Proudly South African, the Manufacturing Circle and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) signed a pledge on Thursday designed to help increase demand for locally produced products and services.

The pledge, which was initialled by Proudly SA CEO Leslie Sedibe, Manufacturing Circle chairperson Stewart Jennings and Numsa general-secretary Irvin Jim, was aligned to the recently unveiled ‘Local Procurement Accord’, which was endorsed by government, business, labour and community groupings in late October.

The accord was signed as part of the implementation phase of South Africa’s New Growth Path, which aims to create five-million new jobs by 2020.

An aspirational buy-local target of 75% was set for both government and business organisations, with a primary ambition being that of bolstering South Africa’s embattled manufacturing sector.

Sedibe said the recently adjusted preferential procurement regulations should provide a catalyst for the buy-local thrust, while Numsa’s Jim reiterated organised labour’s commitment to procuring locally made goods and services used by the union.

Jennings indicated that the pledge envisaged advancing the country’s overall objective of creating skilled and semiskilled job opportunities.

“Once we started interacting, we quickly realised that many common objectives existed, such as the need for a competitive currency to underpin exports, the need to boost enterprise development and to better understand the impact of illegal imports on the South African economy, as well as the high cost of doing business such as municipal fees, port charges, electricity prices and the increasingly onerous terms of trade,” Jennings said.