Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) on Thursday officially launched its broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) Initiatives Trust.

The aim of the trust is to increase the number of black-owned suppliers in the automotive sector value chain. 

The trust will do this by primarily providing financial assistance and, where required, nonfinancial assistance, such as business development advice and market access through supplier development relationships. 

This advice and support will be provided to qualifying black-owned suppliers, as well as white-owned suppliers that are interested in becoming black-owned.

Although the trust carries the name Volkswagen, it is managed independently of the German manufacturer, by a board of trustees. 

The trustees are Siphamandla Ndawonde, entrepreneur and member of government's Black Industrialist Programme; Frans Nortje, strategist and researcher and Nonkqubela Maliza, director of corporate and government affairs at VWSA.

The trust’s first investment, valued at R22-million, went to Eastern Cape company Acoustex.

Acoustex is a Port Elizabeth-based manufacturer and supplier of sound deadening, acoustic insulation and extruded products.

The immediate aim of the Volkswagen B-BBEE Initiatives Trust is to support at least three other suppliers in 2017.

The trust is endorsed by the Eastern Cape government.

“The . . . trust is one of the initiatives that Volkswagen introduced to implement our strategy of deepening localisation, and increasing our competitiveness and business sustainability. [It] will also contribute to the economic growth of the region,” said VWSA chairperson and MD Thomas Schäfer at the launch event in the Eastern Cape.

“VWSA continues to view the procurement from black-owned suppliers as a priority from both a moral and legislative compliance perspective. 

“Therefore, the initial investment of R86-million shows that we, as a company, are committed to supporting and empowering black-owned suppliers in the automotive industry through this independent trust and other company-based initiatives.”