Eastern Cape Business 2023-24

SPECIAL FEATURE
(and thus attracted a global TV audience) the SDC
Championship in March 2023.
Gqeberha also got in on the act of hosting a
new tournament, this time the Nelson Mandela Bay
Championship. The significance of this tournament in
viewership terms was that it was an official DP World
Challenge Tour event, where golfers can qualify for
the main tour if they do well.
Other than tourism and film, the following
sectors have been identified by the ECDC as
priority sectors: agriculture and agro-processing,
sustainable energy, the Oceans Economy,
automotive and light manufacturing. Each of these
categories is the subject of an updated economic
overview in this journal.
The ECDC’s mandate is to plan, finance,
coordinate, market, promote and implement the
development of the Eastern Cape in industry,
commerce, agriculture, transport and finance, which
it does through three core units.
Diversification is an important part of provincial
plans. An example of this is the Global Business
Services sector, previously BPO. GBS has received
a boost with the establishment of an ICT Academy
in Mthatha.
Enrolment in 2022 increased to 100. The centre
is a partnership between the provincial government
and Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa.
In 2021, more than 7 520 young people
benefitted from the R363-million which various
Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs)
put into training programmes in the following
sectors in the province: manufacturing, engineering
and related services, public sector, mining, banking,
chemical, local government, wholesale and retail,
education, training and development and insurance.
Automotive power
As exporters, the Eastern Cape’s OEMs are among
South Africa’s highest achievers. Volkswagen
Isuzu, Ford and Mercedes-Benz routinely ship tens
of thousands of vehicles and engines to every
part of the globe. Quite often, the East London
or Gqeberha factory will be mandated to fulfil
a particular order for a left-handed model, for
example, in a specific country.
Isuzu recently launched the first locallyengineered
and produced seventh-generation
D-MAX bakkie, using for the first time a new body
shop at the Struandale manufacturing plant and
a new chassis assembly line at the company’s
Kempston Road facility.
The initial R10-billion that Mercedes-Benz
invested in making its East London factory ready
for the production of the latest C-Class was
supplemented in 2021, when the first vehicles rolled
off the floor, by news that an additional R3-billion was
to go into building three new assembly lines, a new
body shop and more advanced robots.
Ford Motor Company’s Struandale engine plant
in Gqeberha will receive R600-million to prepare
the plant to make the 3.0L V6 turbodiesel engine for
the company’s Ford Ranger, which is put together
in Tshwane. This amount, which includes upgrades
to two existing engine lines, is over and above the
company’s national commitment of R15.8-billion to
be spent on the Silverton assembly plant and various
factories that supply the company.
By the start of 2018, Volkswagen South
Africa had spent more than R6.1-billion on its
plant in Kariega, an investment that enabled
the manufacture of more than 400 000 sixthgeneration
Polos by 2021. More than 80% of
these vehicles were exported. ■
The Nelson Mandela Bay Museum records
many years of big events and great
excitement. Credit: NMBDA
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EASTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2023/24