Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau presided over the official line-off of Toyota South Africa Motors’ ninth-generation Hilux at the Prospecton plant in Durban on Thursday.
The event marks the start of local production tied to a R10.4 billion investment first flagged by Ramaphosa at the South Africa Investment Conference in March, and had been billed in government’s own advisories as a presidential engagement, with the Presidency listing it among Ramaphosa’s scheduled activities for the week alongside a Friday bi-national commission with Namibia.
In his remote address, President Ramaphosa described the milestone as evidence that South Africa can convert investment pledges into jobs, industrial output and exports rather than announcements that stall. He said roughly a third of Toyota’s R10.4 billion had gone toward strengthening local supplier capacity and tooling, with suppliers themselves investing a further R2 billion to expand localisation, a dynamic he called the multiplier effect of industrial investment.
Tau, delivering the in-person keynote, tied the launch to the department’s broader localisation push under the South African Automotive Masterplan.
The Hilux investment forms part of a R415 billion pledge total secured at this year’s investment conference, the highest cumulative value and project count since the gathering began. Within the automotive sector alone, Toyota’s commitment represented more than half of nearly R20 billion pledged by six international projects, ahead of a R5.8 billion pledge from the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers and a R2 billion commitment from Chinese tyre maker Sailun.
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| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Toyota Hilux investment | R10.4 billion |
| Total pledges at 2026 Investment Conference | R415 billion |
| Automotive sector investment (6 projects) | nearly R20 billion |
| Share of Toyota spend on local supplier tooling | approximately one-third |
| Additional supplier-side localisation investment | R2 billion |
| Automotive sector share of GDP | approximately 5% |
Toyota’s Prospecton plant, its largest production base in Africa, already builds the Hilux, Fortuner, Corolla Cross and Corolla Quest alongside Hino commercial vehicles, and has absorbed capital in stages rather than through a single outlay. In 2024, Toyota and Japanese partner Ogihara opened a R1.175 billion pressed-steel facility at Dube TradePort, with Tau presiding over that announcement too, lifting Hilux local content from 52% to 54% and creating 250 direct jobs alongside a further 1,040 indirect roles across the supply chain, part of a broader localisation target of 60% local content by 2035.
Toyota remains South Africa’s top-selling vehicle brand, with the Hilux its most consistent seller and the plant exporting to more than 70 markets, including Europe and the rest of Africa.