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The Minister of Trade and Industry (the dti) Ebrahim Patel, has launched a taxi manufacturing expansion plant worth almost half a billion rands in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. The expansion is part of the Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) Hiace Ses’filikile Plant.

Minister Patel said the investment is another vote of confidence in the capability of the South African automotive industry and the KwaZulu-Natal economy. Manufacturing is the largest contributor to economic output in the province, supporting more than 350 000 direct jobs.

Minister Patel encouraged the automotive industry to prioritise local production of vehicles in line with the automotive master plan and to look at electric and hybrid vehicles in future expansion plans.

 “Last year, government and stakeholders adopted an automotive master plan, aiming to achieve 1% of global vehicle production by 2035 (increase from current 600 000 units to almost 1.4 million units a year) and increase Iocal content from current 39% to 60%. The master plan is targeting to double employment in the value chain from current levels to about 240 000 and also to achieve at least level 4 BEE status from 2021,” said Minister Patel.

Minister Patel indicated that localisation must be a driver of development and opportunity. He noted that localisation builds a country's manufacturing footprint.

“Since TSAM’s localisation programme began, more than 80 000 taxis have been assembled locally by Toyota and another smaller assembler. The increased level of local content is an important part of the vision for the industry and will increase the participation of more South Africans in this thriving sector of the economy. It is also a practical implementation of the commitment Toyota made at the Investment Conference last year," he said.

Toyota South Africa Motors president (TSAM) and CEO, Andrew Kirby said in terms of the South African Automotive Masterplan (SAAM), local automotive value addition needs to be exponentially increased.

“TSAM is committed to support the SAAM and has therefore proactively increased the local value addition of the Hiace Ses’fikile from 38% to 44%. This localisation has added R422 million per annum local value addition to the economy. Even more encouraging is the fact that we’ve been able to create an additional 80 jobs in the process.” said Kirby.

 Kirby also announced the start of the company’s export operations to support local assembly in Kenya of Hilux. 

"TSAM is embracing the direction of local assembly, and has therefore invested close to R20 million for the establishment of our packing plant to support this knock down business. Start of production in Kenya will be later in October 2019 and customers in Kenya will benefit by being able to buy their vehicles at a more competitive price," added Kirby.

Kwazulu-Natal MEC for economic development, tourism and environmental affairs, Ms Nomusa Dube-Ncube said plans were under way to develop an automotive supplier park in south of Durban.

Dube-Ncube said the environmental impact assessment (EIA) on the site had been completed. She added that the provincial government is committed in ensuring that local communities are beneficiaries of the supplier park.

Issued by The Department of Trade and Industry