Mining key to SA economy: Statistician General

Monday, September 29, 2014

Pretoria – Mining was one of the key industries in the South African economy with a total income of R408 billion in 2012, says Statistician General Pali Lehohla.

“The largest contributor to total income was platinum group metal ore with an income of R117 billion, followed by coal and lignite with an income of R96 billion, iron ore with an income of R68 billion and gold and uranium ore with an income of R67 billion,” Lehohla said on Monday.

Lehohla was releasing the findings of the Periodic Large Sample Surveys for the Mining and Trade Sectors (wholesale, retail, motor and accommodation) during a media briefing in Pretoria.

The three leading provinces contributing to the total income generated by the mining industry in 2012, were the North West with an income of R120 billion, Mpumalanga with an income of R97 billion and the Northern Cape with an income of R73 billion.

Lehohla said the mining industry employed 535 000 people by the end of June 2012.

Employees in the industry included 377 000 mine employees, 100 000 employees of subcontractors, 34 000 labour brokers employees and 24 000 capital employees.

Trade sector

Lehohla said the total income for the trade sector in 2012 was R2.3 billion, which had an average growth rate of 7.8 per annum over the income reported in 2009 -- which was R1.8 billion, Lehohla said.

The largest contributor to the total income was the wholesale industry with R1.1 billion, followed by the retail trade industry with the income of R643 billion and the motor trade industry with an income of R521 billion.

He said the accommodation industry contributed to R44 billion, while the food and beverages industry contributed R40 billion.

The fastest growing industries between 2009 and 2012 were the motor trade and the retail trade industries.

The trade sector was the second largest employer with about 3.1 million people employed in the sector for both value-added tax (VAT) and non-VAT registered businesses.

Quarterly Financial Survey of Municipalities

Lehohla also released the results of the Quarterly Financial Survey of Municipalities on Monday.

He said the quarterly financial statistics of municipalities between the quarters ended March 2014 and June 2014 showed that the purchase of water increased by 1.4 percent.

“Purchases of electricity increased by 27.8 percent over the same period. Sales of electricity increased by 6.8 percent between the quarters ended March 2014 and June 2014,” he said.

Lehohla said the survey also revealed an increase of 3 percent was recorded in the sale of water over the same period.

He further noted that employee related costs increased by 4.6 percent between the quarters ended March 2014 and June 2014. – SAnews.gov.za