industrialise our own economies,” Dlamini-Zuma said in her address.