The government has decreed that only local cement can be used in public sector construction projects.
This will revitalise the local cement industry, which has been hit by years of cheap and sometimes inferior imports, leading to growth and job creation.
South African poultry producers are awaiting a similar local content requirement for catering departments of government departments and state-owned entities.
It is one of the objectives of the poultry master plan, signed in November 2019 to help revive another industry suffering from predatory and dumped imports.
The order has been a long time coming. The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition said in a parliamentary update in June 2021 that the investigation was complete and that ministerial and treasury approval was awaited.
Since then, nothing. If the government can do it for cement, it can do it for poultry.
