DTI helps 108 businesses

BIGGER: BLACK INDUSTRIALISTS PROGRAMME WILL BE EXPANDED

BI programme chemical cleaning supplier opened a plant last weekend.

The department of trade and industry (DTI) has supported 108 black industrialists to date. The next phase of the black industrialists (BI) programme is already in the pipeline and the department hopes to create another 100.

DTI Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) chief operations officer Malebo Mabitje-Thompson says they are also targeting the fourth industrial revolution, particularly the soft side of information and communications technology and system development.

“We’re still not seeing as many black industrialists as we would like to see in the aerospace and the ocean economy,” Mabitje-Thompson said.

She added that the DTI was also launching a project around the manufacturing of tablets and platforms in the Free State.

“We do have a number of black industrialists who are in that sphere. We would like more,” she said, adding the department had received a significant number of applications in traditional areas, including agriprocessing, automotive, chemicals, clothing and textiles, electronics and metals and mineral beneficiation.

Kevali, a hygienic sanitation chemicals supplier, is one of the 108 black industrialists. It launched its manufacturing plant in the Maluti-A-Phofung special economic zone in the Free State last week.

To date, the DTI has spent R2 billion on the BI programme. When this investment into the 108 industrialists comes into production, South Africa would have R9 billion injected in the economy. And there are 15 000 projected jobs from these companies.

Kevali executive director Funeka Khumalo said the programme assisted with a grant to construct their Harrismith-based plant, paired with initial funding from the IDC. The funding also enabled the company to procure a truck.

“We were using a third-party manufacturer [and] a third-party to do our logistics. The funding has ... lowered our cost base,” said Khumalo.

Kevali started out with eight employees, which has increased to 57. “But we also have about 12 indirect people that are working in our plant,” Khumalo said.

The DTI supports access to markets to ensure continued success for each sponsored company.

“We have taken over 40 enterprises abroad on export exploration interaction and are hoping in the next six months or so some of them will be receiving strong orders. What we’ve seen with the black industrialists is that there is a strong export bias,” said Mabitje-Thompson.

She added that the owners must be entrepreneurs, who identified an opportunity and had a medium- to long-term investment vision. “And of course we do want people who have some level of skill,” she notes.

Khumalo boasts qualifications in chemistry, has a masters in business and is a certified project management professional and member of the Project Management Institute.

Mabitje-Thompson believes the programme will be a game changer in the country.

“There are a lot of people that would like to get into manufacturing, but it requires a lot of money. It’s difficult for an ordinary Funeka from Gugulethu to have that money available.”

This interview was first aired on SAFM and was conducted by Nompu Siziba.