SEIFSA Presidential Breakfast - From engagement to industrial action

SEIFSA’s Presidential Business Breakfast highlighted the metals and engineering sector’s role in South Africa’s reform and infrastructure agenda, with a focus on turning policy into industrial progress.

On 13 August 2026, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) hosted President Cyril Ramaphosa at its Presidential Business Breakfast in Ekurhu-leni. The gathering brought together government, organised business, labour and the metals and engineering value chain as South Africa undertakes major economic re-forms and prepares for a substantial infrastructure investment cycle.

For SEIFSA, the breakfast was more than a ceremonial occasion. It was an apex en-gagement with the Head of State, providing an opportunity to outline the sector’s con-cerns, capabilities and proposed programme of work. It also opened the way for discussions with economic cluster min-istries and public institutions to remove bottlenecks, unlock investment and strengthen industrial capacity.

The breakfast’s success will be measured by what follows. Presidential engagement creates momentum, but discussions with ministries, municipalities and state-owned entities must translate commitments into pri-orities, accountable leadership and measurable outcomes. Progress and unresolved constraints can then be reported to the Presidency, connecting national policy with conditions in factories and industrial communities.

A sector of national significance

In his opening remarks, SEIFSA CEO Ta-fadzwa Chibanguza described the event as a milestone for the steel and engineering sector. The 83-year-old Federation repres-ents approximately 1 300 member companies across upstream, midstream and downstream activities and engineering dis-ciplines. Collectively, these companies employ more than 145 000 people.

These figures represent livelihoods, technical skills and a substantial share of South Africa’s productive capability. They also underline SEIFSA’s responsibility to ensure that industrial experience informs national decision-making.

President Ramaphosa reinforced the sector’s importance, describing SEIFSA members as producers of the machines that drive mines, structures that carry electricity, equipment that moves goods through ports and rail-ways and components that keep factories operating. From transformers and cables to fabricated steel and complex engineering systems, the sector supplies capabilities es-sential to a modern economy.

The President said South Africa was entering one of its most significant periods of infrastructure investment and economic reform since 1994. The opportunity was not simply to build infrastructure, but to rebuild domestic industry by expanding factories, strengthening supply chains, developing skills and creating productive employment.

Five constraints that must be confronted

Introducing the President, SEIFSA Board Chair Elias Monage noted that the breakfast followed three previous direct engagements

with President Ramaphosa, reflecting a sus-tained effort to connect the Presidency with a sector central to South Africa’s industrial capability.

Monage identified five challenges. The first was the continued erosion of industrial capacity. Re-industrialisation, he argued, must be a sustained national choice, supported by clarity about the capabilities South Africa intends to retain and develop. The second was weak and unpredictable demand. Without visible, sequenced order books, factories remain underutilised, investment is deferred and jobs come under pressure.

The third challenge was the gap between procurement commitments and purchasing decisions. Localisation policies achieve little when procurement is delayed, specifications exclude capable domestic suppliers or local-content requirements go unenforced.

The fourth was the burden of structural costs and uneven competition. Expensive electricity, unreliable logistics, municipal dysfunction, regulatory obstacles and unfair imports weaken local producers.

The fifth was fragmented policy and inadequate accountability. Industrial policy cannot succeed when energy, logistics, pro-curement, trade, infrastructure and skills policies pull in different directions. Monage proposed considering a focused industrialisa-tion delivery and coordination mechanism with authority to align policy, assign respons-ibility, track progress and escalate failures.

His proposal reflected a central theme of the breakfast: South Africa has plans and policy instruments, but struggles to align and implement them. SEIFSA’s submission was therefore an agenda for partnership and mutual accountability rather than simply a list of complaints.

Turning infrastructure into an industrial strategy

President Ramaphosa acknowledged the pressures facing manufacturers, including weak demand, logistics constraints, high electricity costs, infrastructure bottlenecks and import competition. These conditions discourage investment, squeeze margins and threaten employment. He stressed that South Africa could not accept further erosion of its industrial base.

The President linked the response to reforms in electricity, logistics and water. Although ending load shedding was a major achievement, reliability alone was insuf-ficient. For energy-intensive industries, electricity affordability has become an exist-ential concern. The next phase of reform must address costs while strengthening energy security through a competitive electricity market and an independent, state-owned transmission system.

He argued that the energy transition must also be an industrial transition. South Africa should not simply import lower-carbon tech-nologies when domestic manufacturers can produce, or develop the capacity to produce, towers, transformers, cables, switchgear and structural steel.

The planned transmission grid expansion illustrates the opportunity. South Africa needs around 14 000 kilometres of new transmission lines over the next decade,

alongside investment in substations and transformation capacity. This will create demand for fabricated steel, conductors, transformers, control systems, engineering services and construction. The President warned against completing the programme with a stronger grid but a weaker domestic manufacturing base.

The same principle applies to rail, ports and water. Logistics reform requires loco-motives, wagons, signalling equipment and terminal capacity. Port modernisation needs cranes and handling equipment, while water infrastructure requires pipes, pumps, valves and treatment systems. With govern-ment planning approximately R1-trillion in infrastructure investment over three years, the President urged South Africa to treat the programme as an industrial strategy, not merely a construction programme.

Demand, competitiveness and shared responsibility

For manufacturers, a large investment pipeline is insufficient without credible pro-curement schedules. Businesses need to know what government, state-owned com-panies and public institutions intend to purchase over five, 10 or 15 years. Major investment in factories and production lines depends on confidence in future demand.

As the President explained, predictability creates investment, investment creates ca-pacity and capacity creates jobs.

This supports SEIFSA’s position that demand is essential to industrial activity. However, localisation must remain compet-itive and consider the entire value chain. President Ramaphosa recognised that do-mestic producers need protection against unfair competition, while downstream man-ufacturers should not be disadvantaged when local inputs are unavailable or uncom-petitive. Trade remedies cannot replace affordable electricity, efficient logistics, re-liable water, financing and skills.

The President also emphasised industry’s responsibilities. Companies must invest, modernise, develop suppliers and rebuild artisan training. Major infrastructure projects should be assessed not only by completed assets, but also by apprentices trained, artisans qualified, young engineers gaining experience and local suppliers developed.

The African Continental Free Trade Area offers further opportunities. As African countries invest in mines, railways, energy, water systems and ports, South African man-ufacturers can expand exports of equipment, fabricated steel and engineering expertise. The President called for South Africa to become the engineering workshop of Africa.

The measure of success is what happens next

In his closing remarks, SEIFSA President Mervyn Naidoo returned to imple-mentation.

Industrialisation, he said, must be a deliberate national choice supported by coordinated institutions and policies. Suc-cess means real orders for domestic companies, reliable infrastructure, prod-uctive investment and sustainable jobs. Achieving this requires mechanisms to identify, escalate and resolve obstacles.Naidoo confirmed SEIFSA’s readiness to work with government as both a con-structive partner and a partner in accountability. He also highlighted the human dimension of industrial renewal through a commemorative gift presented to President Ramaphosa. Made at the SEIFSA Training Centre and presented with one of its top-performing female stu-dents, the gift symbolised craftsmanship and confidence in the next generation.

The Centre trains approximately 450 students annually, with more young women entering traditionally male-dominated technical trades.

The moment reinforced that industrial policy ultimately becomes real through people: artisans, engineers, entrepreneurs and workers. South Africa already possesses substantial industrial expertise. The challenge is to create the demand, operating conditions and policy coherence needed to expand it.

SEIFSA will now take its programme of work into discussions with economic cluster ministries and institutions, pursue the bottlenecks identified by members and explore opportunities arising from infrastructure investment and reform.

The Presidential Business Breakfast was an important milestone, not an endpoint. Its value will be demonstrated through fuller order books, competitive factories, new investment, stronger domestic value chains, skilled young people and sustainable jobs. Those are the outcomes against which SEIFSA will measure its engagement with government, labour and industry.