PRESIDENT Ramaphosa officiated this week at the launch of the Metair Investments subsidiary Hesto Harnesses, where a new R500 million, 35 000 square metre state-of-the-art manufacturing plant was unveiled in KwaDukuza, KwaZulu-Natal.
In partnership with Yazaki Corporation, Hesto Harnesses manufactures wiring harnesses and instrument clusters for supply to South African-based automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) – Toyota, Isuzu, Nissan and Ford.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the investment commitment by both Ford and Metair Investments reflects long-term confidence in South Africa as a key link in the global automotive value chain.
“I’ve never been as impressed as I am this morning by just walking on the floor of this factory and seeing the great enthusiasm on the faces of the workers,” the President said.
He further stated that the reindustrialisation of South Africa’s economy is a key pillar of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Programme. Government has developed several industrial policy measures and is implementing far-reaching reforms to unlock growth opportunities in priority industries. These include the automotive industry and extend to areas such as clothing and textiles, chemicals and plastics, steel and metals fabrication, green industries, the digital economy and network industries such as energy and transport.
Localisation
Speaking on the concept of localisation, President Ramaphosa said that government will continue to drive increased localisation as the domestic sector moves into electric and other new energy vehicle assembly platforms.
“Wherever we go as we push forward with the concept of localisation, we are finding that industry players are responding quite positively to it and I would like to thank you for having responded positively to localisation, I have seen the localisation effort at play here,” the President said.
He added that he understood that Metair is both a supplier and a business partner to the vehicle assemblers, and that the company has been a driving force in achieving localisation targets. Through these efforts the company has secured multiple contracts from Ford South Africa to support their production expansion strategy in South Africa.
The President emphasised that the automotive sector in South Africa is one of the biggest beneficiaries of foreign direct investment in the country.
“We need to work together to unlock new business opportunities, transformation and employment creation in South Africa’s component manufacturing landscape, just as we need to promote new investments in technology and skills. That is why the localisation rate in the Automotive Production Development Plan is targeted at 60 per cent by 2035,” he said.
Job creation
The President has reiterated that unemployment remains one of the greatest challenges affecting livelihoods of individuals, the well-being of families and the development of society.
“It is therefore significant and most welcome that this facility will create over 4,000 employment opportunities, which will translate into a R30 million monthly spend on salaries and wages being injected into the iLembe District,” the President stated. The benefits of this investment will also be felt by maintenance, catering and other service providers that will be contracted to support these operations.
Skills Development
The President highlighted the strong skills development mandate that is being implemented across the Metair stable, including a new multi-million rand bursary and apprentice training programme.
“It is pleasing that there is a strong focus on female candidates, as is the fact that Hesto Harnesses is predominantly a female-driven operation with 70 percent of employees being female,” he said.
President Ramaphosa commended Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ibrahim Patel, KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, the Mayors of Illembe and KwaDukuza and iNkosi uDube and their teams for their contribution in making the project come to fruition.
