Data on Thursday showed that output in South Africa's mining sector resumed its decline after a brief bump in April. Meanwhile, Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was punting the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002 which is seen by many observers as a key reason for the fall of South Africa's once towering mining sector.

First, the data that was unveiled by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). It showed that on a year-on-year basis, mining production fell 0.8% in May after rising 3.2% in April. The May reading fell short of a Bloomberg consensus prediction of 2% growth over that timeframe, while the April expansion followed 14 consecutive months of contraction.

This signals the trend of decline is back on track - going against the grain of market expectations - and the month-on-month fall was a woeful 3.8%.

The silver lining in the data is that in the three months to the end of May, the numbers all add up to 3.1% growth on a seasonally adjusted basis. This, and base effects from February's dismal numbers - when production tanked by 7.7% on an annual basis and 7.0% month on month - means that mining output may still make a positive contribution to the Q2 gross domestic product read.

"Though today's outcome is not encouraging, statistical base effects from February's sharp decline in output could see continued quarterly expansion in the mining sector's gross value added in Q2 2023, which will be favourable for quarterly GDP growth.

"This is premised on expectations of better mining...