Cape Town - The government's move to regulate foreign ownership of property in South Africa was a move in the wrong direction, Gerard Holden, the head of mining finance for Barclays Capital, said yesterday.
Holden, one of the first of a list of high-profile international speakers invited to address about 3 000 delegates at the 11th Mining Indaba being held at Cape Town's International Convention Centre, was talking about the risks of attracting foreign direct investment into Africa.
Holden listed the usual ingredients necessary to create a favourable climate for investors, such as a track record of good governance and the rule of law.
He said a critical component to creating stability was a "robust approach" to property rights. He said comments by President Thabo Mbeki that the government would try to limit foreign ownership in South Africa did not reflect an understanding of what was required to attract and retain investment.
Minister of minerals and energy Lindiwe Hendricks arrived late and did not open the session as scheduled. She sat in the front row next to her fiery deputy minister, Lulu Xingwana, and the department's director-general, Sandile Nogxina.
Speaking immediately after Holden, Hendricks responded to his comments off the cuff, with more than a hint of emotion. Hendricks asked the audience of international investors to consider Holden's comments in the South African context, where many South Africans were still landless and had "a hunger for land.
"Property ownership must be seen in the context that a number or previously disadvantaged South Africans have been dispossessed of the land of their forebears," she said, adding that a balance needed to be struck between the need to attract investment into the property markets and South Africa's imperative to create equity.
Hendricks said the government's drive to increase the amount of value addition would bear fruit.
She said that for the first time since 2004, ferroalloys and aluminium had exceeded the foreign earnings generated by the traditional big guns - gold and platinum.
"This shows the benefits of beneficiation," she said.