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President Cyril Ramaphosa praised companies that are fulfilling their investment commitments while speaking at the launch of Procter & Gamble’s Premium Care line in Ekurhuleni, East of Joburg, saying these investments prove the critics of the investment conference wrong.
Ramaphosa applauded P&G for committing to the pledges it made since the inception of the South African Investment Conference in 2018.
The President said these and other investments contribute to the reindustrialisation of the economy to drive growth.
During his midyear budget speech in Parliament last week, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said, your investments are well-placed in SA, and you are one of those companies that believe in South Africa’s growth, he said.
“There’s always been very negative criticism in the media, whenever companies have attended that conference; the media has always looked for the fault line. Has always been negatively disposed and said. Well, they’re just announcing figures. These figures will never really result in real investment.
“Now today I’m glad together with other companies that are living up to their investment pledges. I’m glad that P&G is proving in real effect that the pledges you have made since 2018, you have lived up to those pledges and today, we see real proof, so this is not a manga manga business”.
P&G, the manufacturers of Always Sanitary towels, Gillette shaving products, and Pampers baby diapers said in the 20 years that it has been in the country, 70% of its products are now made locally.
Since the inception of the South Africa Investment Conference, the company has pledged over R800 million worth of investment in five years and has now launched and commissioned a new Pampers Premium Care range that will also be made locally.
P&G’s South Africa’s country Director Alicia Eggington said there had been challenges and many have spoken about them, be it Covid-19, the energy crisis or riots, but her company has learned to work with the government throughout it all.
“We’ve been able to overcome many of them or make them less so. And what is important is that by working through challenges we’ve been able to bring 4 000 direct and indirect jobs to South Africa that otherwise would not be here, they would be in the countries that we were importing from,” said Eggington.
P&G intends to continue making pledges and investing in South Africa in the future, Eggington said.
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