At the fifth France–South Africa Business Forum which recently took place in Johannesburg, business leaders, investors and public officials gathered to consider how the two countries could deepen their economic partnership.

France’s Deputy Chief of Mission at the French Embassy in South Africa, Benjamin Cabouat, delivered an opening address, followed by a keynote from Maropene Ramokgopa, Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.

A roundtable on industry and economic sovereignty brought the question of industrial competitiveness down to the level of factories, investment decisions, data and jobs. Can automation help South Africa rebuild its industrial competitiveness? The answer from participants was yes, but only as part of a much larger effort.

The word “rebuild” is apt. Manufacturing’s share of South Africa’s GDP has fallen from more than 20% in the early 1990s to about 12%, and Statistics South Africa reported that the manufacturing industry contracted by 1.8% in the second quarter of 2026. The session was billed around a promise: that optimisation, automation and digitalisation can make plants safer and more efficient and streamline operations.

For manufacturers, though, efficiency is only part of the picture. Aymeric d’Ydewalle, CEO of Saint-Gobain Africa, said the company has close to 20 plants in South Africa, around 1,200 employees and an ecosystem of contractors who use its products, and that about 90% of what it sells in the country is made here. Local production makes practical sense for construction materials, which are costly to transport and must suit local building methods.

Yet proximity to customers does not automatically make a factory competitive, and the immediate challenge is the cost of making things locally. D’Ydewalle pointed to weak demand alongside rising costs and pressure from imports. A producer cannot always pass higher costs on to customers when the market is struggling to grow. Automation may improve a plant’s efficiency, but it cannot create demand or remove every disadvantage faced by a local manufacturer.

The stakes are high for a country seeking to reindustrialise. South Africa already has industrial capacity, established skills and businesses built around its factories. Losing a plant affects far more than the people on its payroll: suppliers, installers, logistics providers and other services feel the impact too. As d’Ydewalle observed, investment decisions in manufacturing are made over decades, while a combination of poor market conditions and import pressure can undermine a plant much faster.

The policy response requires judgment rather than a blanket position for or against protection. Manufacturers often depend on imported inputs even as they compete with imported finished goods. The question is where local production can be sustained, what support is justified and how quickly decision makers can respond when viable capacity is at risk. Automation is a lever a company can pull for itself; demand, trade rules and the speed of official response are largely beyond its control.

Technology adds another dimension to that calculation. Shane Cooper, founding head of digital advisory at Forvis Mazars, argued that industrial sovereignty now extends beyond ownership of physical assets. Businesses run on software, depend on computing capacity and generate data that may be stored or processed elsewhere. Their ability to meet the requirements of export markets increasingly depends on reliable digital records, including information about the emissions associated with their products. The European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, which entered its definitive phase in January 2026, shows why: if an exporter of steel, aluminium or cement cannot supply verified emissions data, its European customers may be charged on default emissions values, which are often higher.

For Cooper, the issue is less about rejecting global technology than choosing where and how to use it. A company may be comfortable using widely available AI tools for routine tasks while keeping sensitive information in a more controlled environment. Those choices have become part of industrial strategy. Digital systems can help firms operate efficiently and demonstrate compliance, but they can also create dependencies that businesses need to understand.

The employment question cannot be treated as an afterthought, either. AI and automation will change tasks across sectors, including services in which South Africa has created jobs. Cooper warned that workers need opportunities to learn how to use these tools and adapt as roles change. If productivity gains arrive without a serious investment in people, the country could become more technologically capable while leaving too many South Africans outside the economy.

The same tension between technology and livelihoods appears beyond the factory floor, and the discussion showed why “industry” deserves a broader definition. David Mignot, CEO of Canal+ Africa and MultiChoice, described African content production as a significant creative industry. Digital tools and AI could allow smaller producers to achieve effects and production quality that once required far larger budgets. They also intensify competition for audiences and raise difficult questions for creative workers. The opportunity is to use technology to take more African stories to the world while sustaining the people who make them.

All this rests on investors having confidence that plans will be carried through. Phumla Jali of the Western Cape’s investment support system stressed the value of responsive institutions, policy clarity and practical help when businesses encounter obstacles, echoing the minister’s emphasis on a capable state in her keynote speech. These may sound less exciting than AI, but they determine whether a company expands a production line, keeps operating or invests elsewhere.

Automation can make South African industry more productive and help its businesses compete in markets with changing standards. It cannot substitute for functioning infrastructure, sound decisions on trade, capable institutions or a workforce equipped for new ways of working.

The opportunity is to bring those pieces together: protect viable industrial capacity, invest in technology with care and give people the skills to share in the gains and to be less dependent to the international import. That is how automation could help rebuild competitiveness, rather than simply make a shrinking industrial base run faster.