The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) today commended the official launch of RSC AVELO in Roodepoort – South Africa’s only black youth-woman-owned and managed reinforcing steel and reinforcement steel manufacturer.
                                                                                                                                    
The company is co-owned by Managing Director Mayleen Kyster, with some partners, and the international RSC has a minority stake in it. It is 54% women owned.
 
The launch ceremony, held in Roodepoort, was attended by Lebogang Maile, Gauteng MEC for Economic Development, among other dignitaries and captains of industry.
 
Speaking at the ceremony, SEIFSA CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba congratulated Ms Kyster and her team.
“May you and the RSC AVELO team grow from strength to strength. We wish you everything of the best – and we are immensely proud to count your company among the members of the progressive Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa,” he said.

Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, Ms Kyster left a comfortable job with a big company in the metals and engineering sector to take on the risk of raising capital to venture into the world of business ownership. Mr Nyatsumba said that Ms Kyster embarked on this challenging journey in an industry that is not known for transformation and that is not renowned for its friendliness or accommodativeness to women.
 
“Within a relatively short space of time, Ms Kyster has made her presence felt by winning the Most Transformed Company Award in the 2015 SEIFSA Awards for Excellence and by being invited to be one of the speakers at the inaugural Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba in 2015,” he said.
 
With the official launch of RSC AVELO happening during the month of the anniversary of the passing of Nelson Mandela – the first black President of a democratic South Africa – Mr Nyatsumba said that the former President would be “immensely proud of Ms Kyster, who has defied all the odds historically stacked against her as a black person and as a woman. Madiba would look at her proudly and congratulate her on the official launch of RSC AVELO”.     

Mr Nyatsumba said that the launch of RSC AVELO is commendable since it happens during a time when the industry is battered. It happens at a time when manufacturing’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product has continued to shrink by about 1% per decade and the metals and engineering sector has continued to take a beating, with tens of thousands of jobs lost in the process.

He said that in addition to visionary leadership and wise management, the success of start-up companies depends on support from government, State-owned companies and established, private-sector players.
 
“We welcome the Department of Trade and Industry’s Black Industrialists initiative and the Department of Small Business Development’s Gazelles initiative. For both those programmes, Mayleen Kyster and her partners at RSC AVELO are richly deserving of serious consideration,” he concluded.