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As we wrap-up the year, the Leader of Government Business - Nomusa Dube-Ncube has expressed her appreciation to the people of KwaZulu-Natal for making 2019 a memorable and unforgettable year.

In a session attended by chairperson, Chief Executive Officers of entities and senior management including editors representing media houses, she revealed that one of entities under her department had collected R684 million of revenue. She also announced about R5 billion of investment into Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone.

She pointed out that the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs could not have made it without the guidance from members of the portfolio committee, captains of industry and ordinary members of society.

She remarked: “When we started this term of office I offered to maintain a good working relations with leaders of political parties in order to put this province on a new trajectory of socio-economic development. I undertake to ensure that we continue to have regular confidential briefings in the legislature with leaders of political parties on matters of socio-economic development”

She explained: “When we delivered our Budget Vote in July we acknowledged challenging economic conditions. We offered to ensure that entities operated in an integrated fashion, not only to speed up service delivery, but to share and maximize on the resources available.”

“I am happy to inform members of the portfolio committee and editors that I have met with board members and executive of all entities. We have all agreed that all entities under EDTEA must work together instead of competing against one another.”

She revealed with excitement: “I wish to congratulate our entity - Gaming and Betting for collecting a revenue of more than R684 million this year and for creating 6 851 jobs. This money will be used for the construction of roads, houses and to ensure the provision of quality education, health, welfare services, water and electricity. Through the Gaming and Betting, we have ensured that industry stakeholders spend more than R12 million to uplift communities.”

She further announced investments of billions of rands: “We wish to announce that we are counting weeks before the construction of a pilot and demo plant of a chemical plant producing titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment from titaniferous slag and acid. Our entity the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone has allocated 65 hectares of land Phase 1 F of the estate.

She expressed her appreciation to the CEO of Nyanza Light Metals Mr Donovan Chimhandamba and the COO Rob Mhishi for showing confidence in KwaZulu-Natal. More than 800 jobs are to be created during construction and 300 direct permanent jobs after during operation. The total investment value is R4.5 billion.

 The construction will be in two phases being:

Phase 1: will be a Pilot and Demonstration plant which will create approximately 20 permanent jobs and about 80-100 construction jobs. The value for this phase is R2 billion

Phase 2:  will be a full plant which will account for the remainder of the jobs and value of investment.  The permanent jobs during this phase are estimated at 280 with the total investment value of R4,3 billion.

In terms of raw materials, the plant will use 320 000 tpa of sulphuric acid, 36 000 tpa of ammonium sulphate, 380 000 tpa of lime and 250 000 tpa of feed material.

Most of the raw material would require railway infrastructure closer to the site and sulphuric acid supplied preferable through pipeline. The plant will produce 50 000 tons per annum of which 60% will be exported to African and international markets.

In addition, Nomusa Dube-Ncube further reported that the department was getting ready for the construction of a Palm Oil Refinery Plant at RBIDZ.

“Last week, the Premier Sihle Zikalala and CEO of Wilmar Santosh Pillai met with the President of the Republic His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa to brief him about the progress we are making in paving the way for the construction of a R1, 3 billion plant. Wilmar, is the world renowned largest oil palm plantation owner with operations in Indonesia, East Malaysia and some parts of Africa,” she said.

She further emphasized that they had agreed with Wilmar CEO that the company will have its operations integrated into communities.

“We want to co-operatives and other small players and communities to be suppliers of raw material required by Wilmar. Our Black Industrialists Programme will assist in ensuring that we add meaning to our programme of radical economic transformation,” she concluded.

Issued by The KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism And Environmental Affairs