The UK announced on Tuesday that it was partnering with South Africa in a number of initiatives and programmes to promote investment in infrastructure and skills development in the latter country. The announcement coincided with the first day of President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s State Visit to the UK, the first such visit to be hosted by King Charles III.

“South Africa is already the UK’s biggest trading partner on the [African] continent, and we have ambitious plans to turbocharge infrastructure investment and economic growth together,” highlighted UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Prime Minister Sunak and President Ramaphosa will hold bilateral talks on Wednesday. “I look forward to welcoming President Ramaphosa to London this week to discuss how we can deepen the partnership between our two great nations and capitalise on shared opportunities, from trade and tourism and [sic] security and defence.”

Among other initiatives, the two countries are creating a new education and skills partnership. This will advance shared learning in vocational and technical education. The aim is to increase youth employment. British funding will also be used to develop entrepreneurial and technical skills in modern high economic growth areas, such as electric vehicles and other green technologies. This is to make certain that South African youth benefit from the green transition.

“The South Africa Just Energy Transition Partnership, launched at COP26, also offers new opportunities to collaborate on renewable technology and green innovation,” stressed UK Foreign Secretary (Cabinet Minister) James Cleverly. “The UK and South Africa are today announcing the creation of a new Partnership on Minerals for Future Clean Energy Technologies to promote increased responsible exploration, production and processing of minerals in South and Southern Africa.”

He noted that Southern African countries were amongst the world’s top producers of minerals essential for clean technologies. These included the platinum group metals and iridium, required for hydrogen production, as well as vanadium and manganese, needed for battery storage. “This partnership will utilise the UK’s expertise as the home to leading global mining houses and financial services centre for metals to bolster sustainable and responsible production,” he said.

Tuesday also saw the launching of the next phase of the UK-South Africa Infrastructure Partnership. This will support the growth of the South African economy by way of major infrastructure projects and will give British companies improved access to projects with a total value, over the next three years, of £5.37-billion.