In South Africa, there have been long-standing sentiments about the country’s industrialisation which primarily include indicators that the country is undergoing a premature process of de-industrialisation. Experts say that the process of de-industrialisation in the country started to take shape in the early 2000s when the contribution of services to the GDP significantly increased when compared to manufacturing. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Statistics South Africa in 2020 reported that the country’s manufacturing production fell by 49.4% compared to 2019. Production in the automotive industry also went down by a whopping 98% while production of basic iron and steel plunged by 65%.  Moreover, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition has indicated that factors including various industrial policy action plans, infrastructure constraints and the monopoly of pricing on key economic inputs have led to South Africa’s poor manufacturing performance. Against this bleak backdrop is South Africa’s need to re-energise its processes of manufacturing-led industrialisation because of the evident need to create jobs, and upgrade skills in the country, which will subsequently increase wages and generate economic growth and innovation. Rector of the United Nations University Professor Tshilidzi Marwala along with Political Economist Professor Patrick Bond and the Executive Director of the Manufacturing Circle Philippa Rodseth join Lerato Mbele for the conversation.