Africa needs its leadership, across politics, business, labour and civil society, to assert control over the continent’s mineral wealth and negotiate better terms of access with the rest of the world, including on beneficiation.

This was the view expressed by Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe in his traditional opening address at the 32nd Investing in African Mining Indaba, currently under way in Cape Town.

“This year’s Indaba convenes at a moment of profound global uncertainty. We are witnessing heightened geopolitical tensions, driven largely by competition among some developed economies seeking greater control over the natural resources of developing nations,” Mantashe said.

“This dynamic represents a serious threat to the sovereignty of resource-endowed countries, the majority of which are here on the African continent.”

Mantashe said this context informed the organisers’ decision, under the theme Stronger Together: Progress through Partnerships, to convene the second African Ministers’ Critical Minerals Roundtable in partnership with the African Union.

The Roundtable brought together governments, investors and strategic partners to strengthen continental leadership on critical minerals.

Addressing the Roundtable, traditionally held behind closed doors on the Sunday ahead of the conference, Mantashe said, “Africa does not have a minerals problem, but rather a leadership problem.”

He argued that African countries with shared mineral endowments should negotiate export terms collectively rather than as individual states.

Drawing on his trade union background, Mantashe likened this approach to collective bargaining, which he said benefits both workers and mineral-rich countries.

Mantashe reiterated his long-standing criticism of the term “critical minerals”, arguing that while minerals used in clean energy transitions, such as rare earths, are deemed critical for different reasons — from defence industries in the United States to electronics and technology sectors in China — all minerals are critical.

He added that minerals such as coal, often labelled “dirty” alongside oil, remain critical to countries where they are abundant.

He announced that the Junior Mining Exploration Fund currently stands at R2 billion and urged mining companies to contribute to it, noting that it supports exploration by junior miners.

The fund currently backs eight projects, four of which have reached the mining development stage.

Supported projects include a rare earth exploration initiative in Bothaville in the Free State.

Mantashe further revealed that since last year’s Mining Indaba, government has issued 328 exploration licences and 32 mining licences.

He also defended Black Economic Empowerment, which has recently come under criticism and cited as a deterrent to investment.

Mantashe rejected this view, saying BEE is “necessary for including people who were denied access by the apartheid government”.

He concluded by commending the mining industry for recording a historic low of 41 fatalities in 2025, while acknowledging that the sector remains some distance from achieving Zero Harm.

He contrasted the figure with tragedies such as the September 1986 Kinross Mining Disaster, in which 177 miners were killed, at a time when the industry recorded about 500 deaths annually.

That disaster led to sweeping safety reforms, including the elimination of plastic materials in underground equipment, and to the Leon Commission, which culminated in the promulgation of the Mine Health and Safety Act in 1996.

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Volkswagen’s African unit exported a record 131,485 Polos to European and Asia-Pacific markets in 2024, Europe’s biggest carmaker said on Wednesday.

That was a big increase from the previous export record of 108,422 vehicles in 2019 from its manufacturing plant in Kariega in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, Volkswagen Group Africa said in a statement, without giving figures for 2023.

As of July 2024, Volkswagen Africa is the sole exporter of the Polo for European and Asia-Pacific markets, delivering the model to 38 countries.

Overall, these Polos accounted for 88% of exported vehicles from South Africa last year, the company said.

The Polo hatchback also performed strongly in the local market last year, selling 12,253 units and taking fourth place in the segment, it added.

The locally-built Polo Vivo claimed the top spot in the segment, with 25,914 units sold.

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the annual Africa Mining Indaba, Martina Biene, the chairperson and managing director at VGA, said the auto industry had been benefiting from lowering interest rates, availability of constant power supply and improvement at South Africa’s ports and rail network.

“There is a positive movement, although it’s not like sky-rocketing, I would say,” she said, referring to the performance of the industry.

Power cuts have been a drag on South Africa’s economic growth for more than a decade, impacting businesses including manufacturers.

Until Jan. 30, there had been none since March last year after a sudden turnaround in the performance of power utility Eskom’s generation fleet.

Reuters

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The Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) staged a powerful protest at the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources on Wednesday, delivering a symbolic coffin to honour artisanal miners who have lost their lives.

The demonstration highlighted the ongoing dangers faced by zama zamas, with demonstrators demanding justice, accountably and formal recognition to protect their rights and ensure their contributions benefit local communities.

Macua national coordinator Meshack Mbangula told the hundreds of protesters gathered at Jubilee Park in Pretoria where the march started, that they were going to deliver a signed coffin to the department, awarding it for the deaths of miners.

“We are going to give that coffin to DMPR; reason being… they have been killing us, whether [it’s] pollution, contaminated water, poverty… so we are going to take that coffin and put messages there and award them,” he said.

Mbangula said that in the past, Macua had delivered a list of demands to the department, but the dire situation for mining communities remained the same.

A representative of the Women Affected by Mining United in Action, Daisy Tshabangu, pleaded for compassion and leniency from Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe for the Stilfontein community in the North West.

This follows hundreds of miners being trapped underground and many of them dying after the government and police blocked mine shafts to stop illegal miners accessing food and supplies to force them to resurface.

“Gwede Mantashe, wherever you are, let our words not fall on deaf ears. Please show mercy to the people of Stilfontein. And the police from Stilfontein; please make a difference. Have a conscious and do not kill our brothers,” she said.

General Industries Workers Union of SA president Mametlwe Sebei described the events at Stilfontein as a massacre, saying the deaths were not an accident.

He said the deaths were the result of the police acting under the instructions of the mining capitalists and corporations collaborating with the government.

“When you listen to the Gwedes of this world, you will be mistaken to believe that those miners who came underground emaciated, dehydrated, who are the ratchet of the earth, are the problem we have in the mining industry, and not the big monopolies that have monopolised the ownership of the minerals, the exploitation of the minerals and the mining industry.

“And have concentrated in their hands, an enormous amount of wealth at a time when [South Africa has] devastating levels of unemployment, poverty, lack of development, hunger and starvation in our communities in the midst of the wealth and the wonders that our land and our labour produces,” he said.

Macua once again called for artisanal miners, also knowns as zama zamas, to be recognised and incorporated into the formal economy.

Mbangula told Inside Politics that foreign investors continued to exploit local mineral resources, extracting wealth while leaving communities in poverty.

He said it was an unjust system that sidelined artisanal miners, who struggled to make a living.

“We want to see zama zamas being formalised and be able to contribute to the economy of the country and be able to put bread on the table. And not having the so-called investors who are coming to loot minerals without benefiting us, and taking them to the Western countries,” he said.

One of the miners who was trapped underground at Stilfontein, Ayanda Ndabeni, said he could not criticise the police for following orders. Instead, he held the government and those in higher echelons of power responsible.

He condemned their decision to use force against the zama zamas, whom he said were merely trying to survive and make a living.

“Today, [it is] said that we were killed by the police. We were killed by… the government [who people voted for] to represent our interests. They instead sent police on us; that they kill us because they have labelled us criminals,” he said.

“Blood has to spill for them to hear our cries and give in to our demands,” Ndabeni said.

Mantashe is in Cape Town where he attended the African Mining Indaba.

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South African petrochemicals company Sasol, mining group Anglo American and its diamond business De Beers entered into a joint development agreement on Tuesday to pilot the production of renewable diesel from vegetable oil.

Under the terms of the deal signed at the annual African Mining Indaba in Cape Town, the partners will assess the technical and commercial viability of feedstock production, company officials told reporters.

De Beers is providing the more than 20-hectare tracts of land on which the crops for the trial vegetable oil feedstock – initially the Solaris and Moringa plants – will be grown, Anglo American’s Director of Projects and Development Alison Atkinson said.

Atkinson said pre-feasibility studies have been approved and renewable diesel production trials have been initiated. The resulting fuel will be used at De Beers operations.

Biofuels, derived from plant material or animal waste, are among the alternative fuels promoted to reduce carbon emissions.

Although renewable diesel production in South Africa is not yet at a commercial scale, customer demand and decarbonisation targets indicate that the country’s renewable fuels market is promising, according to Sasol.

“Renewable diesel is transformative. It meets the technical standards of conventional diesel while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Sarushen Pillay, executive vice president of Sasol’s Business Building, Strategy and Technology portfolio, said at the signing ceremony.

Reuters

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US President Donald Trump’s threats to cut off funds to South Africa over its newly adopted land expropriation law had many South African politicians and government leaders outraged on Monday.

His new threat, plans on US tariff increases and a freeze on foreign aid that will impact countries on the continent to varying degrees, formed part of many discussions during the first day of the African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

South Africans woke up to the news on Monday morning that Trump would cut off all future funding to the country, pending an investigation into the Expropriation Act.

“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention,” he posted on his social media platform Truth Social.

“A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

Opening the yearly indaba, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe did not mince his words when he hit back at Trump over his posts.

He said that while Africa with all its minerals was proud to share them with the world, it could not be to the detriment of the continent.

“If they don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals. They take our minerals and then they say we are withdrawing funding. So, therefore, we have something that we have. We have something; we are not just beggars. So, we must just use that endowment for out benefit as a continent,” Mantashe told dignitaries.

He warned that if the continent was paralysed with fear, it would collapse.

While the Democratic Alliance accused Mantashe of “reckless utterances [that] were a national embarrassment”, other political leaders said Trump had no business interfering with South Africa.

They also lashed out at trade union Solidarity and civil rights group AfriForum for appealing to the US to punish the country as anti-democratic.

The GOOD Party’s Brett Herron warned that this was tantamount to economic treason.

The African National Congress criticised AfriForum for weaponising misinformation, saying it was unacceptable for lobby groups to seek external intervention against a sovereign country’s domestic policies, especially policies that sought to address the legacy of land dispossession.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola took a more diplomatic approach on X.

“We trust that President Trump’s advisors will leverage this investigative period to deepen their understanding of South Africa’s policies as a constitutional democracy. Such insights will ensure a respectful and informed approach to our democratic commitments,” he posted.

The mining sector is South Africa’s largest source of income, while the continent holds around 30% of the world’s mineral reserves.

The indaba under the theme “Future-Proofing African Mining, Today”, ends on Thursday.  

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Anglo American is working to maximise its value should any new M&A suitor come along and anticipates significant progress this year on a keenly awaited spin-off of its De Beers diamond business, CEO Duncan Wanblad said on Monday.

The London-listed miner in May rebuffed a $49 billion hostile bid from the world’s biggest miner BHP, which was focused on Anglo’s copper assets.

Since then Anglo, whose stock was the best-performing of the major miners in 2024, has streamlined the company by selling off coal assets and agreeing to separate out its platinum business.

It has still to find buyers for its nickel operations in Brazil and partners for a UK fertiliser project that needs massive amounts of capital to bring it into commercial production.

But spinning off De Beers could be a major boost for valuation, given weak demand for diamonds.

Anglo said in May it would take between 18 months and two years to spin off the unit, a timeline analysts have said is too ambitious.

Wanblad, however, said plans to divest De Beers “would be substantively complete” by the end of 2025.

“It’s going to be fully set up as a standalone business to make sure that it’s not going to be impacting as a drag in any way, shape or form on the business,” he said on the sidelines of the Indaba mining conference in Cape Town.

Botswana, which owns a 15% stake in De Beers has offered to raise its stake.

“They certainly indicated a desire to increase their stake and they have also said they would do so on commercial terms,” Wanblad said, but declined to say how a big a stake Botswana wanted.

Without De Beers, Anglo could find itself even more hotly pursued for its rich, long-life copper assets in Latin America as copper is critical for the transition to greener energy and needed by data centres required by artificial intelligence.

A takeover can be the fastest way to generate returns for the targeted company and its shareholders, who have the final say in any deal.

“Consolidating the industry, per se, whilst it looks fantastic from a corporate financing point of view, isn’t a good thing for the population of the world because less gets done,” Wanblad said.

“But my job is to drive the best value for shareholders from this company and that’s what I’m doing,” he said further. “So if this company is fully valued and somebody makes a high premium offer for it, fantastic.”

Reuters

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