Davies’ value overlooked

Trade and industry minister Rob Davies has steered the department to be recognised as the best performing in government. The divisive anticommunist agenda targeting him and his cabinet colleagues for removal from the economic cluster noticeably ignores the contribution he has made.

He has maintained a world-class automotive sector that contributes 33% towards manufacturing and about 6% to GDP through the production of about 600,000 vehicles a year. The sector supports 113,000 jobs, has doubled exports and attracted R45bn in investment by the leading global vehicle manufacturers.

Key labour-intensive sectors are supported for growth. The clothing and textile competitiveness programme contributes 8% to manufacturing GDP and 2.9% to overall GDP. This support measure contributed to the employment of 95,000 workers and investment of about R7bn.

A R1bn agro-processing support scheme aimed at ramping up investment, value addition across the sector and creating a globally competitive sector was launched in 2017.

Since its launch in 2006, the Monyetla work readiness programme has offered training grants and helped more than 16,000 young people. Over the past 10 years government incentives have resulted in projected investment of R326bn and created an estimated 670,994 new jobs.

The special economic zones, the critical infrastructure programme and industrial parks are expected to contribute significantly to investment over the next two to three years.

There are many more achievements that can be cited to dispel the unfounded criticism levelled against Davies. This suggests there could be other ulterior motives for the letter, “Reds bad for SA business” (October 16), to judge otherwise.

Sidwell Medupe

Spokesperson for the department of trade & industry