The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) has highlighted that it has a South African National Pavilion at the International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF), now under way in Istanbul, Türkiye. The stand is hosting a number of small and medium-sized enterprises. South Africa’s defence acquisition, disposals and research and development (R&D) agency Armscor is also represented. The IDEF will run until Sunday.

The dtic has organised the pavilion under its Export Marketing and Investment Assistance scheme. This serves to fund the development of exporters, helping them explore new markets, and to attract foreign direct investment into South Africa.

“In terms of our responsibility of creating and maintaining systems, we are going to be having meetings with some of the international original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs), in looking for solutions and expanding current contracts,” explains Armscor industry, support and business development senior manager Shane George. “We will also discuss some of the challenges we have with some of these OEMs in maintaining systems. We are confident that, by the end of the week we would have strengthened the bilateral relationships between South Africa and Türkiye, as our critical partner.”

The South African pavilion covers an area of 164 m². IDEF is a leading international defence exhibition and provides a major platform for South African industry to showcase its capabilities and develop strategic partnerships and markets, across Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Türkiye itself.

“South Africa has the capabilities in the military sector and one of them is the electrical systems Swatek supplies,” highlights cable harness and control box design, development and production company Swatek Defence and Aerospace owner Dr Khulile Mtsetfwa. “We are bringing skills, capabilities and a variety of offerings, one of them being electrical systems for the vehicles.”

Another company participating on the stand is QP Drone Tech, which like Swatek is black woman-owned or managed. QP Drone Tech provides commercial drone services for climate change- and sustainability-related missions, including disaster preparedness and management. CEO Queen Ndlovu reports that her aim is to find R&D partners to help improve the company’s services and the drones they use, as well as to find customers for those services.