No policy to nationalise

Nationalisation of SA’s mines was not government policy and was unlikely to become so, at least in the immediate future, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, pictured, said yesterday on the sidelines of a UK-SA business forum.

Asked if it could ever become government policy, he said: “I don’t think it’s imminently so and I think it’s unlikely to become so, in the immediate future anyway.”

A dozen cabinet ministers and 200 business executives are accompanying President Jacob Zuma on a state visit to Britain. Zuma also said on Tuesday it was not policy to nationalise the mining sector.

Mining Minister Susan Shabangu repeated yesterday that nationalisation was not government policy
and said African National Congress (ANC) Youth League leader Julius Malema must present his position at the ANC’s national general council.

“The policy of nationalisation doesn’t exist in SA,” she told the business forum.

However, SA was a democratic country and an open society and everyone had “the right to raise any aspect under the sun”.

“But ... SA is part of the global world, it’s part of the global community, and on the basis of that, SA cannot go back and work against the world,” she said to applause from business executives.

Source: Business Day