Honourable House Chair
Minister Robert Davies.
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable Members
Director-General and officials of the Department of Trade and Industry
Council of Trade and Industry Institutions
Leaders of organised Business and Labour
Distinguished guests
 Good Afternoon!

Every nation has a Message to deliver, a Mission to fulfill; and a Destiny to reach.

But most importantly, they have the obligation to guide humanity, in the direction, that they wish to pursue.

Our Message, our Mission and our envisaged Destiny as government, is to:

Take every hand to build a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa,

To harness every minds to construct an empire of liberty, justice and inclusive growth

To inspire every heart to serve our nation, with pride and with dignity.

And to preserve the wisdom of the South African people, to chart a progressive development.

House Chairperson

Collaborative effort from all spheres of government, the private sector and labour, has bred meaningful results in this financial year.

Various instruments have been applied to accelerate our interventions.

They include amongst others:

Black Industrialist Programme

 Special Economic Zones

  Revitalisation of Industrial Parks

 Localisation Programme; and a suit of incentives; to name a few.

Hon members, the DTI proudly exceeded its target of supporting 100 Black Industrialists, as announced in April 2018.

Since inception, the Black Industrialist Programme has approved 108 black industrialists.

This programme is projected to leverage an   investment value of R 9 billion.

At full scale production, this programme is projected to create 15 000 direct new jobs.

In respect to the above, amongst the black industrialist projects launched, in this financial year, were:

A youth owned company based in Gauteng called Maneli Pets Food.

This company was given a grant funding of R12.5 m.

Maneli manufactures, and exports high protein pet food to the US and the EU market.

The other launch was of Mthembu Tissue Converting, one of the first approved Black Industrialist projects; in the pulp, paper and furniture sector, also launched their product called “Cloud Nine” tissues.

The company was given a grant funding of R13 million.

We wish to congratulate Mthembu Tissue converting, for winning two exceptional awards, namely:

“The Platinum Technology Award, for Quality and Best Trade Name”; from Otherways Management Association, in France.

And, the “All Africa Industrialist of the year Award”, from the IDC and CNBC Africa.

uTata General Mthembu is with us, in the gallery today

Fellow South Africans, indeed it is imperative to note, that our pride for our country, should not come after it becomes great.

But rather, our country becomes great because of our pride in it.

The Revitalisation of our Industrial Parks is paramount, to profiling our economy as radically transformed.

11 Industrial Parks have been selected for revitalisation, as mentioned in the last year’s budget vote.
In this financial year, the Dti allocated R216 million, for the renovation of five industrial parks.

This programme of revitalisation has ensured that 55 000 people are employed.

With phase 2, in progress; further job will be created.

It is important to note that, because of the revitalisation programme, major companies are starting to locate their businesses in these industrial parks.

In this instance, Whirlpool South Africa has invested R100 million, in a new manufacturing line, in the Isithebe Industrial Park, near Mandeni in KZN.

 8 Special Economic Zones have been designated.

This has leveraged an investment of R10 billion, creating 13 477 direct jobs.

For 2018/19 FY, our priority will be to finalise the designations of Nkomazi (in Mpumalanga), Platinum Valley (in the North West); and Atlantis in (Western Cape), also as Special Economic Zones (As supported by the Minister).

Honourable Members, there is no value in measuring speed, without pursuing the right direction.

The B-BBEE Commission has been hard at work, at a correct speed, pursing the right direction.

The following represents the Commissions’ achievements for the year:

Out of the 186 processed deals, 175 were issued with registration certificates.

1603 cases of B-BBEE misrepresentations were resolved this year.

3158 invalid B-BBEE certificates were captured by the Commission as of 31 March 2018.

45 entities were issued with Findings against Non-compliance.

This has ensured that the B-BBEE status in entities is not misrepresented.

The Commission has made it a point that Complainants, and those violated by irregularities, are compensate

Young people are being mentored to deal with some of the cases and senior management spent most of their time transferring skills to young people.

Hon members Boundaries cannot afford to be nurtured, if we wish to achieve greatness.

The right doors are indeed being unlocked for our young people, hence the priority to train and mentor our youth.

The Monyetla Program in the Dti has given opportunities to young unemployed graduates.

Currently 3220 young people have been trained, out of 3220, 3059 are employed by the private sector companies, and that represents (95%); absorption rate.

For 2018/19 phase of the program, (Monyetla) will provide an opportunity, to add a further 3000 unemployed young graduates from across the country.

The National Empowerment Fund has contributed significantly to economic development, through the empowerment of local and black owned businesses.

In the year 2017/18 alone, the NEF has spent a total of R634m, while creating 3609 employment opportunities.

The capital injection from the Fund has benefited a number of critical sectors; namely:

 Financial Insurance & Real estate

 Manufacturing

 Construction

Agriculture & Forestry

Chairperson; we cannot begin to ear-mark economic transformation without its marriage to social development.

In the 2017/18 financial year, the National Lotteries Commission distributed R1.5b to sectors, which are non- profit, and non- governmental organisations.

These included projects in the Arts, Sports, Charities and Miscellaneous.

In addition to the above, the NLC has built Early Childhood Development Centres across the country, to the value of R500 million.

Rural provinces also stand to benefit from a R120m set aside to develop agricultural projects.

Under construction, is also the Credo Mutuwa Museum, based in Kuruman in the Northern Cape.

This is in honour of Ntate Credo Mutwa’s contribution, to Literature, poetry and knowledge development.
 
This is in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture, and the government of the Northern Cape.

On the legislative front, the Department, is finalising the National Gambling Amendment Bill and two Gambling Regulations.

The Bill will be formally introduced for public hearings in the course of the year accompanied with prospective changes.
 
Conclusion

Like a bird, as government we continue to sing, not because we have all the answers, but because we have songs.

Therefore, let us continue to collectively stand in song, as we tune into economic growth, freedom and equality, for our people.

I ask the house to support this budget vote.

I thank you.