President Cyril Ramaphosa praises companies that are fulfilling their investment commitments. Speaking at the launch of Procter & Gamble’s Premium Care line in Ekurhuleni, East of Johannesburg, on Tuesday, he says this and other investments prove the critics of the investment conference wrong.
Ramaphosa applauds Procter & Gamble for committing to the pledges it’s made since the inception of the South African Investment Conference in 2018. He says these and other investments contribute to the reindustrialisation of the economy to drive growth.
Ramaphosa says critics of the investment conference have been proven wrong as investment continues to pour in.
“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 that 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,” says Ramaphosa.
The maker of Always Sanitary towels, Gillette shaving products, and Pampers baby diapers says 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.
Procter and Gamble has now launched and commissioned a new Pampers premium care range that will also be made locally.
Asked about continued investment appetite in the midst of economic challenges, South Africa’s country Director Alicia Eggington had this to say.
“No doubt there’s been challenges, and many of the very spoken about challenges whether it would be energy crisis, or covid, or disruption with the riots it can all be disruption for business. I think what we have learnt to do is a partner with the government through it. We’ve been able to overcome many of them or make them lesser so. And what is important is that by working through challenges we’ve been able to bring 4000 direct and indirect jobs to South Africa that otherwise would not be here, they would be in the countries that we were importing from,” explains Eggington.
Eggington says the company intends to continue making pledges and investing in South Africa in the future.
