Kimberley Process meeting reflects on progress

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"The diamond industry has been on a rollercoaster ride since the global financial crisis, and the years between 2009 through to 2012 have presented a challenging period for all participants across the diamond value chain," said Shabangu.

Speaking at the KPCS plenary meeting in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 19 November 2013, Shabangu said this year's session held more significance than ever, as the work of the Ad Hoc Committee on Reform would set the tone on how the KPCS would proceed in future.

Established in 2003 by UN General Assembly, the KPCS is the process to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the mainstream rough diamond market.

The process was set up to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments.

Shabangu on Tuesday said there had been robust engagement among the participants in the KPCS over the past few years on the reforms, which led them to introspect on the founding objectives and the extent to which they had lived up to the this promise

"The most significant observation during this time is that the Kimberley Process is indeed an inclusive process that does not ignore the voices of the smaller and emerging participants in its deliberations of such important matters.

"The KPCS cannot be seen to be duplicating the works of other organisations, especially those that complement the KPCS, namely the System of Warrantiesdeveloped by the World Diamond Council (WDC), to extend the Kimberley Process conflict-free assurance to polished diamonds, and to provide a means by which consumers can be assured that their diamonds are from conflict-free sources," she said.

She commended the United States of America and the Republic of Angola on their efforts to ensure that the Washington Declaration - which formally incorporates development objectives into KPCS implementation - found meaning and relevance in matters surrounding small-scale mining.

Shabangu said artisanal small-scale mining posed challenges for any country and could stem from difficulties in achieving regulatory oversight of a large number of small operations.

These, she said, included concerns such as security of land tenure for artisanal miners, to enforcement of environmental and safety standards, and chief amongst them, access to start-up capital.

The Bain Report of 2013 affirms that the industry presently has sufficient diamond reserves to sustain production for 18 years, with 70% of those reserves found in Africa and Russia respectively.

Shabangu said for Africa's minerals sector to be knowledge-based and vibrant, it was vital to learn and study the best practice of peer jurisdictions and to develop partnership mechanisms that benefit both parties.

"This is significant, as it marks an important departure from the well-entrenched historical practice of some parties benefiting exclusively at the expense of others. This model of partnership has already demonstrated that it is not sustainable and must be abandoned with immediate effect," she said.

Shabangu also announced South Africa's support for Angola's candidacy for the vice chair of the KPCS for 2014 and its chairmanship for 2015.