IN three years’ time, the Camdeboo region of the Karoo will be the sight of a world first, a giant South African flag that will be visible from space.
As official vehicle partner, Toyota South Africa will be the driver behind The Giant Flag campaign through the donation of va-rious vehicles required for the build-up and sustainability of the project.
“Toyota is proud to be a sponsor of this project, the start of which coincides with our Hilux Legend 45 launch in the year that we celebrated 20 years of democracy in South Africa,” says Dr Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of Toyota South Africa.
The Giant Flag will be 66 hectares in size, made up of two and a half million coloured succulents, with a four megawatt solar field incorporated into the flag.
However, the environmental impact of this project is not the only thing that makes it impressive, the benefits to the local community and economy are paramount.
These include creating over 700 jobs for the construction and planting of the flag of which up to 60% will be women.
The up skilling and training of local residents will have a direct impact on the community and local tourism will benefit from the addition of a tourism attraction site in this region.
More permanent benefits also result from this project such as employment from Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) which will be created as a result of The Giant Flag.
These include the development of a conference facility including green buildings and a large-scale water harvesting design within the rows of solar banks and various tourism activities including hot air ballooning and micro light sky tours.
The Giant Flag’s main income will come from selling “pixels” which will create a virtual/digital footprint for the project. Each pixel costs $10 and will be available to the public to purchase.
Buyers will be able to view the growth of their pixel using Google maps.
As vehicle sponsor, Toyota will provide The Giant Flag team with vehicles consisting of Hilux and Fortuner amongst others for the duration of the project.
The bulk of the vehicles will be used in the construction phase for several purposes including transporting succulents as well as transporting employees to and from work.
Thereafter, two Prius units will be used as tour vehicles on The Giant Flag site.
