dtic beats its investment targets, but only 10 of 45 industrial parks funded
Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau told the portfolio committee that industrial investment hit R31 billion against a R10 billion target, while manufacturing growth and park roll-out fell short.
South Africa’s industrial investment reached more than R31 billion in the 2025/2026 financial year, against a target of R10 billion, and local procurement totalled R86 billion against a R50 billion target.
Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau presented those figures to the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition on Wednesday, in the department’s Annual Report for the 2025/2026 financial year. The account below rests on the summary of that report carried by SAnews (South African Government News Agency), which is a summary of the annual report rather than the full record itself.
Exports also ran ahead of plan. Global exports reached R142 billion against a R120 billion target. Continental exports reached R146 billion, and exports by small, medium and micro enterprises reached R764 billion.
Tau told the committee the department is changing how it works. “While facing significant headwinds, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) is shifting from crisis management to implementing a focused industrial development strategy,” he said.
“The goal is to move away from merely producing paper documents toward measuring actual outcomes for the South African economy. The revised industrial strategy that mainly focuses on Special Economic Zones and industry-specific Industrial Parks is an example of such.”
That revised strategy is where the shortfalls sit. Manufacturing growth came in at 0.4%, slightly below the 0.5% target. Progress on Industrial Parks was delayed by funding constraints, with only 10 of the 45 targeted parks receiving funding.
On trade, Tau said the department is working to diversify markets through trade preferences with the European Union, the Southern African Development Community, BRICS Plus, the United States, the United Kingdom and the rest of the continent.
“Efforts are being made to strengthen export promotion for manufacturing, including small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and black-owned enterprises. The dtic Group aims to achieve targets despite global uncertainty, amid conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, and attacks on rule-based trade structures,” he said.
He attributed the reduction in imports of rail and transport components to logistics challenges, which he said require concessions to maintain operations in the short term. Electric vehicle negotiations with the UK are ongoing, he said, because of concerns about domestic capacity and future investment interest.
Sector by sector, the picture is uneven. “Significant progress is being made in sectors like automotive through the Automotive Master Plan, but other industries face external pressure. Poultry is facing increased US demand and quota issues related to five asks from the US,” Tau said. “The steel sector is dealing with increased tariffs that match those of the EU, constraining market access.”
On spending, the department concentrated its expenditure in high-value categories. R9.1 billion was allocated to industrial incentives, of which R5 billion was successfully disbursed. The Social Employment Fund received R1.3 billion, and R41 million went to membership fees, alongside various transfers to non-profit organisations.
The report also flags challenges relating to unqualified audits and a need to strengthen coordination with other government departments to align programmes. Both are accountability questions the committee now has in front of it, and the department’s own account records them as outstanding rather than resolved.
The figures presented to the committee are the department’s own. The R31 billion in industrial investment, the R86 billion in local procurement and the R142 billion in global exports are measured against the targets the department set for itself, and the same report records where it missed.
The annual report was tabled before the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition, the body with oversight of the department and the minister answerable to it.
Source: SAnews (South African Government News Agency), SA makes progress on investment targets
