According to data released yesterday by Stats SA, manufacturing production within South Africa fell 1.5% in August 2025 compared with a year earlier, reflecting ongoing weakness in that key industrial sector.

Despite the year-on-year fall, seasonally adjusted manufacturing output rose 0.4% in August from July and was 1.5% higher in the three months to August compared with the previous three-month period.

The latest manufacturing numbers show that South Africa continues to face strong economic headwinds. These headwinds are largely a result of the policy path that the government has chosen, that has seen fixed investment rates wither

Marius Roodt told The Common Sense that the fixes were not particularly difficult to determine. “To revive manufacturing, South Africa must restore investor confidence through dependable electricity, stable policy, and flexible labour rules. During the Mbeki era, fixed investment levels reached well over 20% of GDP and growth topped 5%, but today both indicators have fallen sharply amid power constraints and regulatory hostility. Reforms that secure property rights, reward efficiency, and prioritise energy reliability over ideology would allow factories to expand and rebuild the productive core of the economy,” he said.