Well it might not happen in the coming 2 years or 10 but we all know it is going to happen, the worst thing that can ever happen is to fail to plan to have this country running beyond the existence of the minerals. Well let us not look at the extreme possible situations, let us take the trying economic conditions that saw mining giants close doors and cutting employees as a lesson.
If the job losses caused by the falling price of commodities haven’t taught us a lesson then we will never learn, the danger to this is that the next generation will be in the worst ever situation. Even though a lot of mines have an expected lifespan of till 2033 and beyond, most of them might be forced to close because of the relatively higher operation prices.
The question is where to from here? This is the challenge we have to tackle as a country. We can blame apartheid if we want but at the end we don’t have European ancestry and that simply means our kids will have to survive while some people (I didn’t mention race but we all know they are white) will pack and go back home. What can we give the world except our minerals? We are trained engineers and accountants so we can dig and sell our minerals but beyond them what will happen to this beautiful country?
Serious contingency planning is required, we need to start trying out new things and building new industries. We as Africans and South Africans need to plan on constructing our very own industrial revolutions. The Germans have their automobiles, the Americans and China have their technology; the Indians are now also waging in and making their presence felt! What is it that we Africans and more importantly South Africans gonna offer to the world soon as our minerals run out?
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Article By Dimo Wa Moraswi Sekele added on by Kagiso Maloma
Computer science and computer engineering seem to be things we as a country can try and offer the world besides minerals.
The next revolution is not industrial-related, but rather digitalised and we need to get on that bandwagon as early as ten years ago. We also need to focus more on food production and safety. Something along the lines of what Joseph in the book of Genesis did to help Egypt through the seven year drought. They had enough to feed their population and enough to sell to the other nations who were coming to them.