Eastern Cape Economic Development MEC, Sakhumzi Somyo, has heaped praise on Volkswagen South Africa for the company's commitment to bringing black owned businesses into the forefront of the automotive value chain.
Somyo made the comment at Thursday’s official launch of VWSA's BBBEE Initiatives Trust that he said was “aimed at providing financial and none financial assistance to black owned suppliers as well as white suppliers that are interested in becoming black owned.”
Somyo said in a statement Thursday that the Trust initiative comes at a crucial time in our democratic order when there is a clarion call throughout government and society to change the gears of economic transformation.
He said this would be achieved speedily, due to the willingness of key players such as VWSA who are committed to the economic transformation agenda of the country.
MEC Somyo however raised concerns about the low levels of local content across all vehicle models manufactured in the province which sits at 39%.
“We are hopefully that this initiative will give us tangible outputs that would expand the capacity of the existing local auto component supplier base.”
He highlighted that VWSA was not alone in this journey of trying to transform the industry. “There are plans to develop an Industrial Park to house automotive component suppliers so that they can be in close proximity to all the OEMs in the region and for exports into the international markets.”
“This will be convenient for the OEMs as they would now have their component suppliers located close to their assembling plants, ensuring improved efficiencies and reduction of inventory costs for both OEMs and the suppliers resulting in a win-win situation for all concerned,” said MEC Somyo.
He gave VWSA the green light to implement their plans to effect “real meaning in the lives of our people, especially black businesses.”
"The Volkswagen B-BBEE Initiatives Trust is one of the initiatives that Volkswagen introduced to implement our strategy of deepening localisation, increasing our competitiveness and business sustainability. This will also contribute to the economic growth of the region." said VWSA Group chairperson and managing director, Thomas Schaefer.
He said the aim of the Trust is to increase the number of quality black-owned suppliers in the automotive sector value chain.
"VWSA continues to view the procurement from black-owned suppliers as a priority from both a moral and legislative compliance perspective. Therefore, the initial investment of R86 million shows that we as a company are committed to supporting and empowering black-owned suppliers in the Automotive industry through this independent Trust and other company based initiatives. We encourage Corporates throughout all industry sectors to get involved." said Schaefer.
(Pic:Supplied)
