Business should reduce proportion of imported intermediary and finished goods and expand capacity of local suppliers
Much of the public discourse in the build-up to Monday’s municipal elections was dominated by political sloganeering and hollow media debates centred on vague policy. Interest in postelection promises is seemingly focused on addressing two of the largest elephants in the room that are battering the SA economy — chronic unemployment and the debilitating energy crisis.
It is not incidental that Lesco Manufacturing, the company I head and a third-generation local manufacturer of electrical products, operates at the heart of these chasms. What we have seen first-hand, apart from the economic multiplier effects resulting from the upskilling of a historically marginalised workforce, is the astounding innovation that emerges from this somewhat neglected demographic. And this is where I believe the discourse around localisation is one-dimensional.
On the face of it, it appears dire. The department of trade, industry & competition’s policy statement on localisation talks to a series of important themes that underpin the future trajectory of local manufacturing. For one, it acknowledges at the outset that growth in employment will be stimulated by higher-demand products and services, which may emerge through a combination of expanded domestic demand and increased levels of exports.
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