The general secretary of South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has urged the government to provide more support to the platinum sector.

Gwede Mantashe has attacked the South African government's failure to provide more investment into the jewellery sector, claiming that the lowering of import taxes since 1994 has led to the country's clothing and textile industry being "thrown to the wolves".

Citing the support that has been given to the car industry in South Africa, Mr Mantashe argued that, despite being one of the world's biggest suppliers of precious metals such as platinum and gold, the country does not have a jewellery industry.

He pointed out that the mining industry in South Africa generally exports all its products as raw materials.

"We remain the biggest gold mining industry and a dominant platinum producer in the world, but our jewellery industry remains insignificant," Mr Mantashe told Business Day at the mayoral business week conference in the Ekurhuleni municipality.

Platinum jewellery is becoming increasingly popular and Mr Mantashe is concerned that South Africa is losing out on a market that it could monopolise thanks to the scale of its platinum production.


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