EconomicsSouthAfrica: Dambisa Moyo: "Resources nationalism" is playing with firre, short of nationalisation

The big news, economically speaking, will be the assessment and advice Africa's leading economist, Ms. Dambisa Moyo, is giving to the various stakeholders in South Africa's mining industry.  An orientation to her thawts is given below.  In a flash observation:  The position she critiques is perhaps best represented by Cyril Ramaphosa the ex-union leader who switched over to making money and is now South Africa's 21st richest man, who also switched from powerful union leader to deputy leader of the African National Congress, the governing political party.  It seems he's looking for his opening to take power at the top of the country.  To clean up his image as a strongman who deserted the union, he has left the Lonmin mining interest where he was on the board when the massacre of rebellious workers took place.   Three vital books by Dr. Dambisa Moyo on economics; see our Books mostly listings.

— EconoMix, refWrite Frontpage economics, business, labour
     newspotter, analyst, columnist



Hat Tip to Shay Riley's Booker Rising (Feb19,2k13)

Business Day (South Africa)

From Business Day (South Africa), about the Zambian-born moderate-conservative economist: 

"The African National Congress (ANC) rejected nationalisation of South Africa’s mines at its policy meeting in Mangaung last year. The party did, however, adopt the State Intervention in the Mining Sector report, which included proposals for windfall taxes, the creation of a state mining corporation and declaring certain commodities as strategic resources."

The article continues about Dr. Moyo, who will keynote a speech tomorrow at an international mining conference in South Africa: "'We need to understand the government's role as measures such these are not viable in the long term,' Ms Moyo said in an interview with Business Day on Friday. Ms Moyo, who has worked at the World Bank, emphasised that the concept of resources nationalism was not unique to South Africa, and by extension Africa, but rather a global phenomenon. 'South Africa is not immune to what’s happening across the world,' she said. 'However any increase as proposed by the government could lead to industry structural pressure — that is, demand pressures relative to the availability of supply — as well as tactical pressures' she said. 'Although I see a lot of tension, I think that such measures will be tragic, as this will lead to higher volatility in commodity prices and lower investments in the mining industry.' She added: 'It’s also a question of the ability of the government to run the mines.'"
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