South Africa's ruling party will research a proposal from its youth league to nationalize the country's lucrative mining sector, the president said Friday. 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 said 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 said full economic transformation has not been achieved because serious inequalities, poverty and unemployment still remain. During the policy review meetings, the country's largest trade union group, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, known as Cosatu, called for more state intervention in currency rates and redistribution of income. It also proposed the formation of a state bank. The ANC Youth league, a wing of the governing ANC, called for the nationalization of mines. Mining of gold, platinum and coal is a pillar of South Africa's economy. The South African Communist Party has called for a state-owned mining company, but not the complete nationalization supported by the ANC Youth League. Jabu Maphalala, a spokesman for Chamber of Mines, a body representing the majority of South African mining companies, said the national economy would suffer if mines were nationalized.
