Durban — KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube covered a lot of areas, with economic recovery and investment being at the top when she delivered her report on her 100 days after being in office as the first woman premier of the province since democracy.
Dube-Ncube presented a report under the theme “Restoring Hope for a Better KwaZulu-Natal”.
She said that it was what they have endeavoured to do since August 2022, following a number of sad episodes in the province.
The sixth administration put in place priorities to build a capable, ethical and developmental state that will drive economic revival and translate into job creation and elimination of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
“This was captured in the priorities and became a programme of action of this administration. Eight months into the term of our government the attention was diverted to managing the response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Dube-Ncube said.
“Since we have been in office we have had to remodel our plans and mobilise the entire government machinery towards collective implementation and renewal of efforts to stimulate economic growth, build back better and accelerate service delivery provision.
“Our goal is always to build a strong and prosperous KwaZulu-Natal.”
On economic recovery - investment attraction, Dube-Ncube said that in their very first week in office, they supported the reopening of the Toyota manufacturing plant in Prospecton which was ravaged by the floods of April 2022, where the mud was approximately 1.8m deep over the entire 87-hectare site, causing extensive damage to electrical, mechanical and IT equipment. Toyota South Africa had to order just over 100 000 new equipment parts to replace the damaged ones, while around 4 300 flood-damaged vehicles had to be crushed. The plant started ramping up production and regained full production in September.
She said they also welcomed the R7.7 billion upgrade and expansion project aimed at increasing the capacity and global competitiveness of the Sappi Saiccor Mill. The project expansion was completed and Sappi Limited and Sappi Southern Africa was officially launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa. This project has increased the mill’s production of dissolving pulp.
“Sappi’s operations in South Africa employs 3 929 people with its forestry plantations employing 871 people on a permanent basis and 8 300 contractors. The company is one of the biggest container exporters, with approximately 75 000 TEUs per annum or 205 TEU containers per day out of Durban Port under normal circumstances with its global logistics offices located in Durban,” Dube-Ncube said.
She said that another investment was by the Metair Group’s Hesto Harnesses, which manufactures wiring harnesses for the automotive industry from their new factory situated next to their existing operation in Stanger was also launched by the president. Hesto is the largest employer in the Stanger/Ilembe region with a total number of 4 500 employees.
“Heston Harnesses investment amounted to over R750m investment. This investment is part of the Ford T6 vehicle launch which is part of Ford’s Global Program, with South Africa being a key manufacturer. For Hesto Harnesses this means creating approximately 3 300 new jobs in KwaDukuza in the Hesto factory alone, in addition to the current 2 300 employees. This brings the combined workforce of Hesto harnesses, currently the largest employer in KwaDukuza to over 5 000 employees including current employees, with over 70% of women representation.”
Dube-Ncube said they also launched the Oceans Umhlanga mixed development project in Umhlanga. The development boasts the Radisson Blu Hotel, a world-class shopping mall and luxury apartments. The Radisson Blu five-star luxury hotel has 270 rooms. This was a Greenfield development which directly taps into the valuable business tourism market.
“Oceans Umhlanga’s broader investment of R4.2 billion has transformed the upmarket area of uMhlanga in order to provide additional products for the hospitality sector.”
Daily News