Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau has lauded the South African defence industry’s (SADI’s) contribution to the national economy. He was delivering the keynote address at the Defence Industry Lekgotla, being held at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s International Convention Centre, in Pretoria, on Monday.
“South Africa’s defence industry is not a niche sector standing apart from our industrialisation programme,” he highlighted. “It is one of its most advanced expressions. It sits at the frontier of manufacturing precision, systems engineering and technology sovereignty.”
Despite difficulties, the SADI retains capabilities in the air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. These capabilities range from Level 2 (component manufacturing) to Level 5 (producing integrated systems). The industry is now composed of more than 600 companies, of which more than 250 have a major defence focus, and more than 350 supply components and services into the defence value chains. The country has been ranked (by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) twenty-first in the world in terms of major conventional arms exports, from 2018 to 2023. Local industry associations estimate that the SADI exports to more than 115 countries, of which more than 40 are in Africa.
