Kaizer M. Nyatsumba Chief Executive Officer
FOREWORD
Seventy-five years ago, men of vision – among them inaugural Cape Engineers and Founders Association( CEFA) Chairman Harry Gearing – came together to form the South African Federation of Engineering and Metallurgical Associations. The organisation was later renamed the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa( SEIFSA), by which it came to be known over the years. Gearing became SEIFSA’ s founding Executive Director and former journalist Fred Williams its first President.
Since then, the Federation has had a number of similarly outstanding men who have led it in the two respective roles over the years as it established itself as the largest and most influential employers’ organisation in the metals and engineering sector. My immediate predecessors, David Carson and Brian Angus, were among them. They have all contributed immensely to what present-day SEIFSA is today – and we are immensely grateful and deeply indebted to them all.
SEIFSA At 75 is a catalogue of their – and our – collective story.
Although the name remains SEIFSA, in February 2014 the Board of Directors approved our recommendation for the extension of the Federation’ s scope beyond the borders of South Africa, through to the Southern African Development Community. From then onwards, SEIFSA stood for“ Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa”. Today SEIFSA is registered in Namibia and Zambia and is awaiting the finalization of its registration in Mozambique.
We cannot possibly tell the full story of SEIFSA and all those who have played a role in its history in the pages of this publication. Were we to attempt to do so, this would be too voluminous a book that many may page through, but very few would make time to read.
Therefore, we present you here with a glossy, high-quality publication of a manageable size which does its best to tell the Federation’ s story in a highly-summarised form. We are confident that you will like it and hope that you will also find it quite informative. I commend it to you very highly.
We have certainly enjoyed putting it together for you and hope that you will enjoy reading it This publication to celebrate SEIFSA’ s 75th anniversary would not have been possible without the cooperation of so many people. Our thanks go to all of them. They include our Communications Consultant Auralia“ Ollie” Madlala who compiled it, Creative Designer Zandile Ngubeni who is responsible for its fine look and feel, hard-working colleagues who made time to be interviewed for it and who helped to generate much-needed advertising for SEIFSA At 75, current and former SEIFSA Board Members and our valuable member Associations. We are deeply indebted to all of them.
Most importantly, however, our thanks go to our invaluable advertisers, which have made it possible for us to cover the costs of this publication, and to our long-standing partner Shereno Printers, which can always be relied upon to exceed our expectatons each time it is approached with a printing job. We are immensely grateful to all of them for their wonderful messages of congratulations on SEIFSA’ s 75th anniversary.
As you will see as you page through this magnificent publication, SEIFSA is much more than just a negotiations agent for its member
Associations and their affiliated companies. In addition to negotiating on wages and conditions of employment with labour on behalf of our members, strictly in accordance with their mandate, we also offer a series of expert-led products and services, which include our unique Price and Index Pages and our world-class SEIFSA Training Centre situated in Benoni here in Gauteng. These products and services are available not only to our members, but also to any companies that need them.
In the last five years, we have done a lot to introduce a number of innovations, among them the Small Business Hub( www. smallbusiness. seifsa. co. za), the annual Southern African Metals and Engineering Sector( www. meindaba. seifsa. co. za) and the annual SEIFSA Awards for Excellence( www. awards. seifsa. co. za). We plan to continue to enhance our offerings and to generate real value for our members.
I invite you to take your time to thumb through SEIFSA At 75 leisurely and to marvel with us at this organisation’ s rich history. I hope that you will keep this publication prominently displayed at your receptions and coffee tables not only throughout 2018, our 75th year, but also over the next five years. I hope to see you at the Fourth Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba, which will take place at the IDC Conference Centre in Sandton on 20-21 September this year. We have amazing speakers lined up to address issues of direct, topical relevance to the metals and engineering sector and to engage with you.
Kaizer M. Nyatsumba Chief Executive Officer
SEIFSA AT 75- SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE MAGAZINE 7