Development is the only conversation that South Africa should be having at the moment, former Anglo American CEO, director and consulting business executive Mark Cutifani said at the Joburg Indaba this month – and he drew strong applause from an audience that was made up of business, labour and government.
The indaba was itself proof that conversations right across business and labour can take place without much effort, and the debating around development generated widespread keenness to improve infrastructure, stimulate economic growth, and generate the skills the country lacks. Mining was volunteering itself as one of the rocks on which development can be built.
Public-private partnership is the way forward, free of dogma. South Africa’s miracle of 1994 is proof of what the country can do, and development is what we must implement.