* Says South Africa policy is mixed economy
* Nationalisation “cannot be policy”
* Targeted nationalisation still on cards – lawyer
* ANC Youth League rebel stays defiant over nationalisation
(Adds Malema comments)
By Tiisetso Motsoeneng and Sherilee Lakmidas
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 10 (Reuters) – President Jacob Zuma
squashed more than two years of talk on Friday about the
nationalisation of South Africa’s massive mining sector, saying
state control or ownership of the mines in the world’s biggest
platinum producer could not work.
Asked during a televised breakfast briefing if the
government planned to nationalise mines, Zuma said emphatically:
“We’re very clear. It is not our policy. We’ve been saying this
inside the country, outside the country. It cannot be.”
“We have answered this question many times. We are very
clear,” he added. “Our policy is mixed economy.”
Coming at the end of a week in which two senior ministers
dismissed nationalisation as unviable and the ruling ANC
released a study describing it as an “unmitigated disaster”,
Zuma’s comments lay to rest two years of debate that hit South
Africa’s image as an investor-friendly emerging market.
Continued…
