SEIFSA

Johannesburg, 14 October 2016 – Arabela Holdings Executive Chairman Elias Monage was elected President of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) and Chairman of its Board of Directors with effect from Friday, 12 October 2018.

A seasoned business leader with vast experience in business in general and the metals and engineering sector in particular, Mr Monage was elected President during SEIFSA’s 76^th Annual General Meeting in Parkton, Johannesburg on Friday.  ArcelorMittal South Africa Marketing Director for Africa Alpheus Ngapo, Babcock International Africa Division Company Secretary Neil Penson and Auto Industrial Group CEO Andrea Moz were elected as Vice Presidents.

Mr Monage has also served as the Black Business Council’s Convener at NEDLAC and is the former President of CAPES and a former Director of Steloy Casting. He was first elected onto the SEIFSA Board in 2016.

Other Board Members also elected at Friday’s AGM were South African Mint Company (Pty) Ltd Managing Director Tumi Tsehlo, MphoNo Energies Managing Director and KSB Pumps & Valves (Pty) Ltd Board Member Nonhlanhla Ngwenya,  Lixil Africa Chief Legal and Human Resources Officer Seneca Lutchmana and Murray & Roberts Power & Energy Human Resources Executive Patrick Metswi. They join Africa Steel Holdings Founding Director Mayleen Kyster and Zimco Group (Pty) Ltd Human Resources Manager Ellen Veldhoven on the SEIFSA Board.

SEIFSA Chief Executive Officer Kaizer Nyatsumba congratulated Mr Monage as President and the others as Board Members. He said that this was the most diverse that the Federation’s Board has been in its history.

“We commend SEIFSA membership Associations for having elected the most transformed Board in the Federation’s history, both in terms of race and gender. Colleagues and I are encouraged by this development, which we believe to bode well for transformation in the metals and engineering sector. We look forward to working with the new President and Board Members,” Mr Nyatsumba said.

Delivering the Presidential Address, outgoing Interim President Alpheus Ngapo said although production in the metals and engineering sector was generally increasing alongside international commodity prices, the cluster was still going through a structural adjustment and its challenges were still prevalent.

“Its growth pattern still fluctuates, productivity is generally poor, capacity utilisation is still below the required 85% and investment and profit levels are low.  Domestic production costs have also been rising alongside output levels,” Mr Ngapo said.

He added that although these challenges signal the resilient nature of businesses in the metals and engineering sector, regrettably the optimism and hope for better future business prospects was not shared by all purchasing executives. He said there continued to be understandable concern among a number of stakeholders and observers that the country is de-industrialising.

“That concern is a direct consequence of the ongoing decline of broader manufacturing’s contribution to South Africa’s GDP over the past few decades, at a time when other sectors such as finance, real estates and business services and wholesale and retail trade, catering and accommodation grew at a higher pace,” he said.

Mr Ngapo said other challenges currently facing the sector were South Africa’s lacklustre economic performance, followed by continuing significant imports of cheap products and skills as well as the manufacturing sector’s apparent lack of international competitiveness.

“These challenges will continue to stare us in the face, and maybe even worsen, until such time that Government, business and labour get together to address them constructively, putting the country’s interests above all else, and then implementing the solutions agreed to,” he said.

University of Johannesburg’s Pan-African Institute Associate Professor Mcebesi Ndletyana, a keynote speaker at the AGM, provided an insightful analysis of the country’s political economy.

He said while the initial optimism that came about as a result of the replacement of Jacob Zuma by Cyril Ramaphosa as President of the country in February has since subsided, he remained hopeful that a new dawn and a promise of renewal was still possible, but only if the ruling party worked hard to distinguish itself from Zuma’s ANC.

“The ANC Ramaphosa inherited was not only riddled with corruption, but it had also turned South Africa into a clientelist state that served as client for the Gupta family. For the current administration to stand a chance of securing victory at next year’s election, it is of paramount importance for it to cleanse itself of corrupt leaders, including Ministers implicated in State capture,” Professor Ndletyana said.

He said for a different ANC to emerge, a new, morally-conscious leadership would have to rise and reform the ANC, adding that failure to do so would result in the organisation losing the 2019 elections.

Issued by:

Ollie Madlala

Communications Manager

Tel: (011) 298 9411 / 082 602 1725

Email: ollie@seifsa.co.za

Web: www.meindaba. seifsa.co.za

“Don’t put it off”, that’s the warning from SEIFSA to its members and all other companies within the Metals and Engineering Sector.

The Department of Labour has ramped up its enforcement mechanisms in a concerted effort to force compliance with the country’s labour laws. Although busy, with companies fulfilling the last orders for the year or trying to make targets with one last push, the October-December period is also the time to compile and submit Employment Equity Reports online.

The harsh reality is that The Department of Labour’s (DoL’s) deadline looms large on 15 January 2019; with the Metals and Engineering Sector, amongst others, shutting down towards the middle of December until the second week in January, companies cannot afford to be caught short. Human Resource professionals must lead the charge because the Department can impose – and has previously imposed – fines of R1.5 million.

“We are here to help,” says SEIFSA Human Capital and Skills Development Executive Melanie Mullholland. “Our auditing, training and consulting services are personal and can really enable the focus of a company’s reporting capability. We prepare you for exactly what the Department of Labour is looking for”.

SEIFSA’s support speaks directly to our mission: the Federation needs to ensure that its member companies have the tools to transform themselves so that companies can focus on their core business.

“Transformation makes business sense,” says Ms Mulholland.

During the launch of the 18^th Employment Equity Report, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant had this to say:

The trouble is that, broadly speaking, we are not making much progress.  There are times when one feels that even the EE Plans are put together grudgingly, with no real will to implement them.  Twenty years since the Employment Equity Act was introduced, there is not much to show for it.

The word “grudgingly” and the phrase “no real will” should worry businesses. It speaks to the Government’s perceived attitude of business. It also demonstrates why there is a renewed appetite for ensuring compliance.

“All of us must commit to transformation; we simply must lift our respective games, especially in the Metals and Engineering sector”, says Mullholland.

“We are resolute about scaling up inspection and enforcement and targeting those areas that will give us the bigger impact”, said Minister Oliphant.

In October 2018 the Department of Labour’s Employment Equity Directorate embarked on Employment Equity roadshows in the form of Public Hearings throughout the country. Its focus is on the amendments to Section 53 (the ability to trade with Government) and proposed sectorial targets, contained in the Employment Equity Act Amendment Bill and the Draft Regulations released in September 2018. SEIFSA strongly recommends that Sections 24 Managers, Human Resource (HR) practitioners, especially those in the Metals and Engineering Sector, attend these hearings to ensure that they stay fully informed of the requirements and implications for businesses that do not comply.

In the meantime, let’s begin with what your company needs to start doing immediately.

THE BASICS

1. Designated employers that employ 50 or more employees or have an annual turnover that exceeds or equals the amounts in schedule 4 of the EEA.
2. For the Manufacturing Sector, the threshold is R30 million.
3. Check the process below
4. Communicate and Consultwith the workforce;
5. Establish a committee representative of all occupational levels;

• Conduct an analysis to ensure a Review all Policies and any potential barriers;

1. Prepare an Employment Equity Plan and Monitor and Evaluate targets against Goals.
2. Submit the Reportonline on or before 15 January.
3. It is vitally important to follow the practices set out above as it mitigates risk and gives your company a better chance to be compliant. Non-compliance to this Act attracts fines and penalties.
4. The Department of Labour’s (DoL’s) online portal for EmploymentEquity submissions is open – CEOs and Section 24 Managers receive an activation code from DoL to access the portal.

SECTION 53: Alert! Your business’s ability to trade with Government is at Risk

The amendments, particularly Section 53, should make the Metals and Engineering Industry stand to attention.

Even though you may have long-standing contracts with Government Departments and related entities, your business will now need a Department of Labour (DoL) certificate to prove compliance with the Employment Equity Act. This could effectively see many in the industry potentially missing out on lucrative infrastructure projects under way or being planned, such as those announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa as part of the stimulus package.

Those who are ready and compliant will have an enormous advantage of other businesses that are lagging behind.

“This is the ‘carrot’ that must incentivize the industry to get its house in order. It certainly adds weight to the phrase that transformation is good for business,” says Ms Mulholland.

SEIFSA plans to play a pivotal role in getting the Metals and Engineering Sector ready for this new reality. Through its relationship with the Department of Labour, its advice, training, consultation and audits will be strategic tools for members of the Federation and the industry in general.

Trying to achieve employment equity and BBBEE targets in the absence of an integrated employment equity and diversity management strategy could be one of the main reasons for the lack of progress in the industry. There is too much at stake, so don’t waste time – and don’t be left behind because transformation makes business sense.

Johannesburg, 1 October 2018 – The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) notes with concern that the seasonally-adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) released today for September 2018 remained largely unchanged, with the lower-than-expected level being indicative of a fragile economy.

The latest seasonally-adjusted preliminary PMI data show that the composite PMI trended lower in September 2018, when compared to the previous month of August 2018. The data show a very weak level of 43.2 points recorded in September 2018, when compared to a less-than-inspiring performance of 43.4 points registered in the month of August 2018.

“The deteriorating trend confirms the challenges faced by businesses amid increasing operational costs underpinned by a volatile exchange rate, rising energy costs and galloping petrol prices,” SEIFSA Chief Economist Michael Ade said.

He added that given the poor GDP growth recorded in the second quarter of 2018, the performance of the PMI in the third quarter of 2018 is worrisome as it invariably adds to concerns of whether the South African economy will rebound immediately from the prevailing technical recession.

Moreover, the PMI data which capture the third consecutive decline from July 2018, also registering a sharp contraction for the month of August 2018, correlate with consistent declines in both the business expectation and the business confidence indices over the same period, thereby adding to the stress faced by businesses. The PMI for September 2018 is the lowest since January 2017. Dr Ade said there were  indications that the PMI may get worse next month, unless there is a clear policy direction from Government in the short to medium term.

He warned that as the country eagerly looks forward to Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) for implementation detail on the President’s proposed stimulus package aimed at returning the economy to good health, businesses were likely to continue to operate under increasing operational costs. He said the rand will continue to yo-yo up and down, fuelled by increased uncertainty, capital flow will continue to respond negatively to changes in expected returns and the uncontrollable petrol price will add to increasing logistic costs, thereby squeezing what is left of business margins further.

“It is a challenging time for purchasing executives. Also, the current economic environment is problematic to businesses, which must also worry about negative external supply shocks and rising domestic costs of doing business while planning production processes.

“Hopefully, the upcoming job summit will provide some reassurances to South Africans and the business community at large of the Government’s ability to steer the ship back to safety. Importantly, a nod is needed from Moody Investors Services – the only big credit-rating agency not to have downgraded South Africa’s sovereign debt to junk –  which still has the country’s rating a notch above sub-investment grade, when it conducts its review later this month,” Dr Ade concluded.

Issued by:

Ollie Madlala

Communications Manager

Tel: (011) 298 9411 / 082 602 1725

Email: ollie@seifsa.co.za

Web: www.meindaba. seifsa.co.za

Johannesburg, 21 September 2018 – Government’s fiscal stimulus package will not provide long-term solutions to South Africa’s ailing economy, instead Government needs to create a conducive environment for entrepreneurs in the private sector to grow their businesses and, subsequently, grow the economy, so said Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane.

Delivering the closing address at the fourth Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba, in Sandton this afternoon, Maimane said President Ramaphosa’s stimulus package, launched today, could not address all the challenges, including decrease in investment, decrease in ease of doing business, decreasing value of the rand and constantly rising fuel and food prices, currently facing the country.

“I genuinely do not believe that a fiscal stimulus package will have a sustained positive effect in the absence of sensible economic reform. South Africa needs to take a fundamentally different approach to our economy,” said Maimane.

He said that the State was the main thing standing in the way of South Africa’s economic growth.

“Our economy is suffering from an extreme case of state intervention. The State needs to get out of the way, it needs to step aside so that all the pent-up energy and ideas and creativity and dynamism in our nation can burst forth and create wealth.”

He added that the role of the State was not to create wealth or jobs. Instead its role was to create a fertile environment for economic activity to flourish.

“Not only would getting the State out of the way free entrepreneurs up to create wealth and jobs but it would also free it (the State) up to do its job, which is to step in where the markets fail.

“There is so much that our State could and should be doing to help people become better educated, healthier and safer. To have better access to clean water, affordable electricity, reliable transport and easy communications.”

He said South Africa was crying out for these things but the State was far too busy meddling in the economy, bossing entrepreneurs around and trying to run businesses.

“Instead of meddling in the economy, the State should build a capable state committed to delivering services to all its citizens and the essential prerequisite for a capable state is to appoint people on merit, on their knowledge and experience and not on their political affiliation.”

Issued by:

Ollie Madlala

Communications Manager

Tel: (011) 298 9411 / 082 602 1725

Email: ollie@seifsa.co.za

Web: www.meindaba. seifsa.co.za

Johannesburg, 21 September 2018 – Business and Government need to work together to increase demand for locally-manufactured products if the creation of one million jobs, in the manufacturing sector, by 2027 is to be realised, Manufacturing Circle CEO Philippa Rodseth said at the Metals and Engineering Indaba, in Sandton this afternoon.

“We need demand side interventions. Without demand, we cannot produce at full capacity, we cannot attract investment and we cannot create jobs. We, therefore, need to increase aggregate demand by buying locally-manufactured gods, replacing imports where possible and increasing local producers’ exports to markets outside South Africa.

Last year, the Manufacturing Circle launched its “Map to A Million New Jobs in a Decade” plan, with the organisation’s chairman André de Ruyter saying at the time: “If manufacturing can expand to 30% of GDP, between 800 000 and 1.1 million direct jobs can be created, with 5 to 8 times that number in indirect jobs,” he added. “Our ‘Map to a Million’ puts forward detailed proposals to deliver a million jobs in manufacturing in the next decade.”

SEIFSA Chief Economist Michael Ade said while the Map to a Million Jobs in a Decade plan was a good one, it was silent on some key points – including the Chinese effect. He said China was increasingly shaping global discourse and economic development including jobs, in key regional and global markets, and will grow in significance within a decade and can’t be ignored.

He said recipients of huge Chinese investments/loans risked piling up dangerous amounts of debt. This, in turn, provides a strategic hold by China over the indebted countries.

“The Chinese loans are often shrouded in secrecy, raising fears that local politicians may benefit more than their people. Chinese projects often make use of lots of Chinese workers (even on menial jobs), increasing their productive efficiency to the detriment of indigenous labourers,” Dr Ade said.

He added that although Chinese investments bring a different flavour and level of enthusiasm in some industries, it was a catch-22 situation in the labour intensive industries of the manufacturing sector (including its diverse M&E cluster), because of its perceived negative effects on job creation.

To mitigate the China effect, Dr Ade proposed that Chinese SOEs, development Banks and its investors partner to collaborate with South African businesses on all fronts in new projects.

“A win-win collaboration should be pursued with the intention of creating jobs and ensuring that locals are given first preference for jobs and where skills are lacking or unspecialised, efforts should be made to train or transfer skills to the locals.”

Dr Ade said the Manufacturing Circle plan also lacked detail on how to directly support black businesses. He said manufacturing needed to encourage and empower the participation of black people in the economy by securing inclusive growth.

Inspite of the plan’s oversights, Dr Ade said it was possible to create one million jobs provided that the China challenge is well managed and provided that beneficiation is systematically pursued across sub-industries within the cluster, with specific focus on upskilling and re-skilling to create new jobs, as some industries were more labour intensive than others.

In conclusion, Dr Ad said South Africa faced extraordinary challenges in dealing with the crisis of unemployment which is compounded by inconsistent growth levels and prevailing low demand. These aspects posed huge challenges in actualising the proposals made by the Manufacturing Circle plan.

“Realising the Manufacturing Circles plan of creating a million jobs in a decade will require a different mindset from captains of industry. It also needs flexibility, co-operation, hard work and above all serendipity,” he said.

Meanwhile, Department of Economic Development Deputy Director General Zeph Nhleko said, the one million jobs didn’t have to come directly from the manufacturing sector but the sector should enable the creation of jobs in other sectors such as the services sector.

Issued by:

Ollie Madlala

Communications Manager

Tel: (011) 298 9411 / 082 602 1725

Email: ollie@seifsa.co.za

Web: www.meindaba. seifsa.co.za

Johannesburg, 21 September 2018 – Lack of demand in the form of large infrastructure projects, expensive input costs, lack of skills required by the metals and engineering (M&E) sector as well as policy uncertainty, low economic growth, low returns on existing investment and a saturated domestic market are some of the factors identified as constraining investment in South Africa’s M&E sector.

Speaking at the Metals and Engineering Indaba taking place at the IDC Conference Centre, Southern African Institute of Steel Construction CEO Paolo Trinchero said other factors identified as barriers to investing in the sector include lack of trust between government, business and labour, lack of collaboration in pursing sustainable industry solutions and lack of innovation.

Echoing Mr Trinchero’s sentiments, Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa Chief Economist Michael Ade said there has, over the last decade, been a lack of both green and brown fields investment into the sector owing to low demand, among other factors.

He said, as a result, domestic producers were under pressure to shed jobs, which in turn lead to low productivity in the sector – this created a negative vicious cycle, which is bad for the economy.

However, there was hope that working in collaboration, and working with the countries’ young people, South African companies could find solutions to the challenges they face.

“There is definitely great potential in a huge pool of young, enthusiastic young people that can be trained and enabled to contribute towards our sector. There is also a need to enhance partnerships and collaborations between companies so that they approach these challenges as a collective. Industry needs to stop working in silos and work together in seeking solutions required to address constraints to investing in our sector,” Mr Trinchero said.

According to Dr Ade, interventions required to address challenges facing the sector include increasing aggregate domestic demand by committing to supporting designation and local procurement; reconsidering administered prices to put money back into the pockets of consumers, pursuing  import substitution by actively promoting collaboration between producers across all value chains to enhance in-country value addition,  improving port efficiency and considering re-instating rail subsidies for export competitiveness through implementation of export incentives.

Meanwhile, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Senior Investment Officer Paul Mukasa said the IFC, which had a long track record of providing long-term investment in the metals sector had invested billons in the sector in more than 50 countries across the globe.

He said when considering investing in a country, the IFC focused on reliable access to energy; the sector’s global competitiveness, energy efficient producers and best practice.

ArcelorMittal South Africa General Manager for Africa Overland Alph Ngapo said South Africa was yet to take full advantage of growth opportunities presented by the rest of the African continent. He said South African companies needed to specifically focus on East and West Africa as well as the SADC region where hundreds of billions in infrastructure projects will be spent.

Issued by:

Ollie Madlala

Communications Manager

Tel: (011) 298 9411 / 082 602 1725

Email: ollie@seifsa.co.za

Web: www.meindaba. seifsa.co.za

Johannesburg, 21 September 2018 – The ruling party is cognisant of and appreciates challenges facing South Africa’s metals and engineering (M&E) sector including lack of demand, proliferation of illegal imports, high input costs, unemployment and lack of investment, its head of Economic Transformation Committee Enoch Godongwana said this morning.

Speaking at the Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba currently taking place at the IDC Conference Centre, Mr Godongwana said in response to the challenges currently facing the M&E sector, Government’s industrial policy needed to reverse the deindustrialization trend, focus on labour intensive sectors to create jobs and, in collaboration with the private sector, invest in vocational training to address the shortage of skills in the sector.

Mr Godongwana said he also believed that Government needed to incentivize business owners who reinvested their profits into labour intensive production.

“Massive investment also needs to be made in capital infrastructure projects to reverse the challenges facing the M&E sector, particularly lack of demand. We also need to tighten the framework for localization but all these efforts must be done in a manner that enables Black people to participate in the economy to ensure social cohesion,” said Mr Godongwana.

On the same plenary session, Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow Minister of Trade and Industry Geordin Hill-Lewis unraveled DA’s plan to turn South Africa’s economic fortunes for the better. He said the plan involved splitting power utility Eskom into smaller business units, allowing cities and municipalities to buy electricity directly from producers. This, Mr Hill-Lewis, believes will immediately cut input costs and boost the economy.

“We also need to privatise non-strategic State-owned entities such as South African Airways because it has been proven that the private sector is more efficient in running businesses,” he said.

He added that the DA’s plan also advocates for the protection of property rights, defending independent institutions such as the Reserve Bank; the shelving of policies that make it unattractive to do business in the country. In this regard, he said the DA welcomed progress made in the Mining Charter.

Mr Hill-Lewis said policy makers needed to exempt small business from bargaining agreements negotiated on their behalf.

“The State also needs to pay invoices owed to businesses. There are currently billions of rands  worth of invoices owed to business owners, and payment of those invoices would provide an immediate stimulus to the economy.”

He said the Democratic Alliance’s plan demonstrated that the party understood that Government needs to create an enabling environment for the economy to grow in order for businesses and entrepreneurs to create jobs.

Issued by:

Ollie Madlala

Communications Manager

Tel: (011) 298 9411 / 082 602 1725

Email: ollie@seifsa.co.za

Web: www.meindaba. seifsa.co.za

Johannesburg, 20 September 2018 – Delegates attending the 4^th Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba organised by the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) at the IDC Conference Centre in Sandton firmly resolved to express their bitter disappointment at the inability of some high-ranking government officials to attend important and relevant sessions.

The delegates said these sessions presented a unique opportunity for the various individuals to interact with members of the community, labour and academia and preeminent researchers to get direct insights into challenges facing the economy.

An invitation was extended to both Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to attend the sessions on working together to improve South Africa’s Sovereign Credit Rating and a reflection on what needs to be done to end or contain public corruption and corporate malfeasance in South Africa. Both Ministers declined the invitation.

Conference delegates also expressed concern that Eskom Group Chief Executive Phakamani Hadebe – who also declined the invitation – had missed an opportunity to engage robustly and frankly with the delegates in search of solutions on how administered prices can be better managed to make South Africa competitive as an international exporter.

The sessions went on with Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) CEO Tanya Cohen, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse Executive Director Wayne Duvenage and a senior Transnet executive who stood in for CEO Siyabonga Gama.

However, all delegates resolved to explicitly articulate their disappointment with the failure by the Ministers and the CEO of Eskom, a strategically important power utility company to be part of the conference.

One of the delegates proposed that the joint position be made known.  Accordingly, the conference adopted a resolution saying: “We are very disappointed that Ministers of two key government portfolios – namely Finance and Public Enterprises – which are important in strategically providing certainty and attracting investments in the private sector could not attend to gain an intrinsic understanding of the challenges faced by businesses.

“We are also concerned that Mr Hadebe could not avail himself to shed more light to stakeholders from business and labour communities on some of the challenges facing the entity and its efforts to contain ballooning operational costs,” the resolution said.

Master Builders South Africa Executive Director Roy Mnisi – who was one of the speakers at the Indaba – resoundingly supported the resolution, informing delegates that the construction industry also had its annual conference in the Eastern Cape over two days last week and “we could not get a single Government Minister or even the Director-General to attend our conference,” the resolution adopted by the delegates said.

The Indaba also passed a resolution expressing gratitude and appreciation to Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for her attendance of the conference. Dr Dlamini-Zuma was the main speaker in the session dealing with the National Development Plan.

The resolution unanimously passed by the delegates echoes concerns raised by SEIFSA CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba when he made introductory remarks in the morning  when he said: “While we have deeply appreciated the involvement of Former President Kgalema Motlanthe, then-ANC Treasurer-General Dr Zweli Mkhize, Ministers Mildred Oliphant, Pravin Gordhan, Lindiwe Zulu, Ebrahim Patel and, this year, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, hitherto we have struggled to get the President of the country, the Deputy President of the country, the Minister of Trade and Industry, other key Ministers, the Gauteng Provincial Government and the Cities of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni to show the metals and engineering sector the respect worthy of them by participating in this conference.”

He added that while the business community welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s commitment, during his inaugural State of the Nation Address in February, that the Government will place an emphasis on manufacturing, business was deeply concerned that a higher level of commitment to the metals and engineering sector from the Department of Trade and Industry and other parts of his Government (including the Presidency itself) was yet to be seen.

Issued by:

Ollie Madlala

Communications Manager

Tel: (011) 298 9411 / 082 602 1725

Email: ollie@seifsa.co.za

Web: www.meindaba. seifsa.co.za