[DEBATE] : (Fwd) UKZN Minerals-Energy Complex workshop, 17-18 June

[Patrick Bond]

University of KwaZulu-Natal
Economic Development Strategic Research Initiative

Workshop on the Minerals-Energy Complex

17/18 June 2008


Wednesday June 17 (evening): Ikes Bookshop, 48a Florida Rd, Durban.

Thursday June 18 (all day): Makaranga Gardens Lodge: Kloof


Day One (June 17) evening
Ikes Bookshop, 48a Florida Rd. Morningside, Durban.

17.00 – 18.30: Cocktails and light dinner
18.30 – 18h35: Welcome (Vishnu Padayachee)
18.35 – 19.15: Bill Freund (UKZN) (talk):
The significance of the Minerals-energy complex in the light of South 
African Economic Historiography

Day Two (June 18)
Makaranga Gardens Lodge, Kloof.

08.30: Registration, coffee

Morning session: Chair: Vishnu Padayachee (SDS, UKZN)

09.00 – 09.45: Ben Fine (SOAS, University of London):
Engaging the MEC: Or a lot of my views on a lot of things.
09.45 – 10.30: Nicolas Pons-Vignon (CSID, Wits) and Seeraj Mohamed 
(CSID, Wits):
Financialisation and the MEC.

10.30 – 11.00: Tea

11.00 – 11.45: Simon Roberts (Competition Commission and Wits)
and Zav Rustomjee (MEC Projects):
Industrial policy under democracy: apartheid's grown-up infant 
industries - Iscor and Sasol.
11.45 – 12.30: Eddie Webster and Andries Bezuidenhout (Sociology/SWOP, 
Wits):
Trajectories of manufacturing: white goods manufacturing in Australia, 
South Africa and South Korea.

12.30 – 13.15 Discussion of morning papers

13.15 – 14.30: Lunch

Early afternoon session: Chair: Jim Fairburn (Economics and Finance, UKZN)

14.30 – 15.15: Patrick Bond (Director, CCS, and SDS):
The MEC, carbon trading and climate change.
15.15 – 16h00: Jackie Dugard: (Acting Director, CALS, Wits)
A rights based approach to electricity provision

16.00 – 16.30: afternoon tea

Late afternoon session: Chair: Glen Robbins (SDS, UKZN)
IT support (Skype): Patrick Bond

16.30 – 16.50: Gavin Capps (University of Johannesburg) (via SKYPE):
A Bourgeois Reform with Social Justice? Platinum mining, the Mineral 
Development Bill and the post-apartheid transformation of the MEC.
16.55 – 17.15: David McDonald (Queens, Canada) (via SKYPE):
Electric capitalism: conceptualizing electricity and capital 
accumulation in (South) Africa.

Early evening session Chair: Vishnu Padayachee

17.15 – 17.30: Keith Hart (Goldsmiths, London): Summary

17.30 – 18.00: General discussion; taking the debate forward.