Five years and counting …
an interview with CEO
Kaizer Nyatsumba
T
he last five years have seen significant changes taking place at the Steel and
Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA). Not only has the
Federation opened itself up for transformation, but it has also managed to position
itself as the first port of call and a credible voice of the metals and engineering sector.
Under the leadership of the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kaizer Nyatsumba,
SEIFSA has awoken from being a sleeping giant and not only established or strengthened
relations with Government and labour, but it has also been at the forefront of influencing
policy. Through its establishment of the Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba,
SEIFSA created a platform for Government, labour, and captains of industry to come
together, once a year, to deliberate on the issues confronting the industry and come up
with sustainable solutions. Under Mr Nyatsumba’s leadership, the Federation has also
established the SEIFSA Awards for Excellence to encourage and celebrate excellence in the
Metals and Engineering (M&E) sector.
When Mr Nyatsumba applied for the position of SEIFSA CEO in 2013, he had never heard
of the name SEIFSA before. Owing to lack of information on the Federation from the
internet, a research he conducted on SEIFSA did not help him understand the Federation
or the challenges facing the metals and engineering sector any better. It was, therefore,
only after occupying the seat of the CEO that he began to appreciate the nature of the
Federation he was to lead and fully understand the metals and engineering sector and all
its challenges.
“First of all, what I found when I joined SEIFSA was that the Federation was not representative
of the South African population, demographically. It really did not represent the South Africa
we lived in, in 2013. Rather, it was reflective of the metals and engineering sector, a sector
known as being one of South Africa’s least transformed sectors,” Mr Nyatsumba says.
Fortunately, the SEIFSA Board of Directors had given him the mandate to transform the
Federation, in addition to raising the SEIFSA profile by making it known beyond the sector.
It soon became obvious to Mr Nyatsumba that there was a lot of work to be done as far
as transforming the Federation was concern