The Federation increasingly emerged as the national champion of artisan training in South Africa. Aside from committed support for artisan training at national strategic level and at sector level on the Merseta, SEIFSA became an active participant by outsourcing the management of its apprentice training centre in Benoni to GijimaAST in 2003. The centre was renamed Fundi Training Centre, and subsequently the SEIFSA Training Centre, and quickly established a reputation as a centre of excellence.
In response to growing artisan skills shortages, SEIFSA developed and piloted an innovative accelerated artisan training programme subsequently adopted and funded by the Merseta, which garnered national recognition. The Federation also secured donor funding to ramp up apprentice intake.
SEIFSA funded a major expansion of the SEIFSA Training Centre from the reserves of the previous Metal and Engineering Industries Education and Training Fund to cater for growing demand for training.
As the decade drew to a close, the global economic crisis began to take its toll on the national economy and on manufacturing, in particular. Many companies had to implement short-time working arrangements and largescale retrenchments as they were forced to move into survival mode.
At the end of the decade, the enormous national optimism of the fledgling democracy became tempered by an awareness of the multiple challenges across the political, economic and social spectrum. Nevertheless, the nation’ s dream – despite the obstacles – t of reaching its full potential as a global example of genuine democracy in Africa, with equitable economic development and harmonious racial integration based on the ideal of Madiba’ s rainbow nation, remained essentially undimmed
The end of the Collective Bargaining Levy and A New Era
When it expired in December 2012, the Collective Bargaining Levy( CBL) was not renewed because of a dispute between SEIFSA and a new employer Association, NEASA. That dispute raged for a number of years, with the relationship between SEIFSA and NEASA becoming more strained.
The Federation’ s previously-strong financial situation started to weaken in 2011, when SEIFSA recorded its first loss as the number of companies affiliated to its member Associations dropped gradually. The non-renewal of the CBL a year later worsened the situation, and in May 2013 the SEIFSA Board of Directors( called the Executive Committee at the time) approved a deficit budget for the first time.
When he joined SEIFSA on 1 November 2013 – on the eve of a new round of wage negotiations – that is the situation that confronted new CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba. Through collaborative strategic planning sessions which involved all employees, Nyatsumba revised the Federation’ s Memorandum of Incorporation( to extend SEIFSA’ s scope to the SADC region and to entrench corporate governance, with a Board of Directors replacing the former“ Executive Committee”), as well as its positioning statement( from“ Providing Industry Solutions” to“ Our Passion, Your Success”), its Vision, Mission and Values.
The 2014 wage negotiations began in March. At the February 2014 SEIFSA Council, SEIFSA member Associations decided on a list of demands of their own to be taken into the negotiations with labour. Among them was a demand for the signing of a Peace Agreement before anything else could be discussed in the negotiations.
Coming a few months after the unprecedented, five-month-long strike in the platinum mining sector a year earlier, which culminated in the Marikana massacre as well as sectors closely related to the metals and engineering industry, the 2014 negotiations proved to be very difficult. The sector suffered a month-long strike in July, at a time it was struggling terribly and the economy was ill performing. In the end, a three-year wage agreement was concluded.
Another wave of retrenchments and company liquidations followed.
The 2017 negotiations on wages and conditions of employment took place in a far more cordial atmosphere, a few months after the sector had experienced its worst slump in years. A more palatable, three-year settlement agreement was concluded in August 2017, without a day lost to strike action.
Building on the legacy of the men who had gone before him, Nyatsumba – who is SEIFSA’ s first black CEO during its 75-year history – introduced a number of new services in addition to those previously introduced by Angus. Some of these were Legal Services and an offering geared for smaller companies through the Small Business Hub. He also introduced an annual industry conference, the Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba and the annual SEIFSA Awards for Excellence.
At a time when South Africa was blighted by poor economic policy choices, policy incoherence and general Government antipathy towards business, Nyatsumba ensured that SEIFSA’ s voice was heard on all matters of economic and political significance, in the process raising the Federation’ s public profile. He was the first person in the country to denounce the bloated size of the Cabinet announced by President Jacob Zuma when he began his second term in office in 2014.
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Some of the content for this article was sourced from“ Organisation and Structure of the Metal and Engineering Industries in the Republic of South Africa”, recording developments up to 1967, and STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY, celebrating SEIFSA’ s 60th anniversary, both previously published by SEIFSA.
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SEIFSA AT 75- SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE MAGAZINE 35