Industry veteran and industrialist Elias Monage has been elected president of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) at the organisation’s annual general meeting on October 6.

He takes this role amid a crucial year ahead that will see wage negotiations taking place in the metals and engineering sector.

The VPs of the organisation are MphoNo MD Nonhlanhla Ngwenya and Atlantis Foundries CEO Pieter du Plessis.

Other board members include Dynamic Fluid Control CEO Tumi Tshelo, Frigoglass South Africa human resources executive Ryan Haynes, Reinforcing Steel Contractors director Ernest Volschenk, South African Mint Company MD Honey Mamabolo, director and chairperson of various companies within and outside the metals and engineering Industry Malcolm Mcculloch, Actom group CEO Mervyn Naidoo and Invincible Valves CEO Pam du Plessis.

Monage says the coming period will be extremely challenging and will require robust leadership to tackle the policy, regulatory and socioeconomic environment in order to position the federation as the apex employer body in the metals and engineering industries.

In acknowledging the challenges currently confronting the South African economy in general and the metals and engineering sector in particular, Monage stresses the need for all Seifsa member associations and other stakeholders to work together.

He emphasises that notwithstanding that these difficult conditions are likely to prevail for some time, given that there are no signs that the world market is rapidly moving out of its weakness, Seifsa is ideally positioned to reposition itself for greater heights.

While Monage recognises that little can be done to change the global economic headwinds, the domestic ones — which are frankly own goals of bad policy choices and economic mismanagement — are in the hands of the policymakers. “This is where Seifsa must continue to play the important role of keeping government accountable”.