ROSSLYN BUSINESS SHUTDOWN, AS LOCALS DEMAND JOBS!
Rosslyn industrial site was turned into a no-go zone on Thursday, 4 September 2025 with hordes of irate unemployed South African youth demanding jobs from the tens of factories in the Akasia site.
Among big organisations singled out comprised BMW South Africa, SA Breweries, Nissan and Lion Match, who are accused of prioritising undocumented foreign nationals, which led to the peaceful protesst.
The ‘exclusion practices’ in the job market led to Reyaga Community Project organising a shutdown where a scathing memorandum was delivered at management of the big factories.
Among demands are jobs for locals, structural reform, employment transparency, and an end to “monopolistic design” in the Industrial hubs, big and small.
The broader industry, including small enterprises were affected for what they call entrenched economic exclusion and practices that violate spatial justice.
The planned action, detailed in a comprehensive memorandum addressed to BMW and other major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), is backed by a list of urgent demands.
These include radical procurement reform, enforceable hiring quotas for local residents, full transparency on supplier contracts and a fundamental overhaul of the industry’s transformation fund.
TechFinancials publication reports that the memorandum, issued on behalf of “township entrepreneurs, unemployed youth and residents who refuse to be spectators to their own dispossession,” states that the community’s patience has been exhausted after decades of marginalisation.
This is despite proximity to one of South Africa’s premier industrial zones.
“The community is demanding structural reform, economic inclusion and accountability in Rosslyn,” the memo declares.
“The document lays out a detailed case, arguing that despite operating in a township “historically excluded from industrial ownership.”
Key demands from the Reyaga Community Project include:
Procurement Reform: Mandating that 40% of non-core services be sourced from township SMMEs by 2026, unbundling large contracts to allow smaller bidders, and publishing all supplier lists and contract values.
Employment Equity: Implementing a 30% hiring quota for township residents in new positions and removing discriminatory recruitment filters, such as requirements for applicants to have their own transport.
Youth Investment: The annual absorption of 500 township youth into learnerships and the launch of a dedicated Youth Employment Accelerator.
Spatial Justice & Transparency: Significant investment in local infrastructure—including debilitated schools and factories—and full public disclosure of BBBEE scorecard and transformation strategy.
The memorandum goes beyond big factories, levelling serious questions at the entire industry’s Automotive Industry Transformation Fund (AITF), asking why, after a R600 million investment, only 7% of value add has gone to black industrialists.
The community has given all the industries 15 days to respond in writing to the memorandum.