The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) has secured investments worth R13,87-billion for the Coega industrial development zone (IDZ) in the Eastern Cape, marketing and communications manager Senzeni Ndebele said this week.

Of this, projects worth R3,19-billion were being implemented, while projects worth R9,85-billion were delayed, Ndebele told a media briefing at the IDZ.

“The number of indirect jobs expected to be created by projects under negotiation and projects on feasibility are 76 000, with negotiated projects accounts for 3 784 and feasibility for 72 216,” said Ndebele.

State-owned oil company PetroSA is planning to build a 400 000-bbl/d greenfield refinery, dubbed Project Mthombo, at Coega, which would be a major boost for the IDZ.

But critics have argued that the mega refinery, which would cost between $9-billion and $11-billion, would be oversized and stranded from existing infrastructure.

Ndebele stressed that thousands of indirect jobs would be lost if Mthombo was relocated to another province.

“There will be about 29 884 expected jobs in the pipeline without the refinery. Project Mthombo is critical for the Eastern Cape and we are confident that it will not be relocated to Durban.”

She added that CDC is waiting for an announcement in this regard from the Department of Energy and PetroSA.

At the moment, the corporation is implementing various projects in the metals, renewable energy and automotive sectors as well as opportunities in the business process and outsourcing park, which was recently completed.

“During the economic crisis, we took a slump, dumped some projects and some were delayed. We are confident that Coega is not a white elephant and investments will grow to fill the IDZ,” Ndebele said.

Meanwhile, CDC business development manager Nkuli Mxenge said after the corporation lost the Alcan smelter, it decided to ensure security of electricity supply.

This led to the formation of the Coega IDZ energy cluster, which has power projects such as the 2 400 MW Coega combine cycle gas turbine station, the 330 MW Dedisa peaking plant, 183 MW of wind energy and 12 MW of solar energy lined up.

Coega aims to produce 1 000 GWh (480 MW) of electricity from renewable energy by 2013, which would account for 10% of the national renewable energy target of 10 000 GWh. Currently, the CDC is at 3,8% with 183 MW.

“With electricity generation technologies, biomass, wind, solar, bio-steam, biogas and non electric technologies, about 10% is achievable by 2013,” noted Mxenge.

She added that the corporation is looking at more green technologies.

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