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Dickson Mangena, Businesss Reporter
AFRICA should invest on minerals that directly solve poverty issues that the people are facing instead of concentrating on exotic minerals, an official said.
Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) director Mr Claude Kabemba told Sunday Business that African countries must concentrate on the minerals that deal with the fundamentals of the problems that people are facing like housing, energy and food security.
SARW is a regional body that monitors corporate and state conduct in the extraction and beneficiation of natural resources in Southern Africa region, in particular assessing to what extent these efforts contribute to sustainable development.
“When you look at the minerals that directly solve the problems of the people it is not gold, platinum or diamonds, we are talking about cement, quarry, fossil fuel, coal and phosphate for agriculture,” said Mr Kabemba.
Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in agriculture and industry. It is used in fertiliser production.
Mr Kabemba said Africa was facing a challenge to take its people out of poverty and that the critical areas which the governments must focus on are shelter, energy and food security. He said investing in cement will bring down its prices and more people would be able to build houses.
Mr Kabemba also said that Zimbabwe has copper which is vital in the development of the energy sector in the continent, but the country was not mining it that much.
“As Africa we need to identify strategic minerals if we are going to deal with poverty in a sustainable way. Gold and diamonds are important minerals which give us a lot of money but they do not directly solve the problem that we face as Africa,” said Mr Kabemba.
He, however, said that other minerals were also important but Africa was to work on adding value on them.
“Zimbabwe has diamonds and if they sell that diamond directly from Chiadzwa it would be 20 times less in value than a stone that is polished. So what we are saying is, why don’t we add value a bit. It will also create jobs,” Mr Kabemba said.
According to the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, the Government is inviting prospective diamond cutting and polishing firms in a move aimed at adding value to Zimbabwean diamonds and creating jobs for indigenous people. A team of Zimbabweans is also in China learning diamond polishing as a plant to value add the mineral has been set up in Harare.
Mr Kabemba said when Africa exports raw materials it was also exporting jobs.
“The thing is as Zimbabwe you cannot do it alone but if we come together as a region, we have what we call producer power.
Take Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo, all producing diamonds. As producers we can come together and create a market, those that want our diamonds can come here, why should our diamonds be sold in Belgium and Israel,” he said.
“Belgium Antwerp, have you been there, they have massive offices where a lot of money is made, but it is from trading diamonds from our countries,” Mr Kabemba said.
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Bongani Ndlovu