"UPF South Africa at G20 Diamond Sector Consultation 2025: Fostering Ethical Leadership and Sustainable Development"

Written by UPF-Africa

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

South Africa – On August 5, 2025, a Ministerial Stakeholder Consultation with the Diamond Sector, convened as part of the G20 South Africa programme, took place at the OR Tambo Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Kempton Park. Hosted under the leadership of the Minister of Mineral & Petroleum Resources, Hon. Mr. Gwede Mantashe, who represented President Cyril Ramaphosa during the 2019 African Summit and Leaders’ Conference in Johannesburg, the event aimed to engage the entire diamond value chain in shaping the industry’s future within the framework of national development and global competitiveness. The consultation focused on collaboration, beneficiation, strategic marketing, and transformation of the diamond sector in alignment with South Africa’s national economic objectives.

The conference sought to facilitate structured dialogue between government and industry players, strengthen beneficiation and local value addition, discuss policy interventions for sustainable sectoral growth, promote transformation across the diamond industry, align the industry with South Africa’s G20 priorities and developmental vision, and address the marketing of natural diamonds to counter the economic and employment threats posed by lab-grown alternatives.

In his keynote address, Minister Gwede Mantashe emphasized the urgent need to intensify strategic marketing efforts to position natural diamonds as authentic, valuable, and irreplaceable amid growing competition from lab-grown alternatives. He highlighted the importance of beneficiation, noting that the future of South Africa’s diamond industry depends on local cutting, polishing, and downstream value-chain activity rather than raw exports. The Minister also stressed the role of regulatory reforms and collaboration in creating a conducive environment for sustainable growth and the alignment with G20 South Africa priorities, particularly around industrial development, innovation, and inclusive economic transformation.

The event was attended by Rev. Emeraude Heaven Ndonga, National Leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) South Africa and Secretary General of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) South Africa, accompanied by Ms. Lerato Rapoo, Provincial Leader of FFWPU, and Rev. Khumi Mbengeni, former National Leader of FFWPU South Africa. Rev. Ndonga, a Mining Engineer, author, and researcher, contributed insights on promoting ethical and moral leadership to guide the sector with integrity and responsibility toward communities and environmental protection. He advocated for the inclusion of faith-based organizations as strategic partners in national development, peacebuilding, and corporate social responsibility, emphasized the role of spiritual values in fostering national unity, social healing, and land rehabilitation post-exploitation, and proposed establishing channels of collaboration between stakeholders and global peacebuilding networks under the vision of UPF’s International Association for Peace and Economic Development (IAPED).

The consultation concluded with resolutions to enhance government policy frameworks supporting local beneficiation and transformation, establish a working group to create a Strategic Marketing Plan for South African natural diamonds, foster stronger government-industry partnerships to improve compliance, transparency, and export competitiveness, and explore collaboration with faith-based and civil society organizations to drive inclusive development and ethical standards in the sector.

The Ministerial Stakeholder Consultation with the Diamond Sector was a resounding success, providing a constructive platform for aligning public and private sector interests within the evolving diamond industry. As part of the G20 South Africa momentum, it laid the groundwork for transformational, ethical, and globally competitive growth of the sector, anchored in inclusive development and shared prosperity.