Interview with
Ufikile Khumalo, SEIFSA’s
first black president and
chairperson of the
board of directors
T
he Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern
Africa (SEIFSA) elected Ufikile Khumalo as its first black
President and Chairman of its Board of Directors in
October 2014. Mr Khumalo, who served in his position for two
terms, was elected at a time when the South African metals and
engineering (M&E) sector was faced with a myriad of challenges,
including an influx of imports from highly-subsidized Asian
economies, slow economic growth and a looming strike. We
caught up with Mr Khumalo, who is currently the Chief Executive
Officer at Foskor, to discuss his two-year tenure at SEIFSA.
Q
: You were elected SEIFSA President and
Chairperson in 2014. What were your
expectations of both the Federation and industry
prior to joining and what did you find after occupying
your office?
A
: I joined SEIFSA in October 2013 in my capacity as
President and Chairperson of the Board of Directors. This
was a few weeks before the new Chief Executive Officer(CEO),
Kaizer Nyatsumba, was due to start. My expectations were that
our appointments as first Black Africans to head the SEIFSA Board
of Directors and to occupy SEIFSA’s highest office as CEO, in its
more than 70 years of existence, were going to be met with both
resistance from some and to be welcomed by others. This meant
that I, together with the CEO, had to quickly realise that change
management initiatives aimed at assuring all stakeholders that
SEIFSA was in good hands needed to be a priority. When I took
over the SEIFSA Presidency and Chairmanship, wage negotiations
between employers and employee representatives, in the form
of trade unions, were also on the horizon, so I expected a
challenging wage-negotiation period. When I eventually occupied
the office, I found the challenges to be much worse than I had
anticipated. In addition to the above, I also realised that the metals
and engineering sector was in a state of flux and was faced with
too many challenges – all at the same time. A lot of effort and
planning would be needed to navigate the Federation through
the deteriorating socio-economic, political and regulatory
environment and, indeed, the generally unfavorable business
landscape. For this, SEIFSA needed to have a strong and united
Board, an effective and supportive Council as well as Associations
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Ufikile Khumalo
SEIFSA President (2013-2015)
SEIFSA AT 75 - SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE MAGAZINE
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