Ramaphosa unveils plan for SA to power Africa’s industry

by SAVIOUS KWINIKA 
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOUTH AFRICA is positioning its steel, metals and engineering industries to become a powerful engine of industrialisation at home and across Africa, with President Cyril Ramaphosa calling for the country to become the continent’s “engineering workshop”.

Ramaphosa made the call on Thursday at the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) Presidential Business Breakfast hosted at the Radisson Hotel & Convention Centre in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, where senior figures from the metals, engineering and capital equipment industries gathered to discuss industrial renewal.

Among the industry leadership represented were SEIFSA board chairperson Elias Monage and chief executive Tafadzwa Chibanguza, alongside representatives of more than 1,300 companies affiliated with the federation.

Ramaphosa said South Africa should use its engineering capabilities to manufacture and export transformers, mining machinery, railway equipment, pumps, valves, fabricated steel and electrical equipment, while also selling engineering expertise to African markets.

“South Africa should aspire to become the engineering workshop of the African continent,” he said.

The strategy is being built around an infrastructure programme worth about R1 trillion over the next three years, reforms in electricity, freight logistics and water, the energy transition and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which creates access to a continental market of more than a billion people.

For South Africa, successful execution could mean considerably more than infrastructure construction.

It could revive factories, deepen domestic supply chains, increase exports, attract investment, strengthen the rand-earning capacity of manufacturers and establish the country as a leading industrial supplier to Africa.

Ramaphosa said every transmission line, railway, port and water project should expand domestic productive capacity rather than simply create demand for imported equipment.

“This investment must do more than build infrastructure. It must rebuild South African industry,” he said.

The opportunity comes as South Africa confronts a severe unemployment crisis, particularly among young people.

The official unemployment rate reached 32.7% in the first quarter of 2026, while youth unemployment remained above 40%.

That makes the engineering push potentially transformative.

Ramaphosa said the transmission expansion alone would require engineers, electricians, welders, boilermakers, technicians, artisans, project managers and construction workers, creating opportunities for apprenticeships and skills development.

South Africa plans around 14,000 kilometres of new transmission lines over the coming decade, requiring transformers, cables, towers, switchgear and substantial engineering services.

The President also identified railway rehabilitation, port modernisation, water infrastructure, renewable energy, battery manufacturing, green hydrogen and mineral beneficiation as major industrial opportunities.

If the strategy succeeds, South Africa could shift from exporting mainly raw materials towards exporting higher-value manufactured goods and expertise.

That would increase industrial capacity, create skilled employment and strengthen African trade ties.

But success will depend on competitiveness.

Ramaphosa acknowledged that manufacturers face high electricity costs, logistics constraints, infrastructure bottlenecks, weak demand and import competition.

He urged government to provide certainty while industry invests, modernises, develops suppliers and trains young people.

The ambition is therefore larger than rebuilding factories: it is about restoring South Africa’s industrial power and using that capability to capture a greater share of Africa’s rapidly expanding infrastructure and development market.

– CAJ News