The Automotive Industry Transformation Fund (AITF) and the Women Economic Assembly (WECONA) hosted a Roundtable on Women in the Auto-Sector on Tuesday, 30 August 2022.

Practical solutions, meaningful transformation and significant and sustainable women participation in the automotive industry took centre stage at the Women in the Auto Sector Roundtable hosted by the Automotive Industry Transformation Fund (AITF) and the Women Economic Assembly (WECONA) on Tuesday, 30th August 2022. Organised under the theme “Deepening the Conversation; Creating Opportunities”, the Roundtable brought together stakeholders in the automotive industry including the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), government institution DTIC and industry bodies NAACAM, AIDC, NAAMSA and NADA.

The Roundtable focused on intentional and deliberate action needed to ensure optimal inclusion of women in the auto industry value chain. While acknowledging the strides that have been made to deepen localisation in the industry, the roundtable was unanimous that more work should go into increasing local content in the industry and the strengthening of capacity development for women owned businesses. To this end, financing opportunities and incentive programmes such as the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s (DTIC) Automotive Sector Incentive Programmes, NAAMSA’s Women Management Development programme and NAACAM’s Yakhi’Future programme and non-profit initiative, ASCCI to foster participation in the sector and improve initiatives in the SA Auto-sector. The roundtable also acknowledged and committed to leverage the industry’s existing and all-encompassing support structures designed to assist aspirant entrepreneurs from early-stage development, incubation, financing, market access and ultimately ongoing mentorship.

“Gender transformation is at the core of our country’s broader national development agenda. Our economy cannot thrive without the involvement of women and the value they contribute to it hello@womeninauto.co.za growth. As WECONA we are delighted that the roundtable focused on tangible action around the core demands women’s organisations have made of the automotive industry which are increasing ownership by women across the value chain, medium to long term activation of procurement opportunities, gender and pay parity at executive level and skills development through intentional skills training,” says WECONA Co-Chairperson and Deputy Director General in the Presidency, Ms Namhla Mniki.

Key outcomes of the Roundtable have included the call for the development of a Dealer Principal Programme targeting women, the development of a pipeline of women owned businesses to be further absorbed in the sector, enhancing the scalability of programmes through leveraging the strengths of industry stakeholders and better collaboration and coordination of industry players and the establishment of a working committee to pull initiatives together and drive cohesion.

“The AITF is pleased that the Roundtable delivered on its mandate to create a defined framework for continued engagement for purposeful transformation of the automotive industry. We take great pride in the wealth of skills women have already amassed across all tiers in the industry and we are confident that we can build on these successes. Ours is to support the building of national core competencies and a globally competitive automotive manufacturing capacity. In this regard, engagement is also underway with the intention of expanding the AITF’s funding envelope from the current R2.2billion over the next ten years towards black and women owned businesses through the introduction of additional Tier 1 partners to the Fund. We further thank government for the critical role it has played by demonstrating agility in policy formulation and response, giving our industry greater ambition and direction,” says CEO of the AITF, Mr Jabulani Selumane.