Hon House Chair, Minister, Deputy Ministers, hon members in the House and our guests in the gallery. The NFP welcomes the report of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy tabled here today.
Now, Minister, I have a question for you. Let's assume, Minister, that all the mineral wealth in this country belonged to you and your family; let's just assume it all belonged to you and your family. Then, will you allow the international community or the foreign monopoly capitalist to take all the benefits of it and give you the crumbs? Because that is what is happening in South Africa and in the African continent. The
wealthiest continent in terms of minerals but the poorest in the world.
So, the question is: When are we going to look after our own interests before we have the interest of the international community?
The mineral wealth that we have here is sold at a pittance to the international community, polished and come back here and then we are paying what, 500 times, one million times, the price of it? That's exactly what is happening.
Let us also be honest about something else. Mining in South Africa does not come cheap. If you look at the health risks to our people; you know about tuberculosis, you know the challenges... you know the challenges of HIV.
You have admitted, Minister, that beneficiation is only a dream. So, when are we going to change this, so that it benefits the people on the ground?
We spoke about radical economic transformation. We want to transform this economy to benefit South Africans. And when we have people here talking about investment, they are correct, people don't want to invest. Do you know why they don't want to invest? Because those are the people that want to take everything and give you the crumbs. They don't want it to be a win- win situation so that we benefit and they benefit. They want to benefit at the expense of the blood, sweat and tears of the people in South Africa; and we cannot allow that.
Another matter I want to bring to the attention of the department is that many of these miners come from different countries, particularly in the Southern African Development Community, SADC, region. And my understanding is that many of them have even died in South Africa and they have not received the benefits or you could not trace their families. I would like to know what are we doing about that? Because my understating is that there's a lot of money available in that fund and we were not able to trace these beneficiaries. I think it is important, we need to address that.
I think what is very important for us is to accept that it cannot be business as usual while others make the money and earn the profits, while our people suffer the consequences. I think the time has come where we need to ensure that mining in South Africa and the African continent [Time expired.] benefits our people. So, we need a change in the way we do our business.
The NFP will support this report tabled here today. Thank you very much. [Applause.]