It was a death many years in the making, but no less sad for that. When vehicle number 7687675 - a bright red Commodore - rolled off the Holden production line in Adelaide last week, it marked the end of nearly 70 years of vehicle manufacture in Australia. Holden, owned by General Motors, was last man standing among motor companies in Australia. Nissan, Renault and Chrysler all quit years ago. Mitsubishi followed in 2008, Ford at the end of 2016. That left two: Toyota gave up at the beginning of this month and Holden just over two weeks later. The loss of Ford, Toyota and Holden will cost about 200000 jobs in vehicle and components manufacture and service industries. Some low-volume truck assembly will continue but, to all intents and purposes, the Australian motor industry is no more. It has ceased to be. It is an ex-industry. Are there lessons for South Africa? Too many for comfort. There's unlikely to be wholesale disinvestment in the foreseeable future, but for all the governmen...
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