Mervyn Naidu, CEO of Actom Group, announced that the facility in Pretoria West has been restored as a modern manufacturing unit. This has enabled the revival of transformer production capabilities, the preservation of jobs, and the creation of a foundation for further industrial growth.
The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) welcomed the ongoing expansion of Actom's production capacity at the Pretoria West site. The department viewed these investments as compelling evidence of South Africa's industrial potential, as well as the opportunities created by localization, infrastructure investment, and industrialization.
The restored facility in Pretoria West has been transformed into a comprehensive manufacturing hub for large power transformers, high-voltage equipment, and lithium-ion battery energy storage systems. This strengthens South Africa's ability to produce critical energy infrastructure locally while supporting industrial growth, job creation, and competitiveness in export markets.
This expansion aligns with the goals of the recently launched dtic industrialization strategy. This strategy aims to strengthen domestic production, deepen localization, increase added value, and enhance the competitiveness of South African industry. Furthermore, it supports the government's broader objective of ensuring that infrastructure investments lead to increased local production capacity, strengthened domestic supply chains, and sustainable economic growth.
Speaking during the main address at the event announcing the expansion, Dr. Tebogo Makube, the current Deputy Chief Executive of dtic sectors, noted that such investments demonstrate the practical realization of dtic's industrial policy goals. He emphasized that the ministry's industrialization strategy is aimed at strengthening South Africa's productive industrial base by stimulating investment, expanding production capabilities, and increasing the share of localization.
According to Makube, Actom's continuous expansion shows how South African manufacturers are responding to these opportunities, thereby contributing to industrial competitiveness, job creation, and long-term economic growth. He added that strengthening local production capacity ensures that South Africa's infrastructure investment program delivers greater value domestically, develops suppliers, and creates export opportunities.
Makube also explained that investments like Actom's are crucial for advancing South Africa's industrialization agenda. They bolster local manufacturing, support localization, create quality jobs, and enable South African producers to participate more effectively in regional value chains within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Mervyn Naidu, CEO of Actom Group, specified that the group's cumulative consolidated investment of approximately 40 million rand in high-voltage equipment and static energy operations reflects the company's long-term commitment to local manufacturing and industrial expansion. These investments have led to the creation of approximately 80 new jobs and strengthened South Africa's strategic capabilities in energy production.
Louis Hines, Managing Director of Actom Static Energy, stated that consolidating the production of batteries, inverters, transformers, and medium-voltage equipment on a single industrial campus has formed one of the most comprehensive local energy storage manufacturing bases in South Africa, positioning the business for further growth.
South Africa is strengthening its renewable energy capabilities with the launch of a hybrid energy storage project, which TotalEnergies calls the largest in Africa. This project is located in the Northern Cape province.
The project was launched on Thursday with the participation of TotalEnergies, Hydra Storage Holdings, and Reatile Renewables in De Aar, Northern Cape. It is also part of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP).
This government program was created to address the electricity deficit by introducing additional generation capacity into the national grid. The program supports projects capable of ensuring reliable power supply and helping South Africa transition to a cleaner and more diverse energy mix.
The Hydra project design combines a 216 MW photovoltaic solar plant with a 500 MWh battery energy storage system, allowing renewable electricity to be fed into the national grid. The facility is expected to generate over 400 GWh of electricity annually, enough to supply approximately 200,000 South African households.
Under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Eskom, the project will supply 75 MW of dispatchable renewable energy between 5 am and 9:30 pm. During the construction of the project, about 1,600 jobs were created, and approximately 60 permanent jobs are expected during operation.
Magali Pillay, Managing Director of TotalEnergies in South Africa, stated that this project will strengthen South Africa's energy security. She emphasized that the project allows dispatchable renewable energy to be fed into the South African grid, thereby bolstering the country's energy security while simultaneously decarbonizing electricity generation.
The Northern Cape has become a hub for the country's renewable energy sector due to high solar insolation levels and the availability of land, attracting billions of rand in investment through successive renewable energy procurement programs.
Gladwell Nkumbi, head of the executive council of the local municipality of Emtanjeni, noted that the Hydra project demonstrates the growing importance of this area in South Africa's renewable energy sector. Nkumbi stated that development aimed at strengthening the country's power supply is underway, adding that the Emtanjeni municipality is proud to be one of the communities hosting these energy installations as it is an important part of their history.
During the annual Youth Day, South Africa frequently calls on young people to become entrepreneurs. Although entrepreneurship is a vital avenue for addressing youth unemployment in the country, critics argue that this approach has become overly simplistic and detached from the realities required to build sustainable businesses.
Despite acknowledging the importance of entrepreneurial education, simply completing a course or seminar is insufficient. The ability to run a business differs significantly from the actual capacity to build one. Ambition alone is not enough if founders lack the necessary education, experience, networks, and supportive environment to create long-term companies.
It is crucial to move away from romanticizing those who abandon their studies for a startup, claiming it is a reliable development strategy. A more realistic, albeit slower, path involves completing formal schooling, developing literacy and numeracy, pursuing further education, gaining work experience, understanding customer needs, and learning how organizations function before attempting to build on a solid foundation.
The country requires more builders and specialists capable of solving problems, rather than merely individuals forced into survival mode due to labor market failures. While survival-oriented businesses deserve respect, they differ from enterprises focused on growth. A person selling merely to survive is not in the same position as a founder creating a company capable of hiring hundreds of employees.
According to World Bank data, small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 90% of all businesses and over half of global employment. In South Africa, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that small businesses provide between 50% and 60% of the workforce and contribute at least 34% to GDP. However, too few small firms transition into medium-sized employers, which the country urgently needs.
Part of the issue is that growing companies are burdened too early with requirements typical of large, mature corporations. Amendments to South Africa's small business definitions classify micro-enterprises (up to 10 employees), small enterprises (11 to 50), and medium enterprises (51 to 250), with varying revenue thresholds depending on the sector. Nevertheless, a company with 60, 100, or even 250 employees is not a giant but often a small, growing business striving for professionalization, market access, cash flow management, and skilled recruitment.
If South Africa wants more young entrepreneurs to become employers, policy must recognize this distinction. Regulation should be different for large, established firms capable of absorbing it, and lighter, simpler, and growth-oriented for truly small and scaling enterprises. Compliance should not become an obstacle for a promising company when hiring its next ten employees.
Similar principles apply to finance, procurement, and networks, as strong entrepreneurial ecosystems are built not only on motivation. As shown by the Startup Genome Global Report on Startup Ecosystems, competitive ecosystems depend on the interplay of funding, talent, market reach, connectivity, and knowledge. This means young founders need practical pathways to market entry, mentors who understand scaling, early customers willing to take risks, as well as access to capital and networks that allow promising companies to grow.
Young entrepreneurs also need higher-quality role models: not just famous founders, tender entrepreneurs, or Silicon Valley myths, but authoritative South African builders who solve real problems, hire people, serve customers honestly, and create useful products or services.
As stated in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the concept of 'social entrepreneurship' may mask a simple truth: much of honest and productive entrepreneurship is already social activity when it creates value, jobs, and improves services upon which the population depends. This is the kind of discussion that should take place on Youth Day, because entrepreneurship will help develop South Africa's future leaders only if we stop viewing it as a slogan and start seeing it as a system that needs to be built.
Young people do not need another call for intensified struggle. They need schools that build competencies, universities that introduce ideas and technologies, workplaces that provide experience, investors willing to support them, worthy examples to emulate, and a government that steps aside, giving small businesses room to grow.
