The outbreak of Covid-19 internationally should be a wake-up call on the impact of South Africa’s dependency on imported products, Madala & Associates CEO Dilley Naidoo said on Friday. He urged that policies parallel to what was being implemented in the automotive sector should be prioritised in mining and many other industries as well, to reduce South Africa’s economic vulnerability. “By manufacturing locally right now, using what we have, we could effectively reduce the reliance on imports drastically,” said Naidoo, who is also a director of RSPH. He said in a media release that over-reliance on imports from countries hit by the coronavirus had left South Africa vulnerable and the downstream consequences of this could be devastating.
