Minister of Small Business Development Stella Ndabeni is collaborating with mining stakeholders to support small enterprises amid sector reforms. At the Mining Indaba 2026, she highlighted funding initiatives for junior miners and women-owned businesses. These efforts aim to address economic exclusion and align with upcoming legislative changes.
The mining sector in South Africa is undergoing a recalibration focused on small business development, as outlined by Minister Stella Ndabeni during a National Entrepreneurship Strategy session at the Mining Indaba 2026. Ndabeni emphasized her department's role in building small business capacity through partnerships with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE, formerly DMPR) and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.
Ndabeni noted delays in finalizing the National Small Enterprise Act due to the need for clear ecosystem coordination. 'You will never have successful coordination if you don’t know who your ecosystem player is,' she told Daily Maverick. Her department is working across the Government of National Unity to address funding gaps overlooked by commercial banks. The DMRE has allocated R500-million to the Industrial Development Corporation for junior miners, with collaborative design input from Ndabeni's team.
A key initiative is a R300-million women's empowerment fund, partnered with companies like Exxaro and Harmony Gold, to improve gender representation in mining. Ndabeni connected these measures to preventing unrest, referencing the July 2021 civil disturbances as a consequence of economic exclusion.
The sector faces a shift from the Mining Charter to alignment with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act, as explained by Lili Nupen of NSDV Law. This change emphasizes stricter ownership requirements, raising concerns about supply chain readiness for 100% black-owned entities. A proposed Transformation Fund would allow companies to contribute 3% of net profits to a state fund instead of direct programs, potentially affecting near-mine communities.
In practice, Kumba Iron Ore, part of Anglo American, launched the Impact Finance Facility with R51.2-million at the Indaba. Aimed at early and growth-stage businesses in the Northern Cape, it provides low-cost loans and mentorship to diversify the local economy before mine closures projected between 2040 and 2050. Dr Pranill Ramchander, Kumba's executive head of corporate affairs, stated, 'The Northern Cape doesn’t have a diversified economy, and for a long time businesses were very much [part] of mining companies’ pipeline.' The fund seeks to leverage three times more investment from others.