Johannesburg - There is an issue of trust between parties in the mining industry which needs to be addressed, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday.
“Working together is a question of trust... I think that is what we suffer from now. It is called a trust deficit,” he told The Joburg Indaba on mining in Sandton, Johannesburg.
“If we don't... we're not going to turn the industry around.”
Working together was not about looking at the interests of the industry at the expense of workers and the mining communities.
“If we're going to talk about a partnership it should be about... what compromises can be made to make sure parties can be accommodated,” Mantashe said.
He warned that government was not a “night watchman” for capital. Government had to look at what society required and look at the interests of society.
Just before Mantashe's address, two questions were posed to delegates at the indaba.
The first question was “do you believe the ANC is committed to the NDP?”. A total of 45.9 percent of the delegates said yes, while 54.1 percent said no.
The second question was whether delegates believed that if the NDP was implemented, it would achieve the objective of economic growth. A total of 70.8 percent said yes and 29.2 percent said no.
Mantashe said the African National Congress was not the vanguard of the working class but the vanguard of society and it needed to mobilise all sectors of the society, especially in support of the National Development Plan.
The NDP was not policy, but a plan which would change and be adapted as it was implemented.
“If it causes uncertainty, I don't know what will cause certainty. In society, change is the surest thing,” he said.
Mantashe said a review of how resources would benefit everyone needed to be done, otherwise it would create resentment.
“Mining creates billionaires, but people around the mines are subject to abject poverty and that translates into resentment.
“This is when anarchy and destruction become rife. We must work together to change that.
“As long as mines leave ghost towns behind, we must appreciate that there will be resentment and there is going to be a revolt against the industry. That's why it becomes important to understand where we want to go as an industry,” Mantashe said.
There needed to be common prosperity, and to have this the country's sociology needed to change.
Sapa