The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) and its affiliate, the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), on Thursday 29 January briefed the media on the deepening national crisis of factory closures, retrenchments and deindustrialisation following our engagement with BritishAmerican Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) regarding the proposed closure of its Heidelberg manufacturing plant.
This closure threatens more than 200 direct jobs and thousands of dependants. In South Africa, one worker feeds an entire family.With 43% expanded unemployment, every job lost is a social catastrophe. South Africa cannot afford another factory closure.
South Africa is being reduced to a warehouse economy since the dawn of democracy, multinational corporations have steadily:
- closed factories in South Africa
- relocated production to neighbouring countries or overseas
- kept distribution networks here
- and continued selling imported products back into our market
Factories leave, imports rise, jobs disappear, profits remain.This is not development; this is deindustrialisation by design.
- BAT’s proposal to shut local production while importing cigarettes follows exactly the
same logic.
It mirrors: - Goodyear closing its Kariega tyre plant while retaining distribution networks
- Earlier tyre closures such as Bridgestone
- Ongoing relocations in clothing, textiles, electronics and light manufacturing
Corporations want South Africa as a consumer market, not a productive economy.
We reject that completely. If you want to sell here, you must produce here.
Policies copied from rich countries are destroying a poor country
Government continues importing policy models suited for Western Europe, where
unemployment is in single digits and implanting them into South Africa, one of the
most unequal societies on earth.
Here the reality is:
- Expanded unemployment around 43%
- Youth unemployment above 60%
- Deep inequality
- 62% of the population living below just R1,558 per month (SALDRU, UCT)
These conditions demand industrial expansion and job creation.
Instead, we are witnessing factory closures and import dependency.
This is reckless and socially destructive.
The dangerous obsession with “sin taxes” without jobs since 2014, so-called “sin taxes” have increased by approximately 88%.
Yet what has happened?
- Legal producers collapse
- Illicit trade expands
- Factories close
- Workers lose jobs
Political leaders must decide:
Do we want a “healthy nation” that is unemployed, poor and raising stunted children?
Or a nation that balances public health with jobs, incomes and development?
We are not defending harmful products.
But we are saying clearly:
Poverty itself is a public health crisis. You cannot fight smoking, alcohol, sugar or coal by destroying livelihoods.
Today the balance has been lost. Policy is worsening unemployment instead of protecting people. The same injustice happened in the energy transition; we have seen this before. Coal plants were closed in the name of climate commitments.
Workers lost jobs; communities collapsed; no real alternatives were provided. A transition without workers is not a transition, it is abandonment. We will not allow the same mistake in manufacturing. High-level talks without workers are unacceptable
During our engagement with BAT, we were told there are “high-level engagements
between government and industry.” But these talks are happening behind the backs of workers.
This is unacceptable.
Workers:
- create the wealth
- run the machines
- keep factories alive
- There is no stakeholder higher than workers.
We demand full and immediate inclusion of SAFTU and FAWU in all
government–industry discussions, nothing about workers without workers. Parliament must not pass the Tobacco Control Bill: Stop and engage workers first SAFTU and FAWU are issuing a clear and unequivocal demand:
Parliament must NOT pass the Tobacco Control Bill in its current form. The
process must be halted immediately.
In its present form, this Bill will:
- weaken legal producers
- strengthen illicit and criminal operators
- accelerate factory closures
- and finish off thousands of remaining manufacturing jobs
You cannot regulate compliant companies out of existence while criminals operate
freely. That is not public health policy.
That is economic self-sabotage.
South Africa is not Western Europe.
We do not have single-digit unemployment.
We do not have strong welfare systems.
We cannot afford to legislate people into poverty.
Every job lost pushes a family into hunger.
We therefore demand that Parliament: - Halt the Bill
- Suspend processing at Portfolio Committee level
- Conduct a full employment and socio-economic impact assessment
- Convene urgent hearings with FAWU, SAFTU and affected industry players
- Balance health objectives with jobs and development
Workers must be at the table, nothing about workers without workers.
SAFTU and FAWU will be dispatching letters to all Members of Parliament and
Portfolio Committees demanding urgent engagement, we will not allow Parliament to legislate unemployment.
Urgent legislation needed to stop the wholesaling of the economy
We are no longer appealing for voluntary corporate goodwill.
Corporations will not protect jobs unless the law compels them.
What we are witnessing is the wholesaling of South Africa’s productive capacity: - Factories shut
- Jobs exported.
- Imports replace production.
- Profits extracted.
This is economic strip-mining; it must be stopped by law.
SAFTU and FAWU demand urgent legislation that: - Prohibits companies from closing local production while continuing to sell imports
- Conditions market access on local manufacturing commitments
- Requires mandatory employment and social impact assessments before closures
- Empowers government to block deindustrialising restructurings
- Links incentives and licences to local job creation
- Penalises firms that replace South African jobs with imports
If you want to profit from the South African market, you must produce in South Africa and employ South Africans. No more warehouses, no more hollowed-out towns, no more exporting jobs. South Africa does not need more distributors. South Africa does not need more warehouses.
South Africa needs:
- Factories.
- Production.
- Jobs.
- Dignity.
If corporations will not protect jobs voluntarily,
the law must compel them. Workers did not create this crisis. Workers will not pay for this crisis. An injury to one is an injury to all.
Issued today by: South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) Food and
Allied Workers Union (FAWU)
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku
newtonm@saftu.org.za
0661682157
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
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