Mining industry lacks proper leadership – Solidarity
8 February 2016
Local stakeholders are hampering the progress of the local mining industry through poor leadership and decision-making. This is according to Gideon du Plessis, General Secretary of Solidarity, who spoke at the annual Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Monday.
Du Plessis was a member of a panel that included Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davis and Mineral Resources MinisterMosebenzi Joseph Zwane, who addressed roughly 200 investors on the first day of the weeklong indaba. The theme of this year’s indaba is “Investing in African Mining”.
During his speech, Du Plessis said that South African stakeholders are the biggest enemy of the mining sector when it comes to their handling of controllable factors influencing the prosperity of the industry. “Stakeholders in the mining industry have the tendency to undo all the good work and initiatives through poor leadership and decision-making. This is turning the South African mining industry into a sunset industry despite the fact that we possess some of the world’s largest mineral reserves in our country,” Du Plessis said.
Du Plessis went on to discuss several instances where local stakeholders hampered the success of constructive initiatives in the mining industry. These include, amongst others: