South African Manufacturers Foundation Acting CEO, Lebo Radebe

SOUTH Africa’s manufacturing industry is on the precipice, with the future of Arcelor Mittal South Africa (AMSA) hanging in the balance while international vultures are circling to ensure it is exterminated.

While the future of AMSA is under review in boardrooms, government, labour, as well as the manufacturing sector, firm offers by South African businesspeople to save the giant steel company and keep it in the hands of local people have been put on the table.

What boggles the mind is that these are serious offers by serious people, and if there is a genuine desire to save the colossal steel company, these offers would have been snapped up and thousands of jobs saved.

As the South African Manufacturers Foundation (SAMF), we have to ask this obvious question: Is this purely the lack of a political will, or are other sinister motives at play?

Steel is a strategic asset. Therefore, it is critical who should own and control Africa’s industrial backbone. It matters who benefits from it, and who bears the cost when it fails. So, this is about more than one transaction.

Once a thriving steel industry which for decades was the bedrock of industrialisation and a provider of essential materials for construction, manufacturing and infrastructure, the industry now finds itself at a crossroads. It is facing a crisis that threatens jobs, economic stability and the industrial future.  

The recipe for the disaster is well documented: rising energy costs, outdated infrastructure as well as a flood of cheaper imports, especially from China, unreliable and inefficient rail logistics, weak local demand and a lack of government infrastructure spending, which have pushed it to the brink.

Yet this is the industry that underpins infrastructure, housing, mining, transport, energy and manufacturing. Countries that cede control of steel cede control of development.

For SAMF, one principle must guide any AMSA deal: It must prioritise African ownership, African control and African industrial objectives.

Public Support Must Protect Jobs

In recent months, AMSA has retrenched between 3,500 and 5,000 workers, further condemning them and their families to abject poverty. These losses are in sharp contrast with the government’s repeated commitment to help stabilise the company.  

AMSA has said it is closing its long steel operations largely due to, among others lack of government support, making the Newcastle and Vereeniging plants unprofitable. A struggling economy and policies leaning towards scrap-based mini mills over raw material added fuel to the fire.

While the government is stalling on resolving the matter, workers are in limbo. At issue is the valuation gap for the potential sale to the Industrial Development Corporation, with talks of R7 billion on the table while AMSA is said to demand considerably more.

We believe that public capital should protect jobs and drive industrial expansion — not socialise losses while employment shrinks. Talking about revival while cutting thousands of jobs raises serious questions about alignment between policy and practice.

Granted, multinational companies have the edge when bidding for tenders because of their expertise and qualifications, but this should not be used to lock out African players and deny them ownership. African players raising their hands should be rewarded and given a chance.

Industrial policy cannot be ownership-neutral. Ownership determines where profits flow, where strategy is set, and whether long-term national and continental interests outweigh short-term balance sheet gains.

The crises facing the industry didn’t crop up overnight. It is not a secret that the government has been aware of the risks and, at some point, came up with the South African Steel and Metal Fabrication Master Plan, which was introduced in 2021 and touted as the strategy to revitalise the sector and drive growth.

It was paraded as the answer to boost local production and reduce reliance on imports, but a Stellenbosch Business School research and evaluation of the current state of the industry and the objectives of the plan found it to be entirely underwhelming.

The institution concluded that instead of sparking revival, the plan struggled to address the fundamental issues crippling the industry.

It could be that the answers to some of the challenges facing the industry are among us.

The old narrative that African capital is absent or unprepared can no longer fly. South African firms such as Networth Investments have submitted proposals to acquire AMSA, and these proposals have been backed by committed capital and turnaround plans.

This is proof of local capability and willingness to carry industrial risk. Pan-African investors have also stepped forward. Entities associated with Prince Estifanos Matewos and Royal Investments, with metallurgical partners, have signalled readiness to invest in steel and rail.

An African-backed consortium has tabled a R5 billion offer for steel assets — a concrete indication that African ownership is viable at scale. These are not symbolic gestures. They are serious offers that challenge the assumption that Africa must outsource control of its most strategic industries.

Steel is not only about tonnage. It is about beneficiation — turning iron ore into higher-value products within Africa, instead of exporting raw materials and importing finished goods.

With African control, steel can:

• Anchor downstream manufacturing 
• Support rail, construction, automotive and green infrastructure
• Strengthen regional supply chains under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement
• Retain skills, profits and decision-making on the continent. Without this, Africa repeats a familiar cycle: exporting value and importing dependency.

The AMSA decision will echo beyond South Africa. Across the continent, governments face the same choice: preserve strategic industries through inclusive, development-led ownership, or default to models that prioritise short-term relief over long-term industrial sovereignty.

One path preserves the status quo: concentrated ownership, weak competition and recurring job losses. The other builds African ownership, industrial depth, jobs and shared prosperity. The Moment to Act SAMF’s view is clear. Alternatives exist. They are African.

They are credible. They are financed. They are ready. What remains is whether African institutions will back them. If this moment is missed, it will not be for lack of options, but for lack of resolve.

If it is seized, AMSA can become a symbol not of decline, but of Africa reclaiming its industrial future. The steel that builds Africa should be owned by Africa.

• Lebo Radebe is the Acting CEO of the South African Manufacturers Foundation