South Africa: American Minority-Owned Companies Anchor Automotive Mission to South Africa

8 November 2004
Corporate Council on Africa (Washington, DC)
press release

Washington, DC — U.S. Businesses to Meet Black-Owned South African Component Manufacturers

Fifteen American minority-owned businesses are in South Africa this week to explore the country’s developing automotive manufacturing sector. The U.S. companies will meet with prospective black-owned South African business partners to explore partnerships, investment opportunities and technology transfers.

The mission is jointly organized by the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), in partnership with DaimlerChrysler and the New York-based National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC).

According to CCA Chairman Frank Fountain, the visit is “the first of its kind.” Fountain, who also serves as DaimlerChrysler’s senior vice president for external affairs and public policy, is one of the mission’s four co-leaders, along with CCA President Stephen Hayes.

Fountain and Hayes noted that most U.S. corporations have procurement policies to support minority-owned businesses. In South Africa, corporations are also encouraged by the government to procure goods and services from black-owned companies to address economic inequalities from the apartheid era, they said.

The mission began on November 6 with planned stops in Pretoria, Johannesburg, East London and Cape Town. It will depart on November 12. Other mission highlights include meetings with President Thabo Mbeki; Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa; Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin; and a range of South African automotive component manufacturers associations.

CCA's South African International Business Linkages (SAIBL) program helps South African black-owned companies improve business practices and find partners in the United States and elsewhere. CCA and its Johannesburg-based SAIBL partner, ECIAfrica, prematched the 15 U.S. businesses with approximately 50 black-owned South African companies. SAIBL is funded by the United States Agency for International Development through its offices in Pretoria.

In addition to Fountain and Hayes, the mission leadership consists of Thomas W. Sidlik, member of the Board of Management for DaimlerChrysler AG and executive vice president for Global Procurement and Supply; and Harriet Michel, president of NMSDC.

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