Covid-19 Business Watch
WATCH: Manufacturing — a gangster’s paradise
Michael Avery and experts analyse SA’s manufacturing sector and the various setbacks it’s experienced in recent years
Manufacturing was showing tentative signs of recovery before the riots a fortnight ago. Let’s not forget that the sector was on its knees before Covid-19 struck as a result of various factors, from load-shedding, high steel input costs, disagreements on localisation, and competition issues, to dealing with leaky customs and the construction mafia.
Now, the manufacturing sector is high on the government’s agenda for rebuilding the economy, given its contribution in helping to create sustainable jobs.
Michael Avery talks to Ayanda Mngadi, Hulamin’s group executive for corporate affairs; Webster Mfebe, CEO of the SA Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors; Philippa Rodseth, executive director of the Manufacturing Circle; and Peter Barnard, a partner at Cox Yeats Attorneys.