Chery International’s acquisition of the Rosslyn vehicle assembly plant in Tshwane is now the clearest test of whether a major foreign manufacturing investment can be structured to pull local suppliers and surrounding communities into genuine industrial participation. At the factory acquisition celebration in Rosslyn on Friday, Deputy President Paul Mashatile laid out explicit operational expectations for the Chinese automaker, framing government’s welcome of the deal as conditional on inclusive supply chain development.
Mashatile positioned the plant acquisition as evidence that South Africa’s manufacturing capabilities remain credible to international investors despite global economic uncertainty. He described the investment as confirmation that the country continues to function as a reliable industrial destination, particularly given its established role as an automotive gateway to the African continent. That confidence, he argued, reflects sustained government effort to promote South Africa as an investment destination, including through a November 2023 working visit to China focused on strengthening bilateral trade and industrial investment ties.
Government approval, however, comes with operational strings attached.
Mashatile called directly on Chery to prioritise local suppliers and youth-owned businesses as it establishes operations at Rosslyn, arguing that a resilient automotive sector depends fundamentally on a strong domestic supplier base. Township suppliers, he specified, should enter the automotive value chain not merely as vendors but as participants receiving capacity building, mentorship and market access. Youth-owned enterprises should have concrete opportunities in logistics, components, services and technology provision.
The case for local integration, in Mashatile’s framing, is as much operational as it is social. Extending the benefits of industrialisation to communities including Mabopane, Soshanguve, Ga-Rankuwa and Hammanskraal would, he argued, strengthen Chery’s own supply chain resilience while building sustainable value chains. Inclusive design, on this reading, creates competitive advantage rather than functioning as a separate corporate responsibility exercise bolted on after the fact.
Meanwhile, Mashatile flagged a structural constraint that shapes the entire investment’s long-term viability: the global automotive industry’s accelerating shift toward new energy vehicles. He warned that without a domestic transition away from traditional combustion engines by 2035, South Africa risks losing significant export markets. Chery’s existing commitment to new energy vehicle options across its product range, he noted, aligns directly with that imperative, meaning the company’s technology choices carry real consequences for South Africa’s manufacturing competitiveness over the next decade.
Government’s role, Mashatile stressed, is to create conditions for investment while simultaneously protecting domestic manufacturing capacity. That dual commitment requires active coordination between Chery and government agencies to identify supplier opportunities, develop local technical capacity and ensure that manufacturing employment reaches beyond the factory floor into surrounding townships.
His remarks at Rosslyn treated the acquisition not as a standalone transaction but as a template for how foreign manufacturing investment should be structured to generate inclusive industrial development. Whether Chery’s rollout of supplier integration and new energy vehicle production at the plant matches those ambitions will be the practical measure of the deal’s success. More information on government’s engagement with Chery is available at https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/mashatile-calls-local-suppliers-benefit-chery-investment.