Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.  Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Kamwendo: The Water Research Commission this week warned that South Africa may be heading for a massive water deficit.

Creamer: Water, water, but not enough everywhere. That is not only in South Africa. Our Water Research Commission this week warned that in less than 20 years we might be short of a billion cubic meters of water. It is Southern Africa that is also constrained at the moment. We have got the situation where water supply is inextricably linked to economic growth. If you don’t have that water supply, you can’t have the economic growth.

We see that as a warning coming out as well this week of the World Bank and also the International Monetary Fund, looking at Africa and saying that this water constraint, particularly in Southern Africa now, is putting a damper on growth prospects. We will have the same situation here in South Africa if we don’t watch out. We don’t want to be caught out in the same way that we were in the electricity shortages from Eskom. We really need to be planning ahead. We see, of course, this week was an important step taken by the Water Minister Nomvula Mokanyane.

I’m looking at a picture of here in front of me, in Germiston, where she was at the acid mine drainage (AMD) plant.  She emphasised this week it is so important to recover the water that has been lost by the mining industry in terms of contamination and getting rid of that contamination, making it safe water for commercial use as either industrial water or potable water. At this particular plant, which is quite impressive in Germiston covering the Central Basin at the old ERPM land, she launched the long-term solution for AMD and getting rid of the contamination in that water.

It is still some time ahead unfortunately. We will only really look at that water coming out in a way that can be used safely in 2020. What do we do in the meantime? We know that there has been an inordinate delay in the Lesotho Highlands Project, a six-year delay in the second phase. We need that necessary treaty that has not yet been signed and we need it to go ahead. We also know in desperation water was taken from the Sterkfontein and not replaced. So, a lot of questions being asked around water and the fact that economic growth is very thirsty.

Kamwendo: The new president of Tanzania has been quick to fill investors with a new confidence.

Creamer: Surprising how quickly a leader, if he really speaks with confidence and he also walks the talk, can suddenly have investment injected in to his country. I was just speaking this week to a person who does a lot of exploration in Africa and one of the places he is doing exploration is in Tanzania. He is saying that he really wants to invest so much more there. That is Tony Harwood from Montero, a Canadian-listed company.

He was in Tanzania last week and he is just inspired by John Magufuli, saying that the place has just changed radically. It shows you how strong leadership from the top can create such a lot of confidence so quickly. Magufuli is also walking the talk, of course, and has reduced his Cabinet to make it more efficient. He has gone from 30 members to 19 members and is pleading with people to get rid of the corrupt perceptions that are around and also realities.

He said he knows where corruption is and will bring it to an end now. He is known as the bulldozer, so some people find him abrasive, but others are saying this is the way to do things. We are just thinking of South Africa at the moment were we are going through a very tough time on the mining front. We have missed two cyclical upturns. Are we going to miss a third? Our legislation is still in disarray and there is a lot of argument between business and government in the mining sector. Are we going to be ready to capitalise when the next upturn comes? And it will come.

This is the concern now. Can we not create this leadership here that can turn things around quickly? We know we are desperate for economic growth and economic growth can come from making sure that there is confidence. We saw that there is such a lack of confidence that the normally quiet Mineral and Resources Shadow Minister James Lorimer just couldn’t help himself this week. He decried the situation where our production is now 18% lower then expected and 10 000 more jobs lost quarter on quarter reported earlier this month. He is just saying lets focus our minds on turning around the mining business.

Kamwendo: Next month will see the switch-on of South Africa’s big new telescope array in the Northern Cape.

Creamer: We have been waiting for this for so long and now the countdown has begun for the Meerkat side of this. The Meerkat Radio Telescope Array is the South African side, ahead of the Square Kilometer Array, which will be operated by international interests and will also be funding it.

The Meerkat has already got 20 antennas, but 21 antennas will be ready by next month. We have spent something like R2.4-billion on both the SKA and the Meerkat programmes so far. We see that by the end of the year there will be 32 antennas, which will make it the biggest going radio telescope concern, ahead of New Mexico, which is currently the biggest with 27 dishes.

Some discussion still has to take place, because the big move in the SKA project has got to be funded by ten countries. We’ve noticed that Germany is the only country which is sort of withdrawing slightly at the moment. South Africa still doing a lot of work in Africa particularly in Ghana, because of that link in Manchester, which makes the whole study of the sky and celestial images become closer and closer for us in South Africa.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.