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The natural resources of a country are those resources which exist in nature - its minerals and agricultural potential. Some countries are richly endowed with both agricultural resources and mineral wealth. South Africa is one of those countries. We are well able to feed ourselves from our agricultural output and we have an abundance of mineral wealth to exploit. Our economic problems cannot be blamed on a lack of natural resources, but rather what we have made of them. The mining industry has suffered from considerable negative intervention over the past 25 years which has essentially prevented us from exploiting the boom in commodity prices which began in 2016 and has stifled international investment. Agriculture exists under the threat of land expropriation without compensation, but it has natural problems in the form of droughts. South Africa's rainfall is erratic and barely sufficient to enable us to fully exploit the agricultural potential. Despite these problems, in many years we produce a surplus of maize which we can export. Agriculture employs many people and results in a steady flow of foreign exchange into the country.

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