Investment
In the SoNA last year, government said it would concentrate its efforts on mobilising greater levels of investment, which is essential to growing the economy and creating jobs. It said that it would give impetus to the campaign that it embarked on nearly five years ago to raise R1.2 trillion in new investment.
South Africa Investment Conference (SAIC)
Last year, the 4th SAIC raised R367 billion in investment commitments, bringing its five-year investment target firmly within sight. Over the last year, many of these commitments have resulted in the companies that made those commitments investing in new factories, call centres, solar power plants, undersea fibre optic cables, the expansion of production lines and the adoption of new technologies.
Importantly, these investments have resulted in new jobs and new opportunities for small emerging businesses. On 13 April this year, government will hold its 5th SAIC. At this conference, government will set a new target to mobilise more than R2 trillion in new investment by 2028.
The investments that have flowed into the economy to date have contributed to a substantial increase in local production. These investments have encouraged efforts to buy local.
Buy Local campaign
“Last year, I delivered the SoNA wearing a suit and shoes proudly made in South Africa. This evening, I am drinking water from a glass made in Wadeville last week by workers from Katlehong, Vosloorus and Germiston. For many years, South Africa has been importing its drinking glasses. Now we are increasingly making them locally. But it’s not just glasses. If you go to hospital for an operation, chances are you will receive an anaesthetic made in a world-class manufacturing facility in the Eastern Cape. During my State Visit to the United Kingdom last year, a South African firm obtained a licence to produce an oral vaccine for cholera for the first time here in South Africa. Competition merger agreements have provided for more fuel to be refined locally and more food to be bought from local farmers.” – President Cyril Ramaphosa, SoNA, 9 February 2023, Cape Town City Hall.
Hemp and cannabis sector
In 2022, government committed to unlocking investment in the hemp and cannabis sector. It is moving to create the enabling conditions for the sector to grow.
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and the Department of Health will address existing conditions for the cultivation of hemp and cannabis to allow outdoor cultivation and collection of harvests from traditional farmers.
This will unlock enormous economic energy in the rural areas of the country, especially in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
An enabling regulatory framework
Urgent work is being finalised by government to create an enabling regulatory framework for a whole plant, all legitimate purposes approach for complimentary medicines, food, cosmetics, and industrial products, aligned to international conventions and best practices.
This includes the reprioritisation of departmental budgets for sector development and support for traditional black farmers and the alignment of the SAPS enforcement with regulatory reforms. A growing economy must also be an increasingly inclusive economy.
Black industrialists
The inaugural Black Industrialists Conference in July 2022 showed the successes of black South Africans in producing food, car parts, furniture, clothing, steel, chemicals and mining products, creating many thousands of jobs and adding to the gross domestic product.
South Africa now has almost 1 000 black industrialists participating in the Black Industrialist Programme. As an example of the technological prowess of these industrialists, one of the award winners at the conference was Astrofica Technologies, a company co-founded by a black woman, Jessie Ndaba, that provides data solutions for the operation of satellites.
