North West Premier Job Mokgoro says his government is ready to tackle head-on, all mining houses operating in the platinum rich province to help with creation of jobs and development.
In December last year, Stats SA revealed that the province has an unemployment rate of 43%. Different sectors, including the mining industry, continue to shed jobs.
Mokgoro, believes that if the approach could include the extraction of the precious metal including the processing and packaging of it, this will have positive economic spin-offs, as a mitigating factor to the unemployment rate.
“To not develop the areas they are sucking their wealth from, we have to start very serious negotiations with the mining industry, and say let’s work in partnership and develop incubators, where we develop and fast track the local SMME’s and focus on the key supply areas. Just an opportunity of 5 000 million is a scratch on the surface with the mine procurement budget, but because we move from point zero it will be an immense gain for our communities,” says Mokgoro.
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