Pretoria - South African defence conglomerate Sandock Austral, which operates in sectors including marine and aerospace, has committed to cooperate and collaborate with local and international partners in the global defence arena in line with its strategy to operate in a world where shared prosperity and equality leads to peace and stability.
Speaking at the second edition of India-South Africa Business Summit hosted by the Indian High Commission in South Africa and South Africa’s High Commission in India, Sandock Austral chief executive Prasheen Maharaj said the company viewed its role in the defence sector as a player for good and its ability to create peace and stability.
The objective of the summit was to promote cooperation in key sectors such as defence, mining and capital equipment.
Maharaj told the delegates at the virtual summit that Sandock Austral prided itself on providing bespoke defence solutions for a variety of mission requirements in both the commercial and defence environment.
“We utilise cutting edge technologies by conducting research and development in niche technology projects, and therefore because we work in niche areas, we see ourselves as a cooperating collaborator rather than a competitor,” he said.
Highlighting some of what Sandock Austral offers, Maharaj explained that the company specialised in technology in the era of the fourth industrial revolution and positioned itself as leaders in cyber security as this was a key requirement for clients locally and internationally.
“In terms of these solutions, they include both the capability for domination or renewal, as well as through life support solutions, and not only just within the acquisition environment. As a systems integrator of choice, we work with one to four entities as a strategic intermediary while concurrently building our technology base of unique integrated products and services through selected development projects,” Maharaj said.
“We reiterate, we work in a very niche manner to be able to cooperate and collaborate and not necessarily compete. And in terms of input resources, we use knowledge nodes, talent pools, and our own capital funding, which are the primary components used by Sandock Austral to be able to provide the transformer technologies that our clients demand,” he said.
Sandock Austral, the largest black-owned and managed defence company in South Africa, has a history spanning almost 50 years, during which it has built a reputation for developing and delivering integrated engineering and technology solutions for clients in the commercial and defence sectors.
Maharaj pointed out to delegated that Sandock Austral had been accredited with all the ISO accreditation, and the company was an award-winning business in South Africa that was currently building the world’s largest hydrographic survey vessel for the SA Navy.
He said the opportunity to collaborate with India could be invaluable to both countries.
“When we talk about future collaboration, we're not only talking about opportunities in India and South Africa, we're talking about opportunities on the African continent as a whole and other spaces or other locations or territories where Sandock Austral also has a strong presence and because of our strong presence and our understanding of those markets. We are more than willing to work with Indian defence organisations for exports into other markets. So we talk about true and real partnerships,” he said.
“We are able to do this because our globally benchmark operating model is supported by talented skills-based and a global partner network that ensures that we use world-class best practices know-how, and most importantly, coupled with our local knowledge of an operational perspective, and from a cultural perspective, where we have great insights on these matters that are so critical to joint business success.”
The Summit was aimed at promoting Indian and South African companies already doing successful business or have potential interest for doing business in the two countries and allow them to network with stakeholders.
IOL