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Daily Maverick
09-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
NMB Business Chamber calls for urgent mitigation after devastating US tariff announcement
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has described the 30% export tariffs levied on South Africa by US President Donald Trump as a 'direct blow' to local exporters. Roleplayers from the Automotive Sector, the components manufacturing sector and Nelson Mandela Bay's Business Chamber have called for urgent government action to mitigate the 30% tariffs imposed on South African exports by United States President Donald Trump. The move is likely to cause devastation to an already fragile Nelson Mandela Bay economy – the strongest economy in the Eastern Cape. 'We are extremely disappointed with US President Donald Trump's announcement of yesterday that he will subject imports from South Africa to 30% tariffs, effective from 1 August. 'This is a direct blow to local exporters who manufacture products according to world-class standards and employ thousands of people. There will be wide-ranging implications for South African exporters, with Nelson Mandela Bay being disproportionately impacted due to our high reliance on the automotive and agriculture sectors of our economy,' Chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen said. '[The South African] government must move with absolute urgency to implement emergency measures to protect local exporters and the thousands of jobs linked to this. Potential mitigation actions could include still trying to find ways to establish mutually beneficial trade relations with the US to reduce the tariff burden, securing alternative markets for our products by negotiating with BRICS markets for Free Trade Agreements, strengthening trade relations with the European Union and South East Asia markets. However, it needs to be noted that switching markets takes a long time and is not something which can be done in the short term,' Van Huyssteen said. Eastern Cape economy According to an analysis from the Eastern Cape Development Corporation for Q4 of 2024, the decision from Trump comes as exports from the province were already in decline, by 22% at the end of 2024. The top four provincial export commodities are motor vehicles, wool and mohair. Competitive advantage Van Huyssteen said several countries would now have significant cost advantages over South Africa, including others in Africa, while Japan and Korea may have the flexibility to absorb the tariffs. 'This will put South Africa, which already from a logistics perspective [is] far from other markets, in a very uncompetitive position versus other countries around the globe, and on the African continent. There is no doubt that this will have a direct impact on the global strategies and decisions of multinationals on where the best manufacturing locations may be,' Van Huyssteen said. Retaliation tariffs She said other potential issues which might arise included other countries reducing their tariffs to the US, and SA exporters having to compete with these tariffs; retaliation tariffs from our current trade partners and the dumping of products in our market by other countries which can no longer compete in the US. 'An example of this is the impact of cheap tyres entering the country through anti-dumping loopholes, affecting the ongoing viability of local tyre manufacturing,' Van Huyssteen said. Goodyear Tyres announced last month that it was shutting down its manufacturing plant in Kariega. It is expected that around 900 people will lose their jobs. Earlier this year, Continental Tyres closed one of its specialist tyre factories. 'The United States is South Africa's second-biggest trading partner and is the automotive industry's second-biggest export market. The industry has for a number of years benefited from duty-free benefits under Agoa, but this has now permanently ceased,' Van Huyssteen said. 'The automotive industry requires economies of scale to be competitive and the South African industry only represents 0.6% of global vehicle production. By far the biggest risk in the short term to the medium term is the competition that South Africa will face from non-US manufacturing countries which may have a lower tariff base. 'Furthermore, those vehicle manufacturers who export vehicles to the US are likely to be more immediately impacted in the short term, with component exports to the US likely to be impacted soon afterwards. 'Our local economy is highly reliant on the automotive industry and employs almost half of the country's employment in this sector. We are particularly concerned about the potential knock-on impact of reduced vehicle assembly volumes of affected OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) who export to the US may have on the automotive components supply chain and surrounding ecosystem. 'Manufacturing is currently under immense pressure brought about by the electricity, logistics and municipal infrastructure challenges of the past few years, as well as the influx of cheap imports into the market. In terms of the automotive industry, cheaper imported vehicles are making inroads into the market, with consumers opting for these rather than purchasing from companies that manufacture vehicles locally. 'In fact, five out of the top-10-selling vehicles in the SA market are from companies that do not assemble vehicles locally. These factors, together with the potential of reduced export volumes to the US, make it even more difficult for the industry to be sustainable. 'The ecosystem linked to the automotive industry generates thousands of jobs from the vehicle manufacturers and components manufacturers, right through to the many medium and small businesses providing indirect services such as cleaning, security, IT and various other support services,' Van Huyssteen said. She said the agriculture sector, which like the automotive industry has benefited from Agoa, would be directly affected. Agriculture The Eastern Cape is the country's second-largest citrus-producing province, but does not export to the United States. There are concerns, though, that other citrus-producing areas will now compete for the Eastern Cape's export markets. Requirement for mitigation The Eastern Cape as a whole is likely to be disproportionately affected by the tariff announcements versus the rest of the country, given the extent to which its economy is anchored by the automotive and agriculture sectors. 'Speed and a proactive strategic response are required to enable South African-based manufacturers to find alternative solutions to navigating the fast-changing landscape and implementing mitigation actions,' Van Huyssteen said. Components manufacturing The CEO of the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers, Renai Moothilall, said the confirmation of the additional duties in the US market to be applied from 1 August were of great concern in the automotive sector. 'We are already seeing volumes of vehicle assemblies linked to those markets being reduced and the impact on the supplier base is negative. Having noted the content of President Trump's statement, Naacam urges a nuanced and urgent negotiation which highlights the positive trade relationship that the US enjoys with SA in terms of components coming from that country to be used in vehicles which are then exported back to the US,' he said. Automotive Business Council While he has not yet responded to the confirmation of the 30% tariff, Mikel Mabasa, CEO of Naamsa, the Automotive Business Council, said last month that the United States was the third-largest destination for South African automotive exports, with about R35-billion worth of vehicles shipped in 2024, accounting for 6.5% of total vehicle exports in 2024. 'The proposed 25% tariff increase will severely impact local manufacturers operating in South Africa, including BMW, Ford, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen, who produce vehicles for global markets, including the US. Last month, while attending the Gauteng Investment Conference in Johannesburg, Mabasa said it could have serious implications for jobs in South Africa as the SA auto industry contributed significantly to economic development, employment and industrialisation. On Tuesday afternoon, he said that the council would meet on Tuesday night to discuss the new tariffs. DM
Daily Maverick
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Criticism of the National Dialogue is necessary, but too heavily reliant on magic and myths
Opposition to President Cyril Ramaphosa's National Dialogue initiative has continued to spread and swirl. It is, in one sense, a good thing; people are engaging with the initiative, and a measure of distrust of the government is always necessary. That applies as much to governments we put in place, as to the opposition. Setting aside the stock-phrase peddlers, the knee-jerk responses — and there is a serious problem with some of the responses — one of the standard responses has been that it is, or will be, a 'talk shop'. I have no major problem with that; it will be a talk shop, in the sense that we have to, actually, sit down and have a serious discussion about what has gone wrong in the country over the past two decades. Justice Malala's response in the Financial Mail was strange, yet somehow predictable. I only recently discovered that he had decamped to the US. I am of the belief that there is a reciprocal relationship between societies and individuals forged through culture socialisation and institutions. In this sense, I should situate Malala's response, but not here, not now… In fairness, Malala strikes the right notes, but then makes the fatal error of judging something that has not happened, not yet anyway. This might have to do with apparent predictive genius. Surely, we cannot say what has happened to something before it has, actually, happened. I shall remain happily confused and ignorant. The problems he identified are beyond dispute. The big thing, at least to me, is that he is correct about that thing I tried to spread when I was in the secretariat of the National Planning Commission over four years or so. It's quite simple, I told public servants in local, provincial and national government. You start by not confusing ambition with achievement. Holding a meeting or establishing an inter-ministerial committee is not an achievement. You have to start somewhere, though. This brings me to a second response (among several) to the National Dialogue. One of the responses that I found disingenuous, is the statement by the former president of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, Loyiso Dotwana, that 'we do not need to 'unpack' our social and economic problems, yet again. We know what they are. What we need is capable, competent, skilled and experienced people implementing solutions.' It has a nice ring to it, innit! There are two difficulties I have with this; one is ideological and the other is practical. Pragmatism as a ruse The ideological has to do with the terribly weak notion of pragmatism as somehow the abandonment of ideology. Pragmatism, such as it is, is actually very much an ideological position and sits most comfortably with liberalism and more especially with the endism of the early 1990s. That was when liberal capitalism was presented as triumphant, and the end-point of human (social) evolution. According to its proponents, this was part of the end of ideology, and that end-of-history nonsense. One of the better examples of 'pragmatism' presented as non-ideological is Singapore (much loved by people who believe that the prime desideratum of all human endeavour is to make money, build flashy skyscrapers, shopping centres and housing developments), where pragmatism essentially meant obeisance to liberal capitalist fundamentalism and authoritarian governance – and from the outset taming or co-opting organised labour… Singapore's sycophants would conveniently ignore the period of effective one party-rule (this is undergirded by the belief that ideas and ideologies are simply in the way of making money and 'making a living', which is, actually, precisely the ideological foundations of liberal capitalism, and its place among the transnational capitalist class). There has been a raft of scholarship on Singapore's transnational capitalist class affiliations which is most prominent in its relations with Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. That country gets high on 'macho-meritocracy' and 'value-neutral technocracy' and outright Chinese dominance, which has since its inception sidelined and overwhelmed the native people of the Malay island. In a terribly racist statement, Lee Kwan Yew has said that Singapore was not ready for a native person to be prime minister! (See 'Are We Ready to be Colour Blind?' The Straits Times, 17 November 2008.) This is an important part of the research and ethnographic work I have been doing in South East Asia over the past two to three years (and more than 10 visits since 1991). For what it's worth, none of my visits to Singapore were funded by the government, which has spent a fortune on junkets and 'educational' visits and tours, mainly, it should be said, so it may curry favour with other countries, and along the way deflect from the injustices at the base of the erasure of the Malay population, first by the British and continued by the Chinese settlers. Never mind the racism or Chinese supremacy; as long as there is money and glittering skyscrapers it's all good. Or, as one (Chinese) interviewee told me in March 2025: 'We don't mind corruption or [illiberalism] as long as there is development.' There's a lot more, from de facto one party rule from 1968 to 1981, the continued dominance of the People's Action Party, and how it has contributed to an 'insulated process of policymaking' and public caning as a form of judicial punishment. This is decried (rightfully) as barbaric when it is done in Muslim countries, but it is perfectly acceptable in Singapore because nothing should stand in the way of making money or building the next skyscraper — not even a Sikh holy place or shrine… The practical element and wilful blindness I should not spend too much time on the practicalities issue. Dotwana is correct in that we know what our problems are, and as he wrote 'what we need is capable, competent, skilled and experienced people implementing solutions'. So far so good. Except, capable people, competent people, skilled people and experienced people do not appear magically from the ether. Implementation does not happen magically either. The writer throws shade with the use of the term 'unpack' (I get that), but public policy-making and implementation do not occur mystically. When, for instance, there is talk about evidence-based policy-making, which comes with its own liberal and/or free market ideological baggage, someone has to actually read and discuss the evidence; the facts and the significance of such facts. Employing capable, competent, skilled and experienced people includes vetting processes, which do, unfortunately, take time. The best appointments aren't always the best people, as we know from cadre deployment — includes deployments by the Democratic Alliance! So, all things considered, questioning Ramaphosa's National Dialogue initiative is fair and necessary. But attempting to steal the moral high ground through tiresome slogans reproduced from liberal capitalist orthodoxy cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. It is more a sign of intellectual laziness and wilful blindness. I am nowhere near the centre of public policy-making, but I know the difficulties there are with making public policy (global and national) under choking conditionalities and resistance — especially the powers that are at play in the process. We can, of course, just avoid talking about the country's problems and wait for capable, competent, skilled and experienced people to show up (magically), and things to fall in place (magically). Ultimately, making the country more prosperous, more stable, with high levels of cohesion and trust among the population will not occur without direct intervention — not unlike the highly interventionist Chinese government of the Malay state of Singapore. DM
Daily Maverick
20-06-2025
- Daily Maverick
Fighting back — cellphone providers and business collaborate to combat EC hijacking hotspots
Following several meetings to discuss rampant truck hijackings in the metro and surrounding areas, the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber and South Africa's (SA's) two major cellphone network providers have joined forces to make the Addo Road — an Eastern Cape crime hotspot — safer. After a spike in truck hijackings on the Addo Road in Motherwell, businesses began looking for solutions. A common factor reported by truck drivers hijacked was the lack of cellphone signal, which prevented them from calling for help. While tracking systems work in the absence of cellphone networks, data is not always sent out timeously in low-network areas. Recently, construction manager Victor Ngcobo was kidnapped on the R335 near Monument Crossing — an area identified as having a particularly poor signal. He was later found unharmed. Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen said discussions around the hijackings also revealed that poor cellphone reception was contributing to the area's status as a crime hotspot. 'We asked two cellular network provider companies to do an assessment of the cellphone coverage in the area. One of the two reverted back with a report which indicated that there was a lack of coverage in the area, and that infrastructure upgrades would be required to address this situation,' she said. Van Huyssteen said the chamber had also approached Google Maps as the Maps App indicated that the R335 was the 'shortest route' to take visitors and tourists to Addo Elephant National Park. 'It automatically takes users on the shortest route to Addo, which means that incoming visitors to the metro travel there along the R335. We rallied our members to go onto Google Maps and log the road as a high-risk road. This resulted in the route being blocked and travellers being re-routed along other more safer routes,' she added. Zakhele Jiyane, Managing Executive for Vodacom Eastern Cape region, confirmed that the organisation was approached by the business chamber to see if there was something Vodacom could do to fix the cellphone network in the area. 'Vodacom has successfully completed upgrades on 11 base station sites in Addo in Sarah Baartman District Municipality and along R335, connecting Addo to Motherwell. Among these upgrades, four sites have improved cellphone coverage specifically for the Addo CBD, local police station, farming community, and the new Addo Spar center. The remaining six sites extend coverage along R335 road. Coverage '10% improved' 'Following our upgrades, coverage has improved by an impressive 10%, particularly on the R335 road. Furthermore, the upgrades have significantly reduced areas without service, and the network capacity has increased by 15%. This means more users can stay connected for longer periods on the network. 'Critically, as part of our commitment to support both the Addo community and local businesses, we have plans to improve connectivity in the area in this financial year. 'For example, we are planning to deploy high-power signal boosters to cover the remaining section without service on R335, and we will do this within six months. Secondly, we are planning to deploy additional base stations to help achieve full coverage for the Addo CBD, police station and community during the 2025/2026 financial year,' Jiyane said. He said the Vodacom Eastern Cape region had invested more than R500-million over the last financial year on modernising the network, energy projects and accelerating broadband coverage across the province, particularly in townships and deep rural areas of the province. R1bn long-term investment This is an investment totalling over R1-billion over two years and forms part of Vodacom's long-term vision, to have the widest and most reliable network accessible to all South Africans, he said. MTN SA, in written responses, confirmed that they would conduct a drive test to verify signal strength and identify gaps. 'Currently, MTN has 4G deployment at this specific location. MTN did experience operational issues at this location at the end of March and the start of April 2025, however the issue has been resolved. While MTN confirms coverage at this location, a further drive test will be done to test the service performance in the area. This test will be concluded within the next few days,' the statement continued. DM
Zawya
17-04-2025
- Automotive
- Zawya
South Africa: Mandela Bay Business Chamber and Stellantis partner to foster job creation in E.Cape
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, supported by Stellantis are collaborating on the Eastern Cape Youth Empowerment Programme to transform futures in the impoverished Eastern Cape. The programme aims to equip 50 young people with the valuable skills and market access needed to secure sustainable employment in the fast-evolving digital economy. The province faces a massive unemployment challenge, which currently stands at 41.0% - significantly higher than the national rate of 33.5%. It is also home to Stellantis' new assembly plant in the Coega Industrial Development Zone in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan area and will contribute jobs to the province and the automotive industry. Together with key business and financial partners, this new transformative initiative will provide critical opportunities in a sector primed for quality job creation and in need of new skills as the prospect of new energy vehicle production becomes a reality for the industry. 'Education is the biggest contributor to progress, and the more people we can provide education to, the more they will contribute to their lives and their communities,' says Stellantis SA managing director, Mike Whitfield. 'Our greenfields manufacturing facility will be establishing the very jobs these new skills will be trained to fulfil.' Year-long technical training programme Through the SA Youth online platform, 50 young Eastern Cape learners from disadvantaged backgrounds will be identified and selected to undergo a year-long programme focused on providing technical training in ODIN Checkpoint Shop floor Task Management Solutions. This global automation technology is the type used in manufacturing facilities, including Stellantis SA's new plant. The training will be complemented by mentorship and hands-on experience in virtual systems maintenance. The project will further provide the trainees with direct market access, allowing them to engage in various services, including system onboarding, implementation, and the development of Standard Operating Procedures content. Additionally, the Chamber's Entrepreneurship Desk will support the young trainees in developing vital entrepreneurial skills, empowering them to launch their own business ventures and contribute to the economic upliftment of the region. The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, a non-profit company representing approximately 700 members from commerce and industry, will play a key role in facilitating the success of this initiative. In addition to Stellantis, the Chamber has partnered with Jendamark, Harambee, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation and member companies in the manufacturing industry to deliver the necessary resources and connections to make this project a reality. The initiative will also have a strong focus on entrepreneurial development, with micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the area benefiting from the highly skilled youth workforce. Driving meaningful change The chamber has already placed over 100 interns with full stipends in local MSMEs and will continue to provide valuable opportunities for youth in the region. 'We believe in the power of partnerships to drive meaningful change. By equipping our youth with in-demand skills and providing direct market access, we are not only combating unemployment but fostering an entrepreneurial spirit that will last for generations,' said Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO, Denise van Huyssteen. Stellantis SA aims to share its values, knowledge, and resources through philanthropic actions and is rooted in the belief that education is the cornerstone of progress and empowerment. Stellantis Philanthropy is distinct from the company's business operations in that it is purely philanthropic, focusing on creating opportunities and fostering hope. By providing tools for transformation, Stellantis Philanthropy aims to help individuals dream big and achieve lasting change. Stellantis SA is embarking on this effort, with its focus on education, to empower people and to build resilient communities with effects that can extend generations into the future. Additionally, Stellantis' philanthropy vision and strategy are built on the company's core pillars of Value, Care, and Tech. All rights reserved. © 2022. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
