Finance MEC meets automotive special economic zone management and workers

MEC for Finance and Economic Development, Lebogang Maile, visited the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone (TASEZ) to assess the facility and meet with current private sector partners on Tuesday, July 16.

The aim of the visit was to engage with TASEZ management and workers concerning the provincial government’s objective to strengthen industrialisation and ensure job creation in Gauteng.

Maile said the visit formed part of his commitment to ensuring all provincial government vehicles for promoting sustainable and inclusive economic development are functional.

He said over the coming weeks, more provincial government initiatives aimed at ensuring revenue enhancement, industrialisation and job creation will be communicated.

TASEZ is the first automotive city on the African continent.

Its mandate is aligned to and born of the strategies of the national government, particularly the Reimagined Industrial Strategy, to focus on strategic value chains.

Fred Mokoko from the office of the MEC said TASEZ is part of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) programme, which includes other such zones across the economic corridors of the province supported by intensive investment promotion and which will be utilised to accelerate reindustrialisation of the Gauteng City Region.

He said the department will continue to support investment in the automotive sector, with special attention given to electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles.

“Working with national counterparts, the department will double efforts in resolving the logistical constraints faced by the auto sector,” said Mokoko.

TASEZ manufacturing capacity and job creation operations are in full swing, with the completion of phase 1 and Phase 1 A of its development seeing the production of the first next-generation Ford Ranger getting into gear.

Over and above a R16-billion capital investment by Ford Motor Company of South Africa (FMCSA), investment into TASEZ by the 11 tenants/Ford suppliers stands at R5.9 billion against an initial target of R3.4 billion.

He said this investment has enabled the creation of 3 244 permanent jobs within the zone, with more than 65% of these jobs sourced from surrounding communities.

Of these jobs, 32% were filled by women and 65.4% by the youth.

TASEZ has so far also recorded more than 5 071 construction jobs, consisting of 43% youth and 18% women.

“This is in line with the department’s objective of strengthening access into the economy for marginal communities,” said Mokoko.

He said this brings the total of direct jobs created through SEZ to over 8 000 and more than 18 396 indirect jobs.

Over 265 construction packages have been awarded to Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) within the surrounding communities equating to R1.7-billion.

The programme was enabled through the formal establishment of the Community Project Committee, community liaison officers and mentoring and training programmes geared at supporting both SMME and individual job seekers.

Over the next two years, Ford will be investing an additional R5.2-billion for the production of the first-ever Ranger plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

To this end, TASEZ, through the Inter-governmental Relations Agreement between the three spheres of government, has secured R392-million for internal bulks and a R932-million initial top structure funding for the establishment of a Ford sub-assembly of aftermarket components and sequencing facility for national and international markets.

Through these investments, the manufacturing capacity of the Gauteng province will be strengthened, while more jobs are created.

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