Seifsa CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba
Photo by: Duane Daws
The search for this year’s top-performing companies in the Southern African metals and engineering sector has officially started, with the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) on Monday inviting manufacturers operating in the sector to submit their entries for its Awards for Excellence, aimed at encouraging growth and celebrating excellence.
Seifsa CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba reiterated that the sector was faced with several challenges, including the prevalence of cheap imports from Asia, the lack of competitiveness in local manufacturing and policy uncertainty.
“In such turbulent economic times and a challenging business environment, we believe it is critically important for those companies, which excel at what they do, to get the acknowledgement and recognition that they deserve,” he added.
The awards featured seven categories, including the Most Innovative Company of the Year; the Health and Safety Award of the Year; the Most Transformed Company of the Year Award; Customer Service Award of the Year and the Environment Stewardship Award.
Entries were also invited from companies whose corporate social investment programmes in 2015 had a major impact on the lives of their beneficiaries, while another award would be made to the company that trained the highest number of artisans in 2015.
Nyatsumba encouraged companies to submit their entries as soon as possible, with the awards being open to both Seifsa members and nonmembers.
The winners would be announced at the Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba in May 2016.