A risk assessment is tool that assists businesses to identify, analyse and evaluate various types of risks that their severity. The manufacturing sector serves as the backbone of the social and economic development in South African, Soweto. Risks assessments have been conducted in various sectors but not the Soweto manufacturing businesses. It is therefore imperative that this study focuses on this very important sector to assist it in being sustainable. A risk assessment was conducted for 120 manufacturing businesses in Soweto. The study identified 5 types of risks namely the financial, operational, business, legal and third-party risk. The businesses were categorised based on the outcome of the production, and a risk rating tool was used to analyse and evaluate the level of risks that exists. The risk rating tool categorised the risks in terms of low-risk, medium-risk, and high-risk. The tools’ outcome was the total risk type per manufacturing business type and the risk values per risk type. The study found that financial risk is a predominant risk that affects all the manufacturing businesses that were engaged, and that food, glass, textile, and wood manufacturers are the businesses impacted most.