Industry body the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) on May 12 announced that the 2021 Seifsa Awards for Excellence and the sixth Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba have been postponed indefinitely owing to concerns about the rise in Covid-19 cases in South Africa.
Both events had initially been scheduled for later this month.
“After careful consideration and, in light of South Africa having detected its first cases of the highly infectious coronavirus variant initially identified in India just as some parts of the country are picking up the early signs of the third wave of infections, we have decided to postpone our events to later in the year,” the organisation said.
The Awards for Excellence aim to promote and reward innovation and excellence in the metals and engineering sector, while the Indaba brings together government, labour, business and civil society to engage on and find solutions to challenges facing the sector, while also discussing opportunities to reinvigorate the sector.
Seifsa remains committed to providing platforms such as the Seifsa Awards for Excellence and the Indaba to enable companies and other industry stakeholders to engage with each other on issues affecting the industry and to also celebrate its successes.
“However, the Covid-19 pandemic means that we all need to make difficult decisions to ensure that we all play our part in fighting the pandemic and staving off a possible third wave,” it said.