The South African government has invested US$2.13 billion to empower 800 black industrial businesses and black entrepreneurs over the past five years as part of the country’s efforts to revive the economy, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday.
“This funding has supported the creation of new and dynamic enterprises in a number of critical value chains across all nine provinces of the country, crowding in additional investment from the private sector as well as creating and saving nearly 120,000 jobs,” Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel said when he addressed the launching of the inaugural Black Industrialist Report.
As the first annual Black Industrialist Report, the document highlights details of the direct funding from the trade ministry, the National Empowerment Fund and the Industrial Development Corporation to support black industrialists and entrepreneurs since the programme was launched five years ago.
According to Patel, “black industrialist funding, provided by my ministry and its entities, is creating platforms for a new entrepreneurial class to play its rightful role in boosting industrialisation and fully harnessing the resources of our country.”
“These platforms have been enhanced by the government (ministry) even further through reforms enabled in competition law, efforts to improve the ease of doing business and the implementation of the national sector masterplans,” Patel said.
The minister added that for South Africa to realise its economic potential, the country should embark on a focused and determined effort to transform industries and make them more dynamic and competitive.
“In doing so, we are developing our industrialisation efforts around strategic localisation by boosting domestic demand for South African manufactured goods, and expanding our access to export markets,” Patel said.
He disclosed that the black industrialist programme was integrated into the work of the ministry to realise the objectives of the country’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan that President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in October 2020.
NM/jn/APA