CNBC Africa Interview – Renai Moothilal – Reflects on Importance of Policy Stability
In an interview with CNBC Africa, NAACAM CEO, Renai Moothilal, said NAACAM looks forward to continued collaboration with government and specifically the new dtic Minister, Parks Tau and Deputy Ministers Zuko Godlimpi and Andrew Whitfield, as well as with other stakeholders to ensure continued growth of the domestic automotive manufacturing sector.
He reflected on the importance of policy stability, with possible positive tweaks in the coming years. “The APDP under the SA Autos Master Plan 2035 is key to maintaining the sector and growing it over the medium to long term.”
In terms of the EV market, Mr Moothilal said Minister Tau and the dtic already have a policy structure to work from through the recently published white paper on stimulating EV production in SA which now needs to be implemented. From a component manufacturing perspective there is now a higher cash incentive for NEV production announced earlier this year. “As a sector we’ve gone through a period of reshaping policy, particularly for electric vehicles, which now needs to be bedded down and implemented. But we also look to our partners in the vehicle assembly community to start making announcements around electric vehicle platforms here in SA…and volumes being announced, and with this the value chain will respond.”
Mr Moothilal advised that if there was any criticism of the current automotive policy it was on not delivering the increases in localisation initially envisaged. This has meant the domestic components sector is currently foregoing billions in lost economic opportunity, suggesting that “a very sharp focus on increasing that localisation rate has got to be the mandate of the new administration.” #WeAreNAACAM #NAACAMProud