[laughter] He says if you don't sit down, if he doesn't sit down, people won't sit down. So, he's seated and all of you are welcome to do so. All right. Uh good morning again and welcome to this exclusive business breakfast. uh hosted by ourselves at SIFESA uh your excellency president S Ramaposa the president of SIFSA Mr. Mvin Naidu chairman of the SIFSA board Mr. Alas Mon, members of the SEIFs board and council, chairpersons of the different uh SIFSA associations, uh government representatives uh here present with us, representatives of organized business and other broader business community, SIFSA member companies, ladies and gentlemen, all protocols observed. Good morning. >> Good morning. >> The room is alive. For those who may not know me, my name is Tafad Banguza and I'm the CEO of SIFSA, better known as the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Africa, better known as SEIFs. And it's my great pleasure to welcome you all once again to what is a milestone event for us as SEIFs, and I think the broader steel and engineering industry. We are both excited and immensely proud to welcome the President of the Republic at this gathering this morning. Mr. President, your presence here affirms to us the critical place that the metals and engineering sector plays in our economy and the importance that you have placed on this important industry. This is essentially the industrial base of the South African economy and represented in the room are different representatives of that industrial base. President we are deeply honored to host you this morning. Just by way of introduction for those who may not know though most will SIFSA is a proud 83y old organization. Today we represent approximately 1,300 companies operating across the up midstream and downstream activities of the entire metals and engineering sector and across all engineering disciplines. We are also proud to report that according to our latest tally, those member companies that I referred to, the 1,300 now collectively employ excess of 145,000 people. I often remind my colleagues uh in the office and different discussions that for us who work with these numbers, they sometimes become numbers that we don't fully appreciate. But those 145,000 people represent livelihoods. They represent families. They represent a socioeconomic system. And the point really is that it's really a staggering number that we are very proud to have uh to report on and I'm proud to also say it's continuing to grow for us as a federation. This is both a source of pride and deep humbling humility and deeply humbling responsibility. It also reflects the trust that the members in this room and our broader associations uh place on us as SIFSA to be a convening body. a convening body to bring members together but also importantly also as a as a way to escalate matters discussions all the way to the most important principles and we think this is our greatest strength as sea this convening power and ability to as I've said um take our issues and discussions all the way even up to the highest office in the land this morning's gathering is an powerful expression of that role that we want to play and will continue to play at se as sea. Our program this morning is deliberately short and purposeful. We will hear from the seifsa leadership and most importantly receive the keynote address from his excellency president Ramaposa. Following the formal proceedings later on there'll be a group photo and then also guests will be invited to have a plated breakfast. Before we proceed, I just need to start off with some brief housekeeping rules. And obviously in the industry that we represent, safety is very important. It's a discipline and a shared responsibility. And in doing so, I just need to highlight the fact that so in the room where we are, in the event of an emergency, they are not expecting any drills today. But in the event of any emergency, we have the two exits on uh either side as well as um the meeting room where we'll be congregating outside in the parking area. But the representatives of the hotel would would direct us to there and also for everyone the um ladies and gents are just behind here in the room uh on the left. So with that said, we'll also ask that phones are also put on silent and also that we keep as little movement as possible in the room especially during the formal gathering. And from a housekeeping that's pretty much um that all we would like to highlight. So ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to formally declare this presidential breakfast now open. And I would now like to call on and invite the SIFSA chairman board, Mr. Manake to deliver the welcome address and introduce his excellency presidenta. Good morning colleagues. >> Good morning San Bonan. His Excellency, President Sir Raaposa, the colleagues from the board, the chairpersons of various associations present here, captains of industries, uh the sponsors of this uh event that made it possible um to have it. And um also I need to acknowledge all of you um in your busy schedules as captains of industry to um graze this um breakfast this morning. Um, President on behalf of um, Steel Engineering Industry Federation of um, Southern Africa, it is my privilege uh, to acknowledge you uh, to this um, presidential um, business breakfast. We are not just a privileged but we are also honored to welcome your presence by gracing this um um occasion given the current um tight schedule that you have. I mean you'll be hosting the um the SADC heads of states and despite that your colleagues from different um countries will be around here you you you accepted um uh the invitation to come and address and grace this um event once again making time to engage directly with this sector. It is also an important um um component um that I guess it then defines your character uh president in terms of um engaging and negotiating with um various parties despite the fact that um you don't have a a court um but that one is a separate debate for another day. Um, and jokingly so, I mean, I said, uh, today is very cold and those who they're not wearing coats is because they don't have them. So, President, today's breakfast is not just a standalone engagement. Uh it follows uh various uh and previous uh direct engagements that we had with ourselves um a number of other colleagues um from government minister of trade and industry and competition uh the colleagues from IDC um captains of industries um um where we're dealing with specific uh issues uh that affect um our industry and taken those um uh engagements um and reflecting uh on all of them or on all their efforts. uh you have kept um the the the communication channels open to this industry and I think I need also then to extend um an appreciation to you your your staff uh the president team that you know when you called them they they're not um ignoring us uh they consistently then revert back and then communicate and that's part of um an acknowledgement and recognition that um we need to accept that um we have continued engaging with the highest office of the land and the sector in very special and practical uh sense of the word because uh the student engineering industry is the backbone of um uh South African industrial capacity and uh today we are we stand here in Echoreni is one of the economic hub for industrial ization and um our intention um this morning president is then to engage on range of uh issues but with a focus plan because we don't just want to have uh a tedious debate and discussions on on number of things and our view um in terms of discussing those issues with the presidency is uh to basically have a a a feedback um on a regular basis and regular routine might mean uh maybe in 3 months time or two months time so that you then follow uh what have we done and what have we achieved. uh engagement colleagues again at the presidential level um is to deal with the broader uh strategic issues and then provide direction and execution is very important because uh in the absence of uh uh the captain um spearheading the ship uh everything then goes uh at different directions and we we regard you um excellency president that you are you are the captains and we are the CEO of South Africa Inc. And therefore we need them to um look at providing that strategic direction. and it then enables a focused discussion with relevant ministers and institutions in the economic cluster where the detailed work of implementation must then take place and and I think that is the the context in which um we we are having this breakfast uh this morning to say one we need then to look at the strategic trust of um uh what entails uh the re-industrialization project if one then were to talk about that now the the the ministers the CEOs and um COOS of the SOE is around the execution and municipalities and various entities but the direction in the main must then resides and um come from from from a a strategic fora um and also the intention is then to deal with the blockages and unresolved contradiction that have emerged over a a period of time because in absence of that it then creates a problem. Um colleagues um the the the the fact of the matter is that um we are an industry that continue to decline both in terms of employment, in terms of uh demand um and we are then seeing uh a plethora of um uh imports coming into the country in various forms and shape. uh we have seen number of countries that have imposed tariffs on on steel products uh ranging from the US and even some of the countries in the continent despite the fact that you are part of the Africa free continental agreement and and definitely it then means we need then to have an engagement on strategic issues to say um what is the direction what environment that government then can create to be conducive for metal and engineering companies to look at this thing and equally so we need them to look at both the primary and the downstream so that even the uh the the person that um weld fence and gate somewhere in in the sticks um should then benefit in terms of uh the infrastructure built. Some of the issues um again president is around um how then do we deal with um uh those bottlenecks in terms of um um the energy issues um for the country uh the logistics from transnet um and various transnet ina because we have seen the infrastructure for the past uh 8 10 years um is not at the right levels because we continue then to to decline or at all there is no development on the rail side. Um I mean there are certain corridors where there's no train moving in terms of moving workers from point A to point B and that creates a problem for this industry uh let alone uh it also then increase the buying power of those individuals because they've been eroded by the transport cost and related. So today's engagement um therefore is around looking at um uh an engagement that is action orientated with clear outcomes. uh define priorities, look at accountability and um and identify what I would call it um an economic cluster uh a cluster of ministers and DGS and state entities that if we then talk about logistics or rail um it is then within that context that we then have uh the right people uh in the room to talk about um the infrastructure uh for the rail system for the country for the continent. and to say where do we start where we went wrong equally. So uh the entire uh primary we need then to say um how then do we deal with the primary uh steel um that will then have a major um benefit for the downstream in terms of beneficiation and all other related issues. So um in summary the point is then the following that we need then to look at um the the industrial capacity for for the country that is a major problem. How then do we resolve it? Um firstly the industrial base um have been weakened over many years and the productive capacity continue to be lost. Re-industrialization cannot remain a a broad aspiration um or an occasional response to crisis. It must be made an explicit national choice supported consistently over a long term. The country's needs clarity about industrial capacity tends to uh to build or rebuild and retain and protect the entire policy architecture uh that is designed and align with clear choices because in absence of that it then creates um a major problem. You can then say uh the metal and engineering um is the backbone of reindustrialization. Uh but state entities they go and uh do something else in terms of importing from various other places uh at the uh expense of running down our own industrial capacity and base and and for me um that's the first thing that we need them to look at. The second part is the the persistent um uh weak or unpredictable demand because um everyone in this room president if you were to ask each and every one of them they will tell you the capacity of their operations some there will be 30% some there will be 40 uh those who are 50 they will be lucky I don't know whether uh they exist but um you'll be lucky if we then have any company that operates at the level of 50% capacity uh for various other reasons. So it then means we need to look at the demand within the context of rebuilding the infrastructure as a trigger point so that um we then deal with um those issues um around the infrastructure programs. uh because uh the more we delay um and then we have uh uh a fragmented um approach and the capacity remain um underutilized because of various other uh players or issues at play. And therefore it then install um investments and employment continue uh to shrink for number of other reasons. And therefore we need um a visible and a clear pipeline of infrastructure with clear deliverables and timelines for for that demand so that companies confidently so they can then look at investment patterns and expand and train people. Uh the current set of uh rules and regulation uh they don't favor the industry because uh nobody can then invest if you are then given a project uh for 3 years. Maven because um you build a transformer that cost 150 million rent um you need machinery, you need people, you need skills, you need various other things and surely if uh you are only given that one uh transformer for the next coming five years. So you are not going to invest, you're not going to do anything. So these are the the critical issues that um we are saying in terms of the infrastructure. We need them to look at the pipeline. We need them to look at um the industrial demand so that companies confidently they can then invest if they know the strategic uh intent and various other things. And of course we need then to leverage on the uh the public procurement um act because that provision or that act deals with what is called the strategic procurement. Strategic procurement does not mean a three-year period. it basically means long-term longevity of um uh those projects for the infrastructure. So that is some of the areas that we are raising. The third part for us is the uh again the procurement and purchasing decisions need them to be addressed because in absence of that we then continue with uh lots of things that are happening in the country. We need them to look at it. The fourth part is the structural cost and uneven competition that need then to be addressed. So um and the fragmented policy and accountability and deficit in the execution that's part of the issues that um we thought we need them to look at. So let me then perhaps um conclude before I call the president um to address us that for us we need to have an engagement with the state. We need to support government. We need to support stateowned entities. We need to support municipalities to build the capacity to deliver uh services uh to the citizens of um this country. Uh but that engagement uh president it uh it centered around um a commitment um from both sides and that commitment we're then saying it will be ideal then to have um an engagement with the the cluster the economic cluster whether is infrastructure energy um uh DTIC for the regulations and various other uh things and including even um number of state entities. so that we then emerge with a clear plan in place um as the um as an industry and based on that we can then we can then hold us to account um as the CEO for South Africa Inc. as the excellency president of the republic uh so that we can then have a clear road map to say where are we on the infrastructure whether it can be the 14,000 um kilometers of transmission lines from escom whether is the raid infrastructure for different corridors um for transet anda whether we talk about water and sanitation um for number of other things so it then becomes more clearer if we then have that um in terms of that cluster to say these are the things that we need them to do. We can then um outline it and say these are the things that we need them to do but with clear timelines. CI for dancing we're meeting today um on the 13th of um August um two months time then we we we we assess we meet again then there's a feedback uh feedback doesn't mean that we can have a physical meeting even if we then utilize other methods of communication to say um as at last we are here these are the things that we have done and um these are the deliverables that we have achieved so it then becomes much better um in In that fashion, um, President Ca stands ready to participate not only as a constructive partner but also as an accountability partner recognizing that accountability must run uh in both directions so that we then account to you to say these are the things that um we have done. But all these issues they require speed, they require agility, they requires courage, they require um both sides then to put the cards on the table to say these are the things that um we need them to do. Um, ladies and gentlemen, um, I I've said a mouthful. Um, and I think, um, I'm now tasked, um, in introducing someone who needs a very little, um, intro. um in most cases at times I I I tend to say to people I don't know whether this is a colonial thing that um when you introduce somebody you start by it's like you are reading a CV this person went to this school have done this thing um and have worked for this company so the president is not looking for for for employment uh at all so what deserves uh acknowledging this morning is the present appreciation of the role of the organized business in national uh developments and then president. He then gives me um an honor uh to to introduce [applause] Thank you chairperson of CIFSA board Mr. Elas Mon, the chief executive officer, members of the SIFT board and uh council and leaders, all of you of organized business as well as labor and representatives of the metal in engineering and capital equipment industries who are here present. and all of you distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen. It's really a great pleasure for me to be here with you this morning and to join you for this presidential breakfast. We don't have a presidential breakfast at the union buildings. So, it's a real pleasure and honor to be invited for breakfast. I usually don't have breakfast. I don't know what you're going to offer. For more than 80 decades, your organization and the industries that it represents have uh been at the heart of South Africa's industrial development. You have really been the backbone and the base as you call it that drive our minds. The structures that carry our electricity, the equipment that moves goods through our various roadways and railways and the components that keep our factories operating. So in more ways than one, your industry plays a critical role in the industrial development of our country and indeed in the economy of our country. You produce the transformers, the cables, the pumps, the valves, the boilers, the fabricated steel, the mining equipment and engineering systems without which a modern economy simply cannot function. With more than 1,300 members, SIFSA represents an industrial capability of immense strategic importance to our country. When one travels around the world and indeed on our continent especially, you do not find a resource as powerful as you are a sifsa. Yes, maybe in the northern hemisphere you do and in the east you do. So you are an important key role player in the economy of our country. That capability matters particularly now because our country is entering one of the most important periods of infrastructure investment and economic reform since the advent of democracy. Our task is to ensure that this investment does more than build infrastructure. It must rebuild the South African industry itself. Every transmission line that we aim to build, every railway we want to rehabilitate and every port we intend to expand and every water system we construct should contribute to the expanding productive capacity of our economy. You have heard to expand our transmission lines by 14,000 kilometers. So we are now more infrastructure focused. We must use this infrastructure program to create factories, to develop skills, to strengthen supply chains, and to support new industrialists and create jobs. This is the opportunity before us. But we must also acknowledge the difficult conditions under which South African manufacturers are operating. The metals and engineering sector has demonstrated extraordinary resilience over many years. Yet companies continue to face weak domestic demand, logistics constraints, high electrical costs or electricity costs, infrastructure bottlenecks and growing import competition. That's what you face globally. Steel demand remains fragile in many countries. Excess global steel making capacity continues to grow placing enormous pressure on producers around the world. Geopolitical tensions, disruptions to supply chains and volatility in energy prices are also adding further uncertainty to the efficacy of your industry. South African companies feel these pressures directly and I think you feel them more in your own businesses. Investment decisions are delayed, margins are squeezed, factories operate below capacity, and ultimately jobs are placed at risk. We cannot accept the continued erosion of South Africa's industrial base. We have seen it play out in front of our own eyes. It's rather a sad sight as you go through various of our towns that were like the industrial hubs of our country not only here in Koing but also elsewhere and when you see big structures that have become derelict. The other day I was in Pumalanga and I happened to go past what used to be highel steel and just saw these massive buildings that have now become derelict and no longer really pumping or functioning. It's a sad sight. Manufacturing is not simply another sector of the economy. It is the fundamental center of our economic sovereignty. It generates skills. It drives innovation. It supports exports. It creates productive employment and it sustains thousands of businesses throughout the economy. When we boast that we are the most industrialized country in the world in on the continent, it is this sector that you represent that we are boast essentially boasting about. That is why government is working with business and labor to address the structural constraints that have held our economy back. Six years ago, we established the operation vola in the presidency working together with treasury to accelerate reforms in a number of areas in our electricity which as we all know was challenged in logistics, in telecommunications, in water and also in the visa system. Yesterday we were launching the electronic travel authorization at O Tambu just to enable people who want to visit our country to come in with ease to sit wherever they are either in Mumbai or in Shanghai or wherever deeper parts of China wherever they are or in Timbuktu in on our continent and apply for a visa rather than travel all the way to our embassies that are far away, apply for a visa where they are, they get approval, they get their visa, they travel to South Africa with great certainty that they will be allowed to come in and they get to the gate, one minute later they're in the country because we've now developed this very smart and South African developed system that allows our people to move in quicker or tourists to move in quicker and more efficiently. So these are the reforms that we [clears throat] identified to boost our economy but more importantly in the industrial sector, manufacturing sector and all that. Now for the metals and engineering industries, few reforms are more important than those underway in electricity. Working together, we have succeeded in bringing load shedding to an end. There is still load reduction that still stalk particularly many parts of our country because of illegal connections. But in the main load uh shedding has gone. This is a major achievement. But reliability alone is not enough. Electricity must also be affordable. For energyintensive industries, electricity prices have become an ex existential challenge. And in fact, we've had many of your counterparts coming forward to say that unless something is done, they are going to close and thousands of people are going to lose jobs. It is precisely over a challenge such as that. Over the past two decades, electricity tariffs have increased far faster than inflation itself. You all know that. And in some cases, your electricity charge is much higher than even your labor charge. A number of smelters and other energy intensive operations have either closed or reduced production or face the pro prospect of closure. These are not industries that can simply be switched off today and restarted tomorrow. Once a smelter closes, we lose productive capacity in our country. We lose skills. We lose export earnings. We weaken entire indust industrial value chains and we lose [clears throat] jobs. That is what that why the next phase of electricity reform must now focus must now focus us not only on security of supply which we've been working on but also on reducing the cost of electricity. That must now be our focus. You may recall that we used to be one of the lowest cost electricity producers some years ago. And in fact, for us to have built a number of smelters, including one that we built in Mozambi, Mosal was because we were producing electricity at a very low cost. We've now become the most expensive, if not one of the most expensive We are now moving towards a competitive electricity market in which multiple generators will compete to supply electricity. Meaning that we have now gone past just the efficient generation. We now must move to an era where there's competition which will help to bring down prices. The South African wholesale electricity market is expected to begin operating next year. Competition between producers, that is generators, combined with expanded transmission capacity and continued investment in new generation must ultimately produce a more efficient electricity system and put downward pressure on the cost of power. The reforms implemented through the energy action plan have already unlocked unprecedented investment in new generation capacity. The Northern Cape could never have seen more than a hundred billion rand being invested in that arid part of our country with a population that's far less than uh other provinces. But they have because they have this wonderful resource given to them by Providence that they have radiation that is equal to no other place in the world. Because of the reforms that we have inaugurated, they have been able to harvest that resource and utilize it to generate electricity. But a competitive electricity market also requires a transmission system that is independent, efficient, and capable of providing fair access to all market participants. That is why we have established the ESCOM restructuring test team to oversee the detailed work that is required to establish a fully independent stateowned transmission company. Now people often become very critical and they say we are selling uh the uh national silver, we're selling the state assets, we're privatizing. We're not privatizing anything particularly when it comes to the electricity sector. What we are doing is to restructure ESCOM so that ESCOM becomes much more competitive and we bring in other players as we have already and in fact when people begin complaining about this I even say to them if you have solar on your roof which I have you have become and Esco because you're generating electricity from a free resource generating electricity and one of the reasons or two of the reasons why you're generating electricity is reliability. When ESCOM was going through its load shedding era, you became frustrated and you wanted reliable energy. Nothing wrong with that. But at the same time what you're also doing you are seeking to reduce your costs. And if you look at your electricity bill as a individual consumer you'll find that during the day you are utilizing solar and it is only at night when you shift to utilize the grid. Now you are balancing your costs factors and that is why we moved in that direction. So Escom remains a stateowned enterprise. It now has competition from you. Your ESCOM I don't know number what we have how many households in South Africa 18 million or so. You're one of those households. Not all households of course generate electricity, but you're one of those households. I generate electricity. I'm an Esco. I utilize the sun and uh I've reduced my cost of electricity which makes my wife very happy. And I'm still connected to Escom. So Escom still gets slightly less money from me than the past, but it's good for me. It's good for me as a consumer, but I now have reliability. ESCOM continues to be owned by government. We have not privatized it. All we have done is to introduce other generators. myself and a whole number of other generators have now come into the market and I always say to them do you remember the days when telecom was the only telecommunications provider in the country IAS those days you could not call your grandmother in the rural areas but today your grandmother can pick up the phone and call you. She couldn't because Telkom had not been able to spread the telephone lines to the rural areas to all parts of South Africa. When we opened the market to bring in other mobile players, all of a sudden your grandmother can now call. What have we done? We brought in competition. Has that killed Telkom? No. The government still owns Telkom. We own about 40% of Telkom. And Telkom has become competitive. It is now competing head-to-head with the mobile operators and in some cases is even beating them. They have greater capability in other areas. Similarly we say so what has that done? It has reduced our telco costs brought them down. We're no longer relying on one and competition is good in our own lives and in what we are offered as services generally. It is good because it gives you choice. You focus on what matters to you. Is it reliability? Is it cost? That is what we're now done. We've now done. ESCOM continues to be owned by government. We take transmission lines out of Telkom. ESCOM rather and it stands as a standalone entity to build the transmission lines. Ess currently is burdened with a huge debt. It is unable to build as the 14,000 kilometers of transmission. The lenders will not give it money. You set up a separate one which is 100% owned by government because government must continue from a security point of view because transmission line is about sovereign security. So government must continue to own that to regulate it and all that. But in order for all other generators like me, if if I produce excess electricity, I want to put it on the grid on the transmission lines and I'd like that to be controlled by another entity, not my competitor because Escom has now become my competitor. But I use Escom so I'm its customer but I'm its competitor. So that is the the reforms that we are bringing through. The energy transition must become an industrial transmission. South Africa should not simply import the technologies required for the new energy company. No, in the end your industry is the one that is going to help us build these 14,000 kilometers which we have to build of transmission lines. The National Transmission Company of South Africa NTSA will then expand the transmission lines it has. It takes on the assets. It pays tell ESCOM the value of what ESCOM has done for the nation to install and ESCOM then continue strengthen its capability get into other areas renewables nuclear what have you becomes the gigantic energy company that it is always meant to be where we have capability or can realistically devel develop it. We should be able here in our country to be able to develop and build this transmission line. Our renewable energy program can support domestic production, the production of towers, transformers, cables, switch gears, structural steel and other electrical equipment. And you are the sector that is meant to do that. Our mineral endowment gives us an opportunity also to move further into green metals and mineral beneficiation and you stand at the center of it all. Our engineering capabilities position us to participate in emerging in industries such as battery manufacturing and green hydrogen. I have a massive battery that powers my solar and the person who installed it, he says, "Mr. President, did you know that this battery was made here in South Africa and it is one of the best that we have and this company is now exporting these batteries massive battery like that made here in South Africa. That gave me joy because it means that the heartbeat of steel manufacturing is still there in our country. And nowhere is the industrial opportunity more immediate than in the expansion of our electricity transmission network, our various other components of electrical uh uh proficiency over the coming decades. South Africa needs around as I said 14,000 kilometers of new transmission lines and together with major investment in substations and transformation uh capacity. This is the largest transmission expansion program in our country's history. And think for a moment about what this means. Thousands upon thousands of transmission towers. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fabricated steel. Thousands of kilometers of conductors and cables. Transformers, insulators, switch gears, substation equipment, foundations, control systems, engineering services, trans transport and logistics. And all of these connected with your sector and behind every one of these products are factories, our workers, our engineers, artisans and suppliers. This should become one of the great industrial projects of our generation much as it has to be done over the next 10 years. Once capability is is there and the financing component is there and we're now crunching the numbers on the financing, this is going to inject enormous capability amongst yourselves as players in this industry. South Africa already has significant capability in steel fabrication, in electrical equipment, distribution transformers and power transformers. As I was saying about the battery that now powers my solar, we must use the transmission program deliberately to rebuild and expand this capability. We should not find ourselves 10 years down the line with a vastly expanded transmission grid but a diminished domestic manufacturing uh capability that would represent a missed historical or historic cap opportunity. The transmission program must therefore become both an industrialization program and a national skills program. It will require engineers. It will require electricians. It will require welders and boiler makers from yourselves. I digress for a moment. I visited Sassil the other day and was just gmacked with what I saw an a massive industrial complex. And I'm sure many of your companies have done work for SAS because it is so big. But it was a joy to see how the workers developed the skills from being welders, from being engineers, from the various disciplines that they have and young young black white women workers involved in industrial capability of enormous proportions. I was deeply impressed. And then I knew that here in our country we have a capability a capability per perhaps that is second to none on our continent. And this is what we need to deepen to broaden and to exploit. What we are now exploding upon will require tool makers, technicians, designers, project managers, and construction workers. It must create apprenticehips and training opportunities for thousands of s young South Africans. And it must provide opportunities for established manufacturers like yourselves alongside black industrialists, women and youth owned enterprises working together as well as small and medium enterprises. The same principle must apply to our logistics reforms. Through operation vulina, we are undertaking the most far-reaching reform of South Africa's freight logistics system in decades. Multiple train operating companies are gaining access to the freight uh rail network and keep saying the rail itself continues to belong to the government. What we are concessioning is the utilization and the improvement and the development of the line for a set number of years. companies can invest can improve so that we focus on movement of goods and I often tell people about the N3 concession that government didn't have the money but it concessioned the N3 and indeed the N1 and indeed the N4 and said you come in bring your capital build this road maintain it and it has become the the the real economic lifeline in our country. Those those three roles. Now for those who say government is privatizing, there's no privatization. It's concession. You use other people's money who also want to make money by the way to make things happen. The legislative and institutional framework for rail reform is being modernized. We're modernizing that. We're making that a lot better. Significant private investment will be required to restore locomotives, wagons, signaling systems, rail infrastructure and terminal capacity. And all this is happening because the government does not have all the money. The government spends most of its money on social welfare, on looking after our people and making sure that we reverse the vestigages of poverty that a partate bequathed on our people. Again, this represents an an industrial opportunity. South Africa once possessed formidable capacity in rail engineering and rail equipment manufacturing. We must rebuild them and this is where your industry plays a role. We should be manufacturing more of the locomotives, the wagons, the wheels, the axles, signaling equipment and components required by our rail system. The same applies to our ports. Significant investment is being directed towards port infrastructure, cranes, handling equipment and terminal modernization as we advance reforms in the port system. And the same applies to our water system which we are now also reforming. Integrated steel making, mining, manufacturing and virtually every productive sector depend on reliable supplies of industrial water. We've therefore embarked on a fundamental reform of the water sector. We recently published the national water action plan whose implementation will be coordinated through the national water crisis committee that I set up. We running complaints in the country that I set up uh commissions, I set up committees, I do all these things. And what I'm really good at is to bring people together bring people together to work together just like what Elas is doing. He brings you all together to a breakfast. Can't be anything wrong with that. We are putting into operation the South African National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency. Through national grants alone, government is investing approximately 24 billion a year in municipal water and sanitation infrastructure and hundreds of projects underway across the country. Now this also affects your work because you work in municipalities and this is where your processes of manufacturing are affected negatively because the municipal uh entity in the area where you worked does not have the capability does not have the water and all that. So we are rebuilding all that. Further investment is being mobilized through public private partnerships and new financing mechanisms. Once again, this means demand for pipes, pumps, valves, treatment equipment, structural steel, engineering services and construction materials. And this is your forte. When we consider transmission, rail port, rail ports and water, renewable energy, mining, social infrastructure and defense together, we begin to appreciate the scale of the opportunity. The opportunity is immense and it is just continuing to grow into a massive opportunity. Government's infrastructure program as you heard me say is around 1 trillion rand over the next three years. We should view this not simply as a construction program. We should view it as an industrial strategy. The central question is therefore how much of this productive capacity requires to deliver the infrastructure that we should put in place to build South Africa. This does not mean that every nut bolt and component must necessarily be manufactured locally. However, nor should localization become a license for inefficiency. But localization must be competitive. It must meet the technical standards, it must also deliver quality. And this is where you come in. It must deliver on time. But where South African firms can produce competitively, public investment should help create the scale as well as the certainty that enables them to invest. Industry repeatedly tells government that manufacturers cannot invest in new factories without visibility of future demand. That is a reasonable concern, I must say. And this is precisely what your chairman Elias was also saying. We therefore need to improve the coordination and also the publication of the infrastructure pipeline so that companies can see can have line of sight of what government and stateowned enterprises and other public institutions intend to procure over the next five, 10, and even 15 years. And we are told for instance that the the the the order book for a number of uh implements or equipment is is quite congested and unless you have a clear timeline of when you will need it, you will only get it much much later. So we do need to start populating your order book so that you have in your own plans clear sight of when things will start happening. A manufacturer deciding whether to invest hundreds of millions of rands in a transformer factory, cable plant or fabrication facility needs confidence that there will be an order book. Predictability as as your chair men were saying creates investment. Investment creates capacity. Capacity then creates the jobs that we need. This is why the steel and metal fabrication master plan remains important. Government will continue working with industry, with yourselves and labor to address the structural challenges facing the steel value chain. The future of the metals and engineering sector is inseparable from the future of our steel industry. Steel is a strategic industry and has always been from time immemorial and without steel there is no industrial economy and without steel there is no real development in the economy. Even if you were to say you just want to focus on you know things like AI and all that AI requires data centers. Those data centers require steel and they require energy. There are no transmission towers. There are no railway lines. There are no mines and there are no factories. There can be no bridges, ports or major water infrastructure without steel. Supporting a competitive and sustainable steel industry is therefore a national priority for us. And that is why when one of your key companies was facing real challenges, government did say we not allow we're not going to allow this to fail. But support must go together with competitiveness. Our objective must be an industry that invests in modern technology that improves productivity, that reduces its carbon intensity, produces consistently to international standards and competes successfully in export markets as well. We must also deepen the domestic value chain where major equipment has to be imported. government will increasingly use instruments such as the national industrial participation program and supply development requirements to ensure that these purchases generate the benefits for the South African economy. Now these benefits must include local investment, technology transfers, research as well as development and must also involve supplier development, skills and export opportunities. Now around the world, as some of you will know, governments are taking steps to protect strategic industrial capabilities and secure critical supply chains. And in some cases, they often say it's too big to fail. So therefore, they make interventions that it's too important to fail and then they make interventions. South Africa cannot be indifferent to the unfair trade practices. At the same time, we must recognize that downstream manufacturers also depend on competitively priced products or inputs. Our trade policy must therefore strike a very careful balance. We must protect efficient domestic producers against unfair competition whilst ensuring that downstream manufacturers are not penalized where domestic supply is unavailable, inadequate or uncompetitive. Now the work being undertaken by the international trade administration commission IT on steel tariffs and rebates is intended to achieve precisely this balance. Trade measures alone however cannot secure the future of South African manufacturing. Ultimately our manufacturers must know that they must compete. They must compete on price. They must compete on quality. And they must compete on technology. And in the end, they must be efficient in delivery as well as many of your companies are. Government's responsibility is to create the conditions in which you are able to do so. This means reliable and affordable energy. As we were talking about earlier, efficient railways and ports, reliable water, modern infrastructure, access to finance, appropriate trade measures, predictable regulation where you often criticize us, and a skilled workforce. Industry has responsibilities as well. We need companies that are willing to invest. We need companies that are prepared to modernize their factories. We need companies that are up to scale with regard to improving productivity. We need companies that will develop local suppliers and we need companies that embrace transformation that know that transformation is the order of the day. When I visited Sassil, I began in my head to contrast Sassil with a number of other companies that exist in our marketplace. What I saw in Sassil was a transformed company, a company that has enabled the empowerment of women, that women play a critical role. You never used to find that in South African industries. All you ever found was just men only. And as I looked at the women, both black and white, they were wearing their overalls. They were getting into the belly of the big machines. They come out with oil water on their heads. They say we are doing the work. And I saw a company that has employed a very mixed very mixed uh cadership, a cohort I must call it, cohort of top executives, middle executives, top executives of both black and white and women. White women, black women, colored Indian, you name it. a complete beautiful Madiva's rainbow cohort in the company but when I go to other companies in our country I don't see that I don't see that transformative u sort of display and I've often wondered why is it that other companies can do it and not all is it will is it drive And I asked the CEO, I said, "How did you achieve this?" He says, "It was intentional." Intentional because he said, "Mr. President, we employ all these rainbow people and we therefore need to infuse them in the various structures of our company." And he confidently said, "Sassul is truly transformed." And I saw it myself. But when I go to other companies, I just see a onedimensional cohort and I often wonder we are a diverse nation. Why is it not happening elsewhere? So transformation then becomes one of the key areas that we drive. Why is that so? To extract the juice of capability from everyone. to extract the capability, the wisdom, the intellectual cap capacity that everyone has to give. So for generations, our country has really been great at at training people. Let's use those people that we train. We've trained artisans, really outstanding artisans that are in demand in other parts of the world. They tell me when you go to the Middle East you'll meet all manner of artisans from South Africa. So let's train them and let's bring them back because they have produced skills such as fitting, turning, electricians, boiler makers, welders, mill rides and tool makers. They are there. We have produced them. Many of these skills subsequently spread throughout our economy and somehow throughout the world. We need to rebuild that training culture that every company must have a strong training culture like various successful countries in the world or companies in the world they spend up to 10% of their of their revenue on on R&D and I'm saying yes R&D but also training. We must train our people. Every major infrastructure contract should therefore ask not only how many kilometers of railway or transmission line we will build. It should ask how many apprentices will be trained. How many artisans will qualify and how many young engineers both men and women will gain experience. how many local suppliers will be deployed or developed rather and how much new manufacturing capacity will remain in South Africa when the project is completed. This is how infrastructure investment becomes industrial development and our ambitions cannot end a South Africa at South Africa's borders. The long-term future of South African manufacturing depends on exports and the Africa continental free trade area is creating a market of more than a billion people. All the 54 countries we have on our continent across our continent. Countries are building cities, railways, power stations, transmission networks, mines, factories. And as you might not know, South Africa is the biggest investor on the south on the African continent. No other country gets close to the investment that we put on the continent. So we need to follow that investment with the capability that we build here. We will require precisely the products and capabilities that are represented in this room to be exported. So our country should aspire to become the engineering workshop of the African continent with the only country that has the industrial capability and might that this country has. We should be exporting transformers to the continent and batteries. As I was saying earlier, we should be exporting mining equipment. We should be export as we are already exporting railway equipment. We should be exporting pumps, valves, fabricated steel and electrical equipment. And we should be exporting South African engineering expertise and government will continue to support exporters through trade negotiations, export promotion, trade facilitation and industrial financing. So ladies and gentlemen, for many years we have spoken about the decline of South Africa's manufacturing capabilities. We must now speak about its renewal. The opportunity is immense before us. The reforms we have undertaken in electricity, in logistics, in water are beginning to change the conditions under which our economy operates. and they're beginning to make our country more attractive to the inflow of capital and finance. Our infrastructure program is creating a substantial pipeline of demand. The energy transition is creating entirely new industries and the continental free trade area is opening a vast market on our doorstep. We must bring these opportunities together into a new program of industrialization. From now on, all we must be talking about is industrialization. And even as we look at towns that have really downscaled, I mean whether it's in on the on the east end, Kurueni, whether it's on the west end, Sassleberg, wherever, we must look at them as towns that must and factories that must now be revived. Government must provide certainty. Yes, we must remove constraint. Yes, we must become less bureaucratic. Yes, we must coordinate infrastructure investment and use public procurement strategically and responsibly. But industry must invest, must innovate, it must compete, it must transform and train. Labor must be our partner in building productive workplaces, developing skills, and ensuring that workers share in the benefits of industrial growth. If we do these things together, South Africa can once again become a country that makes things, a country that manufactures the equipment of for our own development, a country that transforms its minerals into higher value products. It is eminently possible. [snorts] A country that exports machinery, engineering expertise to the world. And most importantly, we can become a country that creates millions of productive jobs for our people. For real jobs are to be found in those key productive industries. We have the minerals, we have the infrastructure base, we have the engineering capability, we have the industrial experience and we have the entrepreneurs and here you are all and we have a generation of young people who are eager hungry for opportunity for skills and opportunity. What is required now is that we bring these strengths together and let us build the transmission lines that we must build because if we don't build those transmission lines, we are going to face the mother of all load shedding experiences again because right now the grid is full and it needs to be expanded so that the renewable energy constructors or generators are then able able to put the the new uh energy that they are generating onto the the grid. So, let us build those transmission lines. We should be able to rebuild our railways, which we are doing. We should modernize our ports, which we are busy doing. We should secure our water infrastructure, which we are working on fervently. But as we build them, we should also rebuild South African industry. And this is who you are. Let us make this infrastructure program the foundation of a new era of industrialization in our country. And we must produce more in South Africa. And we should also export more from South Africa. And we should create jobs. We should build industries. We should develop capabilities that will sustain our economy for generations to come. So I'm confident that if we continue working together, we can build an industrialized economy worthy of South Africa's immense potential. And this is the f what the future potends and this is where we should go. And yes, Elias, the timelines then become more evident. The timelines are then well set out and everybody then knows that as we build this capability these projects come on stream and this is when they come on stream and our destination is to ensure that we conclude everything we do. So thank you very much. It's good to be among steel makers. As I walked in, I could I got a sense, you know, each time I walk into rooms. Usually I go to conferences that uh [clears throat] uh where uh many of the people who attend are money people and as I walk in I often say I smell money uh because they are money people. I just smell it. I've developed my sense of smell. Uh, but now when I walked in here, I saw everybody seemed to be as cold as steel. As cold as steel. And I asked myself, "What am I smelling?" I said, "I want to be smelling factories. I want to be smelling, you know, fabricators." I couldn't decipher it. It's only now that I see that indeed there are steel makers here. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you very much, Mr. President. And I think if we can just give a round of applause again for him, [applause] Mr. President, I think what I really appreciated from your talk is that across all the different areas, energy, rail, water, you clarify the reform position and we do see that reform taking place and importantly then you then quantified in a number of instances that the potential is there and also importantly there was persistent and consistent reference to the fact that the people in the room are where the uh are where the solution lies. So president thank you very much for that and um that was really a takeaway for me. Now the president has been very very gracious to allow us a maximum of three questions as you all heard earlier on that uh we are competing against saddak heads of state. So our time is very very tight. So what I'm going to ask for is uh three questions from the room. We'll have to manage this process very tightly and in doing so we will also ask for your comment uh rather question also to be concise and uh to the point and uh in doing so we will also ask you just to also introduce your name company that you represent and then from there we will then uh ask your concise question. So if I can then take the first three hands. I recognize Nicolet Di and Okay, I'll take Harry and then we'll take those as our three questions and then we will close it off from there. Nicolet, let's start with you. >> Uh do you want me to stand? >> Uh please, please. >> Um thank you your excellency for joining us today. Uh my name is Nichollet Schultz. I'm the CEO of Betric. We are a heavy steel fabricator predominantly for the mining industry. I'm also chair of the board for the South African Institute of Steel Construction and I sit on the manufacturing circle EXCO. Um my question is obviously simple and a little bit complex at the same time. So I'll start with often when people talk about the steel industry we talk about the upstream steel producers and very often I think the downstream steel fabrication industry is not necessarily given the same sunlight that the upstream producers are given and so you spoke a lot about competition um being competit competitive um as well as security of supply and I think that is very important to have security of supply with regards to upstream steel production, but arguably I would say it's as important to have downstream capacity. And from my perspective over the last 12 to 18 months, we've as a downstream fabrication industry, uh, and I'm obviously generalizing, we've gone from being competitive delivered to site in the Sadic region to being told that our prices are 50% out. Um, and those numbers obviously don't necessarily make sense. we haven't increased our our selling prices, but there's obviously other things that are going on in terms of subsidization, etc. So, I can certainly see the dream and I can see our future. I'm really excited about it. Um, and I think we we have a very positive future in South Africa for industrialization, re-industrialization. My question is for specifically the downstream and the fabricators, what is the shortterm plan in terms of getting us to that 10-year goal, that that 10 year dream because we want to be competitive. We want to employ more people. Um we have for the most part done a lot of investment and modernization into our facilities. that when we are facing unfair competition, every foreign import into South Africa into the Saddakic region is a job that is stolen from our citizens as South Africa. So my my question is potentially you know we want to be competitive but competitive to what and what is the shortterm strategy uh to try and support and protect the downstream steel fabrication industry. >> Thank you Nichollet. Next I had Dumi Ces also a SIFSA board member. >> Thank you Tffy. Um good morning Mr. President. Dumitra a board member at SIFSA uh and the CEO of dynamic fluid control uh which is a global industrial manufacturer operating out of Benoni and u we're exporting to the major industrial markets. I also uh chair the South African Capital Equipment Exporters Council. Thank you for the inspiring uh remarks this morning and congratulations on the milestones that your government and cabinet have achieved with the launch especially yesterday of the ETA. We saw that on TV um and the electricity um and um logistics improvements that are absolutely evident. Mr. President, my interest is uh quite a bit aligned to what Nicolet was asking about as well. So I will try to build on that in some way. Uh our interest is in the downstream element of the steel industry. Uh in the previous regime of procurement regulations, we found that the rules were clearly defined. Um however, the areas that uh always let us uh down was in the monitoring and enforcement. Uh these were weak um they were flouted by procuring entities uh and u the procuring entities looked away when suppliers uh chose to import. We are seeking asurances that in the new regulations uh monitoring and enforcement will be addressed. Uh the regulations must make it obvious that local value add uh is non-negotiable. The reason that is important Mr. president is that we need to be deliberate um about uh localizing our supply chains and keeping as much of the value add in the country. Uh this is what is going to create jobs. As you rightly said, Mr. President, localization is not a license to be uncompetitive and take advantage. But I think Nicolet covered it uh quite well. you know comparative to what when we make regulations and then find that they are weakly enforced um the whole effort to create jobs is undermined. So my question uh Mr. President is actually not quite a question it's just a request for you to comment uh on this uh on these remarks. Thank you. >> Thank you Dumi. And then lastly we have Harry Castle. Um, your excellency, Mr. President, Harry Castle, CEO of Reclamation Group. We're an integrated recycling company and green metal producer. My question is, when will the 1 trillion rand spend be implemented and the infrastructure program in the main be implemented? You did address it in your address, but the real question is is what could the industry do to unlock and unblock the hurdles uh to implementing the program urgently. This process is critical to the survival of our industry both downstream and upstream and urgent. So the question in the main is what can industry do to fasttrack the public infrastructure program investment and roll out. Thank you. >> Thank you Harry. Mr. President, I don't know if you want to come back up and Okay. Thank you. Mr. Thank you. Somehow I got an inkling that I've been brought here to work. So, [clears throat] Nichollet, um, in some parts, and I think you alluded to it, you are addressing a matter that I touched on a little bit. Um, and this is not sort of unique to us where competitors come in and somehow sometimes for unfair reasons they out compete your locals. What should your locals do or what should they rely on? Should they rely on some measure of protection or certainty of being able to get a market uh positioning? Now there are two aspects. It's internal competition or even external where for instance as you were saying you crunch your numbers and then as you go to export they tell you that you're way way back you're way down and that that to the extent that we have a bit of control over that it's weak because you are now out there in the open field. So [clears throat and cough] not saying that you must use your wits and and ends but because you are one of us and because we belong to a family of nations in the area uh even on the continent there needs to be certain sort of protocols and rules that will also deal with areas that companies our companies deal in various sectors and all that. uh and that that is a matter that you know has obviously got to be properly developed. We're meeting tomorrow and day after tomorrow is Saddak and uh some of the issues that we deal with there is trade trade relations and how do we protect our producers? How do they go out and and u and uh sell their wares and all that? Are there any rules that need to be adhered to? And now we are be we've become part of the continental free trade area and that free trade area means that uh we should be able to move goods and services seamlessly without any barrier on the continent. But the issue of pricing and competition still comes in. And so therefore it is a matter that in the end as as our priests I can call it or whatever uh in Ghana where the headquarters of the African continental free trade area is as they look at every item and believe you me they look at every item and every country has to submit its own list of products that need to be uh put into the whole port of products that can be traded uh without any barrier. So that is the work that will get involved. Now the challenge to you each one of you not only you Nichollet is that you've got to interact with us at closer range. We need to be aware of some of the challenges you face. And the beauty with all this is that you have got an accessible government. Government is now at at your what do they call it at the palm of your hand. Government is right there. You are able through your association to be able to talk to government and come with not only complaints all the time but come with suggestions unsolicited bits. I mean just to tell you how accessible we are. What we were launching yesterday, the electronic travel authority was actually what the private sector brought to us as a complaint as an issue that needed to be addressed. And they kept saying, "We want to bring our executives. We want to bring our people here. they can't wait in in in Shanghai uh for for months and months before they get a visa. Modernize your visas and we acted on that. So what I am saying also to you as a private sector, you've got an accessible government. The door is always open to come up with proposals and and tell us precisely the actual problems that you are going through because government will not just generally know about of course as government we know everything and I know everything and I see everything but uh in the end you experience everything uh that is that is happening to you to your company. So I would say that where there are specific issues that impede the success of your business uh we say come forward come forward and make a proposal raise the issue so that we get to understand and where for instance there can be some measure of protection we do recently we had one other player who came forward to us and said, "We produce this real good quality product and this good quality product is now under threat from others outside the country who are bringing what they say [snorts] is a similar product and yet it isn't." And that enabled us to look more closely at the said product that was being brought in and it enabled us to intervene to have a proper monitoring system. a question that was being raised I think earlier by uh by Dumi uh about do we have proper monitoring capabilities and we were then able we woke up and then started monitoring that product and we found that it's a product that we should regulate we should not enable it to come that other factory that approached us business rather was about to close and they said we are going to have to close because we are being out competed uh by this company. And uh and when we looked at it closely, we found that the quality was not only bad quality, but it was a quality that was going to endanger lives in South Africa. So we would never have been aware of that had that company not raised the matter. So I'm trying to give evidence to the fact that now that you have an approachable government, you need to come forward with some of the challenges that you have where government is not able to assist will be able to say we cannot but refer you wherever and we will go right up to the World Trade Organization. That's how good we are and that's how effectively we we we we operate. We go right up there. to the top of the chain. Uh with to me the monitoring capability I couldn't agree with you more. We need to be monitoring more and more and that is why we say we we need in government people who have worked in industry. Uh I want those skills to be in government uh so that we are able uh to service our our companies a lot better. um what I have said to Minister of of um of international relations, we need to support our companies uh as they surge into the African continent. We're the biggest investors and we should not leave our companies to be out there on their own and sometimes they face challenges because they operate under different regulatory environments. When companies go out, it should be like South Africa Inc. going out uh so that they should be seen as representing as being a representative of South Africa as well. uh and I've said to the minister we must bring together called a conference of our own companies that are investing outside the country so that they outline to us some of the challenges that they face so that they have a sense also that we are there with them and we are out there to protect them. There have been instances where CEOs have been arrested and locked up just merely for their CFOs having filled in the wrong tax form. And they just lock you up because they want to raise uh foreign currency for whatever project. Uh and we then get a frantic call. CEO so and so or CO dumi has been arrested because they didn't file their tax returns on time or the file can't be found. So we want to be able and the ministers will arrange such a conference because I want to meet most companies that operate outside our country so that you can have a sense that yes we are there and we are there to support you. Uh the last question asked by by Harry uh Castle uh about when about the transmission lines uh and when is that whole process really going to get off the ground? Uh we are now almost in fundraising mode. We are now bringing together the private sector and putting together the financing models uh for the investment in transmission lines. And I know for instance they had put out the specs uh that need to be adhered to for uh the building and the construction of the transmission lines and the next phase will therefore be uh Rudy one of my advisers this year would know uh the next phase would then be the fundraising and uh then thereafter uh the beginning of the construction of those lines. the identification of companies that will do so and the financiers. So we're not sitting back and doing nothing. We we're saying that must now happen. This is part of the reforms that we have started and uh I'm in a hurry to have these reforms bedded down and consolidated uh because time is of the essence. We need to inject growth into the economy. uh we cannot have a situation where jobs continue to be lost whilst we are waiting to stabilize the reforms. The reforms will underpin precisely the growth and the job creation that we want to see. So I think colleagues we are on something that is really good. We have been able to to stabilize uh the downslide uh and we've are put in place pillars that are going to support the growth of the economy. Heather too, we were definitely on a downslide. Our logistics were in tatas. Our electricity generation was not working well. We didn't really have a clear plan of how the grid which is already under pressure uh is is going to be expanded. uh the water system was also directionless uh the roads and all that. I mean the dream and people often say that I dream too much. The dream, the dream to have a fast train from Durban to Johannesburg and from Johannesburg to Mossina is alive. And I've been saying I want that that planning to be speeded up because that is another one that is really going to demonstrate the modernity of our economy. And if you cannot build a road system, you will remain poor. uh one of the Chinese leaders said and so therefore we need to build these road systems and these rail systems so that people can move, products can move and services can be delivered and I think this is the future that we want to see for our country and once we can do that jobs then become a derivative or a pro a a a dividend that we can earn and young people uh can then get into jobs and they get more skills. That is the future that we are going to. So thank you very much. Thank you Mr. President. Uh Mr. President, please before you go, I'll just like to call up Mr. Mvin Naidu CISA president who will then just uh thank us all. But we would not like to call you back again after after asking you to sit down. So if you can stand with us here while Mvin um thanks you. Good morning everybody. Um Mr. President, uh thank you for accommodating this. Um so uh Mr. President, just reflecting on uh on on your very um comprehensive speech. Um you know when I when I reflect on the structural reforms first year of government on the energy sector logistics water and security you know we welcome it and we starting to see the benefits in terms of it unlocking um investments into power generation transmission and distribution. I think the minister of electricity quantify the RP 2025 and the TDP to be over 2.2 two trillion rands of investment you know and and I think for me reflecting on that these structural reforms of and operation vuland lea definitely manifesting positive outcomes for the country and the key thing for me Mr. president is that firstly we welcome your openness to engage industry and uh you know I think the key thing as industry the ask is that we need to leverage off this infrastructure spend as a means of ensuring that we use it as a catalyst to maximize lo local participation and u you know also reflecting on your comments about the African Africa continental free trade area and uh you know when you reflect on um the broader unemployment challenges in the region. I think for me what's key is that we just don't look at an essay inc approach but an Africa Inc. approach where um what's interesting is when you look at the uh Africa is projected to have the world's largest economically active population by the year 2050 something like one one and a half billion people uh you know and China I think by 2050 gets to less than a billion people uh average age in Africa at the moment 20 years old and at the moment intercountry trade on the continent is less than 15% of the African GDP so I think when you look at the resourc resources on the continent. I think the key thing for us is as industry and a lot of companies in this room already export manufacture for South Africa but export into the continent and beyond. And I think for me the key thing is that we leverage off this infrastructure investment as a means of creating jobs on the continent. um uh you know looking at the fact that we've got the world's largest projected economically active population and you know let's leverage off the demand that creates that gets created by this population the fact that there's going to be a massive investment into generation transmission distribution and other sectors and uh and make sure that we have policy that's deliberate you know to to maximize the the creation of jobs in the continent so I think that's the key ask from us as as as industry um and uh uh you know So for me as well um at the same time Mr. President we also accept the fact that as industry we've got to be competitive we've got to be efficient we can't rely on protectionism you know uh but but equally so I think we need policies that support general investment uh genuine investment and strategic investment on long-term commitment and demand so Mr. President on on behalf of SIFSA we would like to now present you with a commemorative gift. So um this gift um has been manufactured by the SEIFs training center. Uh so the SEIFs training center um trains approximately 450 students each year and uh these uh skills uh and training encompasses all of the trades required for uh industrialization and localization in in the country and uh we are equally proud that this training environment has a strong representation of young women. You know, as you said earlier, we need to be inclusive. We need to break barriers challenging the assumption that trades are only for men and helping to reshape what has traditionally been a ma male-dominated industry. So, I'm going to call upon now Mr. Iasaki uh the CIFSA chairman as well of as as well as one of CIFs training cent's top performing students uh Vision Schlanguani. If vision can come up and if you can join me in presenting this commemorative gift to his excellency President Sir Ramapoa [applause] >> [applause] [laughter] [applause] >> down. >> [applause] >> I'll take it. A group photo, Mr. President. Then lastly, we would just like to um take a group photo with you. Um if I can call up uh the uh SIFSA board members uh who are here present. Um we have our president vice president. So Pam do me if I can have you. Then also if we can just have our sponsors uh act is already represented by Mvin. Uh also our representative for Max Steel who I saw earlier as well as Reclam and Colorfields and Columbus Stainless Steel. If I can have the representatives from those organizations. Just one please. Please. Ria >> and Lucho. Roger. Where am I? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. All right. If we can ask uh so this brings our breakfast to a close. If we can now ask everyone to remain seated while the president walks out um and his protocol as they walk out and then once they are