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Engineering News reports that Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern African (Seifsa) chief economist Chifipa Mhango said on Tuesday that government needed to urgently focus on job creation efforts as it tried to revive the economy.
Key to addressing this challenge, would be the speedy implementation of government's economic policies to address the bottlenecks in the economy. “The Statistics South Africa Quarterly Labour Force Survey data released on August 24 is a sign that efforts to reverse the impact of Covid-19 on the economy and employment will continue to be a bumpy ride unless there is a focus on government policy implementation,” Mhango noted. He added that Seifsa remained concerned about the job losses experienced in the metals and engineering sector. The sector’s contribution to overall total manufacturing employment has dwindled from 37.9% in 2008 to 35% today. The sector lost 35,000 jobs in 2020. Challenges facing businesses in the metals and engineering sector, such as high electricity costs, unreliable energy supply and disruption in raw material supply, rising logistics costs and cheap imports, have continued to weigh negatively on the industry. “While government and businesses in the sector and other stakeholders have partnered to address these challenges through the implementation of the Steel and Metals Fabrication Master Plan, there needs to be a sense of urgency to implement the interventions,” Mhango exhorted.
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