Ramaphosa: R1-trillion infrastructure push must reboot South Africa’s manufacturing era

President Cyril RamaphosaR1-trillion infrastructure programme should be used as the foundation for a renewed era of industrialisation. Speaking at the SEIFSA Presidential Business Breakfast on 13 August 2026, he said the programme must do more than build it must expand the country’s productive capacity and protect key sectors.

Infrastructure as an industrial strategy

Ramaphosa said government’s infrastructure programme, which he said amounts to around R1 trillion over the next three years, should not be viewed merely as a construction effort. He framed the work on transmission lines, railways, ports and water systems as components of an industrial strategy that can create factories, develop skills, strengthen supply chains and support new industrialists.

“We should view this not simply as a construction programme. We should view it as an industrial strategy,”

The President highlighted the strategic importance of the metals, engineering and manufacturing sectors and described steel, engineering and manufacturing as the backbone of the economy. He said these industries generate skills, drive innovation, support exports, create productive employment and sustain thousands of businesses.

Energy, skills and the industrial value chain

On electricity, Ramaphosa said that while load shedding has ended, high tariffs threaten energy‑intensive industries. He warned of the severe consequences when a smelter closes:

“Once a smelter closes, we lose productive capacity, we lose skills, we lose export earnings, and we weaken entire industrial value chains. These are jobs that are extremely difficult to recreate,”

He said the next phase of electricity reform will focus on affordability and that a competitive electricity market is expected to begin operating next year. Ramaphosa also urged industry to invest in skills and apprenticeships, warning that South Africa must avoid expanding infrastructure without retaining a strong domestic manufacturing base.

Linking the energy transition to manufacturing

Ramaphosa tied the country’s energy transition directly to industrial renewal, pointing to the scale of work required on the grid. He said over the coming decade South Africa needs around 14 000 kilometres of new transmission lines, together with major investment in substations and transformation capacity, and called for that work to become a major industrial project.

He stressed that the energy transition must also be a technology transition and said South Africa should not just import technologies for the new energy economy. Where the country has capability or can realistically develop it, “we should manufacture them here,” he said, citing opportunities in renewable energy components, battery manufacturing and green hydrogen.

Ramaphosa said government will use procurement to secure technology transfer, research and development, and supplier development when imports are unavoidable.

Call for unity

Addressing SEIFSA which he said represents more than 1 300 member companies the President ended with an appeal for cooperation between government, business and labour to rebuild manufacturing and create jobs.

“If we do these things together, South Africa can once again become a country that makes things – a country that manufactures the equipment for its own development, transforms its minerals into higher‑value products, and creates millions of productive jobs for its people.”