{"id":834134,"date":"2025-08-06T08:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T06:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=834134"},"modified":"2025-08-06T08:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T06:42:07","slug":"showdown-between-government-and-the-private-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/834134\/showdown-between-government-and-the-private-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Showdown between government and the private sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A proposal by South Africa\u2019s biggest mining company and other business leaders advising President Cyril Ramaphosa on how to offer the US access to Africa\u2019s critical minerals angered the nation\u2019s mining minister who saw it as an attempt by the firm to advance its own interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan was put forward by the group, which included Sibanye Stillwater Chief Executive Officer Neal Froneman and board member Rick Menell, before Ramaphosa\u2019s 21 May meeting with President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe said he objected because his department hadn\u2019t been involved in its creation, and neither had the Minerals Council South Africa, which represents most mining companies operating in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did talk to people who put it together,\u201d Mantashe said in an interview, mentioning Menell by name. \u201cThey didn\u2019t talk to us and there can be nothing about mining without\u201d input from the ministry and broader industry, he said, explaining why he didn\u2019t advocate it to Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spat highlights long-running disputes over the country\u2019s mining strategy between the government and the private sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the minister saw the approach putting Sibanye\u2019s interests ahead of the industry, according to two people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Froneman disputed the characterization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The industry has previously complained about red tape as well as regulatory and policy uncertainty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December, the Daily Maverick reported that the mining department hadn\u2019t processed any of the 2,525 mining applications it received in the financial year that began on April 1, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, the Minerals Council said new draft regulations put together by the ministry failed to include its inputs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGovernment routinely issues bills and amendments to existing policy without involving or considering other stakeholders,\u201d Froneman said in a response to queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Make Minerals Great Again\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Mantashe said the business leaders\u2019 proposal had included wording along the lines of \u201cmake minerals great again,\u201d which \u201cis not our language.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want a critical minerals strategy for the US,\u201d Mantashe told Bloomberg. We want \u201ca cross-cutting strategy for everyone,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mantashe has previously advocated halting shipments of minerals to the US in retaliation for it stopping aid to the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business leaders proposed \u201cSouth Africa providing a springboard into Africa to develop relations and explore the potential to supply critical minerals for the US\u201d by harnessing the industry\u2019s expertise, Froneman said. It was also aimed at improving the frosty relations between the countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That relationship has deteriorated since Trump\u2019s inauguration in January. Trump has falsely accused South Africa\u2019s government of presiding over a genocide of White farmers, questioned its relations with Russia and China, objected to it initiating a court case against Israel and imposed a 30% trade tariff on many of the goods South Africa sends to the US, the highest on any country in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mineral exports are largely excluded from the tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US is South Africa\u2019s second-biggest trade partner after China. In 2024, the countries traded $21.6 billion of merchandise, with South Africa reporting a $7.7 billion surplus, International Monetary Fund data shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A day before the Ramaphosa-Trump meeting, Mantashe issued a government statement on the cabinet\u2019s approval of his department\u2019s own critical minerals strategy, which focused on his country\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That strategy identified coal, chrome ore, iron ore, manganese and platinum as critical minerals, rather than materials found in abundance elsewhere in Africa such as the copper, cobalt and lithium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa doesn\u2019t produce in large quantities of the latter three, which are key to global electronics, battery, artificial intelligence and renewable energy industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US has proposed mineral supply deals with a number of countries including Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda as it seeks to cut China\u2019s hold on supply chains for the minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Froneman, who retires later this year, said he was part of a business delegation of about six people that traveled to the US earlier this year \u2014 \u201cwith the full knowledge\u201d of Ramaphosa \u2014 to gauge how to improve relations between the two countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Menell, who was also part of the delegation, declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Froneman said the proposal hadn\u2019t specifically mentioned any company and had the scope to be broader than mining. He said Mantashe\u2019s approach would limit the ability of the local mining industry to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth our foreign and local mining industry policies and the truculent manner of the minister make South Africa a destination of little interest to foreign mining capital investment, especially from the US,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSouth Africa-focused critical minerals strategies as proposed by minister Mantashe are unlikely to deliver any value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unclear whether Ramaphosa discussed critical minerals with Trump during that visit, the people said. Vincent Magwenya, Ramaphosa\u2019s spokesman, declined to comment and directed queries to Mantashe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A proposal by South Africa\u2019s biggest mining company and other business leaders to President Cyril Ramaphosa angered the nation\u2019s mining minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":811801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1850,2319,853],"class_list":["post-834134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-bloomberg","tag-mining","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834137,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834134\/revisions\/834137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}