S. Africa’s president says country will research youth league’s proposal to nationalize mines

SAfrica to research mine nationalization proposal

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s president says his ruling party will research a proposal from its youth league to nationalize the country’s lucrative mining sector.

But President Jacob Zuma said Friday at the close of an African National Congress meeting that the next serious discussion of the issue would not happen until a national conference in 2012. He says the government will maintain its market-friendly policies despite calls from party allies to shift economic policies leftward. The ANC’s communist and trade union allies say South Africa’s policies have left too many citizens jobless and poor.

Zuma says full economic transformation has not been achieved because serious inequalities, poverty and unemployment still remain.