SA MOTOR INDUSTRY LACKS TRANSFORMATION - MOTLANTHE

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has reiterated his and the government’s position on the South African motor industry, that it lacks transformation at virtually every level. Speaking at Motor Industry Staff Association of South Africa (MISA) breakfast last Friday, Motlanthe highlighted the fact that while the automotive industry is a major employer, there is still a stark lack of black participation as far as managerial and ownership levels in it.

“To this end, government has consistently raised concern about the level of economic participation by historically disadvantaged individuals at ownership and management levels,” he told delegates.

“I am sure you will agree, therefore, that much still needs to be done to ensure a more representative industry which draws strength from the diversity of its people and which is therefore better positioned to respond to global imperatives by leveraging our abundant human resources.”

The country’s second-in-command had initially noted, with great concern too, the same issues at the launch of Volkswagen’s Parts Distribution centre in Midrand. His comments, made in June 2010, went on for quite a while during his speech. A number of people in the audience seemed quite uncomfortable when he said:

“it was therefore concerning to note the results of the comprehensive study by the Corporate Strategy and Industrial Development (CSID) Research Unit based at the University of the Witwatersrand, whose findings paint a less than rosy picture of BBBEE in the metals and engineering as well as automotive industry.”

“Among others,” he went on, “the study showed that less than 1% of the businesses in these industries are black-owned. The study also shows a disturbing trend in terms of the demographics of the industry, in both the board membership responsible for critical decision making and the management levels.”

Unfortunately as much as the government is recognising problems in the motor industry, changing them is another thing. One of the biggest problems we at IN4RIDE face for example, is lack of advertising from some of the biggest automotive companies in the world. These are brands with millions of ad spend within their grasp and most claim to target you - the same readers we speak to daily!

Yet regardless of how much editorial coverage we splash out to some of them, they are just not interested in keeping us alive. Sadly even those with a good representation of our country’s demographics are impotent when it comes to this matter. They get overridden by higher (often foreign) bosses each time they try and make a positive move. Ironically the government itself, in all 3 years of our existence, has not once advertised with us, citing “lack of budget”, just like some of these manufacturers.