By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Trade, Industry and Competition, Minister Ebrahim Patel says government is developing a draft policy on scrap metal that will protect the country’s electrical grid and rail network from the continued threat of scrap metal syndicates.
Delivering the Department’s 2022/23 Budget Vote, the Minister said this needed to be done if the country was to build an enabling environment for industrialisation.
By the end of July, he said, the draft policy would have been developed and tabled.
He said it would “introduce a blend of domestic and export measures to address illegal trading in copper cable and scrap metal”.
He said: “Energy and logistics is vital to the success of our industrialisation efforts. [Public Enterprises] Minister Pravin Gordhan and I have agreed to launch a forum to bring together Eskom, Transnet and other entities together with industrialists in key sectors to enhance collaboration, advanced planning and problem-solving”.
This, he said, would enable a better climate for investment and job creation,” he said.
DTIC entities have been given until December to have concrete measures to cut rate, streamline the processes and make them accessible and less onerous for entrepreneurs and citizens.
The Minister said the Department would shift from red tape to smart regulation that helps those who want to build and protect the system against those who seek to abuse it at the expense of the poor and the vulnerable.
“This work will also include a process to consolidate the sprawl of entities within our Ambit, creating a leaner and more responsive and relevant set of institutions,” he said.
Patel said South Africa can play a more prominent role in the world of regional production hubs by focusing on improving the dynamism and capacity of its industrial base.
[To] build a capable State to execute our strategy, we set out in the annual plan about 150 specific actions and indicators,” he said.
Patel said the DTIC’s pursuit of industrialisation sought to expand the level of local output, to secure parts of the local market lost imports and to boost value added exports.
He said to be labor absorbing, the country needed jobs or providers of critical public goods, healthcare or significant earners of foreign exchange.
Patel said the work of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) on spearheading transformation seeks to create opportunities for all South Africans.
“This involves the concentrating of our economy [by] opening up exclusive product and service markets to participation by all. It is also about our enduring commitment to support the black industrialists and workers who were previously denied access to opportunities for economic ownership and participation.”
Furthermore, he said it is also about ensuring a spatial strategy that informs how the country builds and supports a new model of Special Economic Zones and industrial parks in secondary towns in co-hubs.
It is informed by the principle of trying to expand industrial activity beyond its concentration in the urban metropolitan areas. Transformation is about building an economy that works well where people are.”
Patel said the dtic’s entities will collectively offer R22 billion in customer support packages to companies over the next 12 months.
“This will be complemented by strategic support to deepen implementation of our master plans, including the launch of the new R400 million furniture growth funding partnerships with manufacturers and retailers,” said Patel.
To support its localisation efforts, the DTIC will aim to achieve a R40 billion increase in the production of targeted local industrial output.