The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), together with its affiliate FAWU, today met with the Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition to raise the alarm on the deepening crisis engulfing South Africa’s manufacturing sector.
This engagement follows months of warnings by SAFTU, dating back to September 2025, about the unfolding job loss bloodbath across food processing, agro-processing, steel, automotive, and other manufacturing sectors.
This is not a cyclical downturn; it is a structural collapse
The latest data confirms that 61,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, the largest sectoral decline in the economy. This is not a temporary downturn but a systemic crisis of deindustrialisation.Factories are closing. Production is shrinking. Value chains are collapsing. Workers are being retrenched in their thousands. If urgent intervention is not taken, South Africa faces the real danger of becoming a “warehouse economy”, importing finished goods while destroying local production capacity.
SECTORS IN CRISIS
SAFTU highlighted multiple sectors facing collapse:
- Steel: ArcelorMittal reduced from 20,000 workers historically employed by ISCOR to just a few thousand today, threatening entire downstream industries.
- Automotive: Retrenchments and restructuring across major manufacturers due to global trade shocks and rising costs.
- Food and Beverages: Recurring job losses and restructuring, including Coca-Cola.
- Agro-processing: The crisis at Tongaat Hulettthreatens up to 60,000 livelihoods across the value chain.
- Tobacco: The imminent closure of the British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) Heidelberg plant will destroy hundreds of jobs.
BATSA: PROFIT BEFORE PEOPLE
SAFTU strongly condemns BATSA’s decision to close its Heidelberg manufacturing plant and retrench 247 workers.
This decision is:
- Not driven by losses, but by profit maximisation
- A deliberate move to shift production offshore
- Part of a broader trend of deindustrialisation and “warehousing.”
BATSA has justified this decision based on illicit trade.
However: - Government, through SARS, has already launched a comprehensive five-point programme to combat illicit trade.
- BATSA has refused to commit to maintaining local production despite these interventions.
This exposes the truth:
BATSA is abandoning workers and communities, not because it cannot operate, but because it chooses higher profits elsewhere.
SAFTU WELCOMES SARS INTERVENTION
SAFTU welcomes the bold intervention by SARS, including:
- Rebuilding customs and excise enforcement
- Introducing modern tracking systems
- Strengthening border controls
- Coordinating law enforcement
- Intensifying domestic compliance
This programme directly addresses the concerns raised by industry.
There is therefore no justification for BATSA to proceed with retrenchments and factory closure.
KEY DEMANDS
SAFTU calls for:
- Immediate halt to BATSA retrenchments and factory closure
BATSA must suspend all retrenchments and engage in a tripartite process with the government and labour. - Urgent national intervention to stop deindustrialisation
The same decisive intervention used in sectors like chrome must be extended across manufacturing. - Strong action against dumping and illicit trade
The government must enforce trade measures to protect local industries. - Protection of strategic sectors
Food processing, agro-processing, and manufacturing must be treated as strategic sectors. - A moratorium on retrenchments in key industries
Workers cannot continue to pay the price for corporate restructuring and policy failures.
The meeting agreed to:
- Convene an urgent tripartite meeting with BATSA
- Establish a joint task team between SAFTU and the government
- Intensify coordination on industrial policy and sector interventions
A statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU by the General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku
newtonm@saftu.org.za
0661682157
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
