Mining and Industrial annual suppliers directory Directory 2020 | Page 5

W e’ve all been faced with situations in our lives where we’ve had to make tough decisions. Such decisions often require a long thought process which includes weighing up the pros and cons. As difficult as it is to make such decisions, it is necessary, especially if they are being made for the right reasons. If we had to sum up 2019, it would be safe to say that it was a year of tough decision making. The beginning of the year got off to a bang for the mining industry after a very successful Investing in African Mining Indaba. The year 2019 saw the conference celebrating 25 years. Not only that, but for the first time, two heads of state – South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and Ghana’s Nana Akufo-Addo – were present at the conference. The mood was upbeat, and most speakers were saying exactly what investors wanted to hear. Everybody was still on a high following Ramaphosa’s victory at the ANC’s elective conference in December 2017. There was talk of a ‘new dawn’ and Ramaphoria. Then the moment of truth arrived with the elections in May 2019. For many businesses and industries, the post-election period was what many believed would be a turning point for the country in many aspects – most importantly economically and politically. For business, the outcome of the elections would determine whether businesses kept their doors open or had to close up shop. As expected, the ANC won and Ramaphosa was inaugurated as the country’s president. Reality quickly sunk in when everybody realised that there was still a very long way to go before the we’d start reaping the rewards of the new dawn. It soon became obvious that all the expectations of a better economy, improved service delivery, more jobs and rooting out corruption would take longer than expected. What the country was faced with was the opposite of a new dawn. Corruption was still there, the unemployment rate increased, the economy was still reeling after a technical recession and service delivery was no better. The political landscape wasn’t too promising either. In light of this reality, many businesses had to make tough decisions to weather the storm. Probably the hardest thing about making such decisions is that they have negative consequences for those who are closest to us. Closer to home, we also had to make hard decisions to deal with the challenging situation at the time. As hard as it was to make those decisions, they were made with the readers’ best interests in mind. Every dark cloud has a silver lining because the challenging times also presented great opportunities. In September 2019, the first issue www. africanmining.co.za  www.mining.co.za  www.MTEexpos.co.za of African Mining (Incorporating Mining Mirror) was published. This new publication focuses on the politics and socio-economic factors, and how they drive transformation of the mining industry in Africa. Readers will be happy to know that our annual publications (African Mines Handbook and the Mining and Industrial Suppliers Directory) are ever improving to maintain them as invaluable resources. MTE also managed to make lemonade from lemons when they managed to secure a show in Mozambique. The shows in Tete were very successful. In addition, the travelling exhibition enjoyed overall success throughout 2019, despite the challenges. Most exhibitors and visitors gave positive feedback about their experience with MTE. So where to from here? Nobody really knows what 2020 holds. But from where we are sitting, things look promising. The MTE 2020 calendar is out, and looking at it, one can’t help but get excited. This year will see the travelling exhibition visit four African countries with Namibia being added to the calendar this year. In addition, there will be four new shows included in the 2020 calendar. The team also continues to work hard to produce top-class publications.Although we are far from truly experiencing the new dawn, we are on the right track. Slowly but surely, we are starting to see the results. According to Stats SA, the economy grew by 3.1% in the second quarter of 2019. The slight growth meant the country was out of the technical recession. Furthermore, statistics also showed that mining was among the industries that contributed to the growth. As the strongest performer in the second quarter, the mining industry expanded by 14.4%, the best performance since 2016. This goes to show that sometimes difficult decisions need to be taken in order to achieve success. Looking ahead to 2020, the goal is to build on the success and lessons learnt from 2019 to achieve bigger milestones in the next year. Wishing everyone happy and safe holidays, and a prosperous 2020! From the Mining and Industrial Suppliers Directory team. ANNUAL SUPPLIERS DIRECTORY 2020  3 Hard decisions lead to positive outcomes