SA may be about to surrender its status as the home of Africa’s biggest motor industry. New investments in Morocco are forecast to push up the North African country’s automotive production. South African motor companies built 601,178 vehicles in 2017, compared with Morocco’s 376,826. Morocco, however, has set an annual production target of 1-million vehicles within 10 years while SA is targeting 1.2-million by 2035. Biggest is not necessarily best, but the challenge to SA’s long-standing supremacy on the continent underlines the need for industry and the government to protect the competitiveness of the motor industry when designing a successor to the 2013-20 Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP). Discussions on a new programme, expected to run to 2035, are understood to be advanced and Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies has said he hopes to present a draft policy to Cabinet by year end. Two recent reports highlight the progress made under the APDP and the scale ...
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