Pretoria - Entrepreneur Sipho Batyi is the toast of the town in the automotive industry, especially after he succeeded in starting a company in 2017 to supply motor vehicle parts to Ford in Rosslyn, north of Pretoria.
Batyi graduated from an incubation programme under the Gauteng government’s automotive industry development centre several years ago.
Through the programme, he learnt the ropes of running a successful automotive business, including creating vehicle parts.
His automotive company, Batyi Automotive Component Supplier (Bacs), manufactures vehicle components and supplies them to Ford.
Ford in the area was manufacturing at least 500 vehicles per day and Batyi was responsible for supplying it with components.
He is currently managing two shifts for his company, and employs at least 30 people.
Yesterday, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi officially opened the Bacs production facility at a ceremony in Rosslyn, where Batyi was showered with praise for his hard work and dedication.
Lesufi used the opportunity to call for more investment in the future of the country and economic development.
“Today it is a testimony that if we have dedication, commitment and we have institutions that are willing to partner with the government, we can indeed bring a brighter and better future for our country,” he said.
He said the event was meant to celebrate the work of those committed and determined to contribute towards creating a better country.
He talked about the importance of transformation in the automotive space, saying it meant nothing but creating opportunities for all, “making sure that we are inclusive and localise some of the work that we do”.
“We can’t continue to be a country of consumers and actually buy from other countries. Even skaftin (lunch boxes) we buy from China.
“But we need to start to build a society that can produce; a society that can build; a society that can create, but most importantly a society that can exchange programmes,” Lesufi said.
He also talked about the government’s master skills plan, saying it looked at developing the future generation of people “who will change the look and feel of our country”.
“As we stand here, we must remember that there are almost 2.3 million learners in our schools and they are looking up at us.
“And we must say that we refuse for those children to end up in the queues (of people) looking for jobs. They must be in the queues of those who are creating opportunities and jobs,” he said.
Lesufi said the provincial government was investing in 35 schools for specialisation across the province because “we can’t have schools that are doing the same thing”.
An emotional Batyi expressed gratitude to all the people who came on board to assist him in realising his dream.
He also lamented the fact that he received little or no assistance from the government when he first put together his business plan in 2013 and had to knock on different doors for funding.
“Most of the people in those places are not there to meet our needs.
“The banks are even worse; they don’t know about the automotive industry,” he said.
City of Tshwane MMC for Economic Development Hannes Coetzee said: “This official opening of Bacs signifies the desire and appetite of the automotive industry to embrace transformation as a business imperative that would drive economic inclusion.”
He said that embedded in the quest for economic inclusion was the question of localisation “to drive South Africa’s reindustrialisation specifically and most importantly to the manufacturing sector of the economy, and for which we believe the motor industry is integral”.
Pretoria News