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13 June, 2025Over 900 workers and thousands more along supply chains and related industries, including service providers, will lose jobs when tyre manufacturer Goodyear shuts down its 78-year-old plant in Kariega in the Eastern Cape province in December.
Goodyear announced the closure on 2 June saying it is shifting to a tyre import-based model in which it will only retain its retail business.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, says it was dismayed by the announcement and has received notices to retrench 907 workers and will start engaging in consultations with the tyre manufacturer through the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
“We are deeply worried about the impact on workers and their families. Whilst the outlook is bleak, we stand ready as a union to do everything we can to defend the jobs of our members, and negotiate for fair severance packages,”
said Mziyanda Twani, NUMSA regional secretary for the Eastern Cape.
NUMSA fears that Kariega, formerly Uitenhage, will become a ghost town after the closure of other tyre plants by ContiTech and Bridgestone. The union says this will worsen poverty in a province that has the highest unemployment rate in the country which is 41.9 per cent according to Statistics South Africa.
IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary, Paule-France Ndessomin, said:
“We are in solidarity with NUMSA strategies to engage the government on incentives to support local manufacturing and save jobs. This is critical for the survival of tyre manufacturing industries and the industrialization of South Africa. Import-based models create fewer jobs and destroy local beneficiation.”
South Africa’s tyre industry is concentrated in key hubs that include Gqeberha, Brits and Kariega and supplies mainly the replacement market for passenger cars and heavy commercial trucks. The industry also supplies to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) including BMW, Ford, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and Isuzu. But it faces stiff competition from low-cost tyre imports from China and imported used tyres. This prompted the International Trade and Administration Commission (ITAC) to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese tyres in 2023.
The South African Automotive Action Plan (SAAP) 2021-2035, the primary industrial framework supporting tyre manufacturing promotes localization, investment incentives, job creation and skills development, and trade protections to boost the automotive value chain. The incentives are provided through the Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP).
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