Source: President of South Africa –
Programme Director,
Premier of the Eastern Cape, Mr Oscar Mabuyane,
Mr Enrico Brandt, Deputy Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany,
Dr Oliver Blume, Chief Executive Officer of the Volkswagen Group,
Mr Thomas Schäfer, Global CEO of the Volkswagen Brand,
Ms Martina Mamtshawe Biene and the Volkswagen Group Africa Board,
Representatives of labour,
Representatives of business,
Volkswagen employees and members of the supplier community,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening.
It is a great pleasure to be here in Kariega as we celebrate 75 years of Volkswagen manufacturing in South Africa.
Like me, many South Africans carry memories of the place of Volkswagen cars in their lives.
This brand is so woven into our culture that we sometimes have to remind ourselves that VW is not a South African vehicle.
As Volkswagen itself says: it is a German brand, with a South African heart.
On the 31st of August 1951, the first Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the production line in what was then Uitenhage.
That moment marked the beginning of what would become the largest German investment in Southern Africa.
This plant is the oldest Volkswagen manufacturing facility outside Europe.
It is today the only plant in the world that manufactures the Volkswagen Polo, and the sole exporter of the Polo to Europe and the Asia‑Pacific.
Every Polo you see outside South Africa was built right here.
Close to five million vehicles have been built here – the Beetle, the Kombi, the Golf, the Jetta, the Citi Golf, the Polo and the Polo Vivo.
These vehicles have been built for South Africa and for the world.
This is a remarkable achievement.
Volkswagen has never been content simply to do business in South Africa.
It has sought to become part of the fabric of our nation.
At the height of apartheid, when it was neither easy nor popular to do so, Volkswagen was the first company in this industry to recognise black trade unions and to employ black artisans.
Tonight we celebrate this proud history.
We celebrate generations of Volkswagen employees who have built this company.
We celebrate the suppliers, dealers, organised labour and communities that have been part of this journey.
And we celebrate the contribution that Volkswagen has made to Kariega, Nelson Mandela Bay, the Eastern Cape and the South African economy.
Tonight is about honouring the past, celebrating today and driving tomorrow.
It is an opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the last 75 years and to look to the future.
The automotive sector is one of the largest manufacturing industries in our country.
It supports more than 115,000 direct manufacturing jobs and more than half a million jobs across the automotive value chain.
The industry accounts for just over 5 percent of our gross domestic product and reaches 155 export destinations.
Vehicles manufactured by our plants reach markets across Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Africa and many other parts of the world.
The automotive industry is therefore vital to our efforts to grow the economy, expand exports, attract investment and create jobs.
Volkswagen has been an integral part of this journey.
Last year, more than 156,000 vehicles were produced here in Kariega.
Almost 120,000 of these vehicles were exported to markets around the world.
Volkswagen works with an extensive network of South African suppliers.
Through these operations, thousands of South Africans earn their livelihoods, acquire skills and participate in one of our country’s most important manufacturing value chains.
Volkswagen’s presence in South Africa demonstrates what can be achieved through long-term investment, industrial capability and partnership.
We are greatly encouraged by Volkswagen’s continued investment in our country.
We particularly welcome the R4 billion investment associated with the introduction of the new Volkswagen Tengo.
The Tengo will become the third model manufactured here in Kariega, alongside the Polo and Polo Vivo.
It is a vote of confidence in our workers.
It is a vote of confidence in our manufacturing capability.
And it is a vote of confidence in South Africa as an investment destination.
We do not take this investment for granted.
In an intensely competitive environment, South Africa must continue to demonstrate that we have the capabilities, the skills and the policy environment required to attract these investments.
We also welcome Volkswagen’s investment of more than R800 million in social investment in the communities around this plant.
The establishment of the LEAP 9 Maths and Science School in KwaNobuhle, here in Kariega, is an important investment in the future of our young people.
Volkswagen is also working with our Department of Basic Education on early childhood development and on raising mathematics and science competencies.
The company also invests R40 million every year in the Youth Employment Service, an initiative that government founded together with business.
This programme gives unemployed young people their first experience of work.
These investments remind us that the future of advanced manufacturing begins long before a young person enters a factory.
It begins in our schools, in the teaching of mathematics and science, and in giving young South Africans the skills and confidence to participate in the economy of the future.
The automotive industry is undergoing profound change.
The transition towards battery electric vehicles, hybrids and other new-energy technologies is changing the way vehicles are designed and manufactured.
For South Africa, this transition presents both a challenge and a significant opportunity.
We have an established automotive manufacturing base.
We have skilled workers.
And we have significant reserves of many of the critical minerals required for the technologies of the future.
We must build on these strengths.
We are determined to ensure that South Africa remains an important global manufacturing base for the vehicles of the future.
Government is working to ensure that there is a stable, predictable and supportive policy environment in which automotive companies can invest, localise and grow.
We are reviewing the South African Automotive Masterplan and the automotive policy framework to ensure that they respond to the changing conditions facing the industry.
Detailed discussions are underway among all partners, including the industry, unions and government, to develop a common programme to grow and sustain the automotive sector in South Africa.
We are committed to concluding this work as a priority.
We need a sustainable plan that is suited to changing circumstances and that will address constraints, unlock opportunities, build skills, create policy certainty and enhance South Africa’s competitiveness as an investment destination.
Our objective is to increase vehicle production in South Africa.
We want more of the vehicles sold in our country to be produced here.
And we want this industry to continue creating jobs and opportunities for our people.
As we increase production, we must increase the value that is created in South Africa.
We want more black industrialists participating in the automotive value chain.
And we want South African companies to develop capabilities in batteries, electronics and the other technologies that will increasingly define the vehicles of the future.
We must not only assemble the vehicles of the future.
We must increasingly manufacture the components, process the materials and develop the skills and technologies that go into them.
The success of this plant over the last 75 years has ultimately been built by people.
It has been built by generations of South African workers.
The true value of industrial investment is therefore not measured only by the number of vehicles that leave a production line.
It is measured by the skills that are developed, the businesses that are created and the opportunities that are opened for young people.
We commend Volkswagen for its contribution to skills development, supplier development and community investment.
The workers who built the automotive industry of today must be joined by a new generation of South Africans who will build the automotive industry of tomorrow.
We must also look increasingly to our own continent.
The African Continental Free Trade Area provides us with an opportunity to build larger markets, develop regional value chains and expand automotive manufacturing across the continent.
And we want South Africa to remain an important manufacturing base for vehicles made for South Africa, for Africa and for the world.
Volkswagen’s history in South Africa is a story of partnership.
I therefore welcome the call from Volkswagen, and from the broader automotive industry, for stronger partnership between government, business and labour.
And as the global industry transitions towards new-energy vehicles, we want South Africa to be part of Volkswagen’s future technology and manufacturing strategy.
Investment decisions being taken today will determine where the vehicles of the next decade are manufactured.
Seventy-five years ago, the first Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the production line here in Kariega.
Much has changed since then.
The vehicles have changed. The technologies have changed.
The markets have changed. And the world has changed.
But what has endured is the partnership between Volkswagen and South Africa.
Tonight we honour the people who built that partnership.
We congratulate Volkswagen Group Africa on this important anniversary.
We thank the Volkswagen Group for its continued confidence in our country.
And we look forward to the next chapter of this relationship.
We thank Volkswagen for believing in South Africa for 75 years.
Let us work together to build people’s cars in this country for many years to come.
I thank you.
