How COVID-19 revealed opportunities for SA

Different business executives have expressed how Covid-19 was an eye-opener on how much South Africa can do on its own without importing anything.

The sentiments were shared at the Nedbank Commercial Banking Manufacturing Roundtable held in Randburg on Thursday. The roundtable aimed to engage different stakeholders about the advancement of manufacturing in the country.

Covid-19: An opportunity to rise above

A question was posed at the roundtable about what will be done by the manufacturing sector should a pandemic happen. Njombo Lekula, managing director at NL Consulting Solutions made reference to the construction sector, which he was in during the pandemic. He said it was during the pandemic they realised the need for infrastructure. It was then they used it to their advantage and produced more.

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Eustace Mashimbye, CEO at Proudly SA shared the same sentiments. He said during the pandemic the need to produce more local items was raised because it was difficult to import at the time. He said it was during the pandemic when the sector noticed some of the items they import could be made in the country. “The pandemic was a great way for the manufacturing sector to grow and start producing items.”

Covid-19 benefits to the sector

Mashimbye mentioned that there were products that were sold for less because manufacturers in the country started producing the items. He noted how some of the products which had already been imported were too expensive or inaccessible. “So the pandemic in a way saved money for some of the people in the country,” he said.

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Beth Dealtry, Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (NAACAM) said there was a lot of movement in products being bought locally because some of the imports were still stuck at the ports. It was during the pandemic some people started to produce their own items.

“Skills are in need”

Part of the roundtable was Ncedisa Mpande, CFO at merSETA said there is potential for the manufacturing sector to do well in the country, however, there are not enough people with the necessary skills. She said in a decade a lot of artisans will be retiring and sadly, there are not enough people being trained to be artisans.

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Amith Singh, the national manager for manufacturing at Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking asked what could be the reason behind fewer upcoming artisans and what could be done to make the sector more attractive. He acknowledges that the sector plays a key role in the development of the country. “The sector has the potential to take the country from being a developing country to a developed country.”

Mpande said children must be motivated from a young age because it is difficult to convince children to go for the sector when they are in matric, as they have already made up their minds about which sector they want to go to. She said these are conversations that need to be had between relevant stakeholders because once the sector is presented to the children in a nicer way, by the time they get to higher grades in school, they will have already made up their minds about being in the sector.