President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa’s R1 trillion infrastructure programme must rebuild local manufacturing, create jobs, strengthen supply chains and expand the country’s productive capacity.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa’s R1 trillion infrastructure programme over the next three years must become the foundation of a new era of industrialisation, warning that the country cannot allow its manufacturing base to decline while expanding its infrastructure.
Addressing the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) Presidential Business Breakfast in Ekurhuleni on Thursday, Ramaphosa said the country was entering one of its most important periods of infrastructure investment and economic reform since the advent of democracy.
“Government’s infrastructure programme amounts to around R1 trillion over the next three years. We should view this not simply as a construction programme. We should view it as an industrial strategy,” Ramaphosa said.
He said infrastructure investment should be used to expand South Africa’s productive capacity by creating factories, developing skills, strengthening supply chains, supporting new industrialists and creating jobs.
