Apartheid brought creativity

Sedibe was speaking at the Captains of Industry Forum’s (COIF) special engineering forum, in Apex, on July 25.

The forum met to exploit ways to revive the civil, manufacturing and engineering sectors of industry, in order to create jobs.

Sedibe, though acknowledging that apartheid was bad, said that under the regime the country became self-sufficient.

“The reality is that due, to sanctions imposed on us at the time, we became creative and had a functional production industry, as we had no one to rely on,” he said.

He added that, now, the majority of our economy is vested in imports, to make a “quick buck”.

Sedibe believes the country has skilled engineers who can compete internationally.

“We have a role to play to make SA a better place,” he said.

The country, he added, is beautiful, with an amazing infrastructure.

He urged the forum to help to deal with poverty, inequality and youth unemployment.

“We might say it’s not our problem, but we are going to pay a price in the long term if we don’t deal with these challenges now,” he warned.

Sedibe criticised corruption severely, saying it mostly affects the poor.

He also lashed out at politicians, saying they should stop hiding behind conformities like the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and focus on performance.

He made it clear to the captains that the government is prepared to work with willing manufactures in ensuring the production of local products and to increase exports.

“Right now the government has committed to buying products made by local manufactures and its up to you to tell the it what you, as engineers, can do,” he said.

The local manufacturing sector has seen a massive decline over the years, due to a number of factors, including the imports flooding the country.

Currently, China has overtaken the USA and is the leader in this regard, pocketing billions of Rand from the country.

This contributes to factories shutting down, leading to unemployment.

Other contributing factors are the cost of manufacturing, border controls, lack of capital upgrading and the cost of employment.

Chris van Biljon, CEO of COIF, made it clear that the recently formed forum will not just be another talk show.

“We are not here to entertain negative vibes, but to create opportunities for you to run your businesses,” said van Biljon.

He stated confidently that “we are multi-skilled and ready for exports”.

The forum will meet again on August 2, and various projects, including the aerotropolis and nuclear power stations will be discussed.

At the end of discussions and presentations delegates looked amped to up the ante and many said the workshop was beneficial.

Sedibe encouraged South Africans to buy locally manufactured products, in order to create jobs.

“We are not fighting with imports, we just need to strike a balance and boost our economy,” he said.