Shabangu: No nationalisation of mines

There is no harm in letting Julius Malema flex his intellectual muscles by talking about nationalisation, says Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu, but she insists there will be no nationalisation in her lifetime.

However, she insisted his pronouncements did not shape government policy.

"In my lifetime there'll be no nationalisation," she told a media conference at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town.

"Maybe when I'm dead, and rest assured I'm not dying next week."

Though nationalisation was not government policy, South Africa was a democratic country, and young people who wanted to "flex their muscles intellectually" should not be suppressed.

"Why should we stop young people when they want to engage in an intellectual debate?

"If Malema flexes his muscle as a young person, and engages in intellectual and academic exercise, why must we stop him?"

Malema, leader of the African National Congress Youth League, has repeatedly called for nationalisation of the country's mines, starting with its gold and platinum mines.

In October last year he gave ANC leaders an ultimatum to either support nationalisation or forget about leading the ANC in 2012.

Shabangu told the media conference that the notion of state participation in the mining sector was nothing new.

It already owned diamond mining concern Alexkor, and had a stake in Anglo American.

"So we are already there. We exist, we compete, we are part of the markets," she said.

However, such involvement had to be strategic and in the national interest.

"If the state must be involved it will have to compete, it will have to make sure it becomes efficient, it has to compete like any other business," she said.

"But definitely nationalisation, uh uh. You can't say nationalisation is strategic, because nationalisation is about everything, and that's not the route we're taking."

Earlier, in a speech to delegates at the Indaba, Shabangu said her department was working to reduce the turnaround time for mining rights applications from the current year to six months.

Prospecting rights applications would be reduced from six to three months.