By Rorisang Modiba
- Union president Mametlwe Sebei says 2,500 pharmaceutical jobs were lost in 18 months and wants the state to take over the industry.
- The Health Department has disputed the union’s claims, saying they present a misleading picture of its medicine buying policies.
A workers’ union is calling for the state to take control of South Africa’s pharmaceutical industry, blaming government policy for thousands of job losses, a claim the Health Department strongly disputes.
Mametlwe Sebei, president of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa, known as Giwusa, said about 2,500 direct jobs have been lost in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector over the past 18 months, as nine local factories closed. He said another 10,000 jobs could be at risk, and pointed to Adcock Ingram’s recent announcement of more than 240 retrenchments, which is currently under consultation.
Sebei blamed the losses on government procurement policy, saying its focus on buying medicine at the lowest possible price makes it hard for local manufacturers to compete with international suppliers. He said the share of HIV medicine tenders going to local manufacturers fell from 72% in 2008 to 28% in 2025.
“The state must take direct ownership and control of manufacturing facilities to ensure that production is driven by social need, not private profit,” Sebei said. Giwusa also wants private healthcare companies and medical aid schemes brought under public ownership as part of a single National Health Insurance system.
The Health Department has pushed back on this narrative.
Responding to similar claims made to Parliament earlier this month by a separate industry body, department spokesperson Foster Mohale accused it of presenting a distorted picture of its procurement process.
He said the department had increased the proportion of tenders awarded to locally produced products, from 38% to 45% on tablets and capsules between 2023 and 2026, and from 67% to 70% on HIV treatment tenders between 2022 and 2025, figures measured by volume rather than value.
“South Africa needs a mature discussion about how to strengthen local pharmaceutical manufacturing. It does not benefit from sensationalism or the selective use of procurement data to create the impression that public procurement has failed,” Mohale said.
Since then, the department and pharmaceutical industry groups have met and agreed to jointly review the rules governing medicine pricing, following what both sides called a “frank and productive exchange” on the pressures facing the sector.
Cosatu, South Africa’s largest trade union federation, has also called for government intervention, saying cost cutting “must not be taken to Thatcherite extremes” at the cost of local jobs.
Pictured above: A workers’ union wants the state to take over South Africa’s pharmaceutical industry, blaming job losses on government policy, but the Health Department disputes this.
Image source: Facebook
