Bail-out package gets high-level backing

Although no detail has yet been released by minister of trade and industry, Rob Davies, the proposed bailout package programme has received high-level support. In a public speech, President Jacob Zuma came out in strong support of a government-backed scheme, with the prevention of job lay-offs just one possible motivation behind his thinking, and others including stabilising industry conditions and discouraging de-industrialisation (foreign companies withdrawing). And, said Nico Vermeulen, director of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) – one of the recession-stricken industry sectors which is keenly looking for support – Zuma also reinforced the need for some urgency in finalising the support measures. “He added that a further announcement was due from Davies in the next few days,” he told FTW. Vermeulen also spoke out against a commonly held misapprehension, stressing that the support measures were not expected to be a cash hand-out to individual, ailing companies. “This may have happened in Europe and the US – but it certainly won’t be the case here.”