Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and colleagues, the mining industry is very big and contributes US$21 billion or 7% to the South African gross domestic product. With the recession, this has shrunk by 32%. Only China, the USA, Australia and Brazil have bigger industries than what we have in South Africa, while Canada, Russia, India and Chile have smaller mining industries. So South Africa has the fifth biggest mining industry in the world.
Broad-based black economic empowerment has amounted to R150 billion in BEE deals or 33% of similar transactions over the past 11 years. This has only been possible because there has been a good balance between risk and reward. Today I plead for transparency in the mining industry in South Africa and the fact that we must stay within our legal framework without abusing the system.
The six minutes that I have been granted will not be enough for me to say all the things of importance that I should, but I will flash through a couple with the Minister. I want to congratulate her on her "zama-zamas" [illegal miners] arrests in Mpumalanga in December last year and early this year. She has really followed up on her June and July appearance. Thank you, Minister. We must not lose sight of this. Criminals are like children: when they get quiet, you know they are busy doing something - and this is a R10 billion industry, so we have to close in on the organised crime units.
With regard to nationalisation, Minister, you have given us your word that you will not consent to it. I just want to say that if national mines are going to be run like Alexkor, we will be in deep trouble because the landscape looks like that of the moon - it is only bare bedrock and no rehabilitation has been done.
The CEO does not occupy her office in Alexander Bay. She flies in from Johannesburg once a month at a cost of R40 000 and that does not include her Rosebank office facilities. The very next week, however, Alexkor came to Parliament and asked for R7 billion for the company's support. I know this is not your baby, but you understand what I mean by nationalisation.
The environmental issues at Alexkor are appalling. But what I actually want to spend time talking about today are the small-scale diamond miners and their industry. At the moment, there are mining contracts being advertised and the closing date is 11 June.