The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) has released the first yearly Black Industrialists Report, highlighting the direct funding provided by the department, the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to support black industrialists and entrepreneurs.

“Over the last five years, some R32-billion has been invested through funding initiatives within the DTIC in nearly 800 black industrialist businesses and black entrepreneurs.

“This funding has supported the creation of new and dynamic enterprises in a number of critical value chains across all nine provinces, 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 says.

The inaugural report provides details of about 100 black industrialists and entrepreneurs who have been supported by the DTIC, the IDC and the NEF over this period.

The case studies cover a range of productive sectors, including food production; clothing and textiles; mining, metals, machinery and equipment; transport logistics and infrastructure; chemical products and healthcare; plastic products; the green economy; the creative industry; property, construction and building materials; tourism; and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“Black industrialist funding provided by the DTIC 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 DTIC even further through reforms enabled in competition law, efforts to improve the ease of doing business and the implementation of the national sector masterplans,” says Patel.

He adds that, for the country to realise its economic potential, it must embark on a focused and determined effort to transform its 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,” he states.

The Black Industrialists Programme of the DTIC has been integrated to work with the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in October 2020.

Commitments have been obtained from social partners at the National Economic Development and Labour Council, as part of the national priorities set out in the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, to reduce reliance on imported goods, and to work with government in developing the country’s productive capacity.

Over the next five years, social partners will seek to invest in new industries which can build local industrial capacity by up to R200-billion a year by the end of the period.