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Ekurhuleni mayor pledges predictable, stable business environment

28th November 2014

By: Natalie Greve

Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

  

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As the City of Ekurhuleni continues its bid to develop the largely industrialised metropole into the continent’s first aerotropolis, executive mayor Mondli Gungubele has committed the city to creating a predictable, stable and enabling business environment in which foreign and local funders could be confident that their capital investments were secured.

Addressing a recent business stakeholder engagement session, the former teacher acknowledged that government’s biggest challenge lay in sustaining an environment of certainty and predictability in which “business anticipations weren’t futile”.

He further undertook that the municipality would improve the delivery of basic services, ensuring reliable electricity and water supply, while upgrading public infrastructure.

“When you [as government] are unpredictable, [investors] lack energy, so we are committing to activities that ensure certainty. As government, we must do our best so that the city’s [business community] can do the rest.

“We’ll continue to annoy you in some areas, but we’ll continue to meet so that we can deal with it,” he told attendees at the City Meets Business session, in Germiston.

Gungubele further committed to meeting with business representatives on a quarterly basis to enhance public–private communication and keep the private sector informed of the city’s development-focused programmes, incentives and opportunities.

“On our own, [the city’s vision of developing into an aerotropolis] is not going to happen. If we all work together, it will work, but business people will be at the centre of this [strategy],” he commented.

The city first announced plans to develop into an aerotropolis in 2012, after having adopted the 30-year development concept as part of its Growth and Development Strategy 2055.

Engineering News reported last year that the aspiration was to use the aerotropolis concept by leveraging the OR Tambo International Airport and its industrial capacity to stimulate growth, investment and job creation.

Critically, this would see the full integration of the planned city with Africa’s biggest freight and passenger airport, which was owned and operated by Airports Company South Africa.

“Some people think the aerotropolis idea is dead, but we haven’t been good at communicating that we have been very busy with it. We [still] want to build the city from OR Tambo outwards, and the future of the aerotropolis lies in the sustainability of the airport,” Gungubele outlined.

Expanding on the progress of the development strategy, Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality Department of Economic Development head Caiphus Chauke told attendees earlier this month that the municipality was continually identifying areas of competitive advantage and it had already categorised the city into various clusters, including an agricultural node and an automotive manufacturing node.

He further committed to engaging with business over investment and development opportunities until the finalisation of the aerotropolis master plan in May next year, adding that the success of the concept would depend on buy-in from the private sector.

“We will do the planning, but the private sector will be responsible for the development. We’ll apply our resources to achieving the objectives, but it’s up to business to take advantage,” he advised.

In a keynote address to the inaugural Manufacturing Indaba in May, Gungubele reported that R3.9-billion worth of industrial investment had already been facilitated through the city’s manufacturing revitalisation strategy, much of it aligned to its airport city.

Engineering News reported at the time that the city was also set to accommodate the manufacturing facility that would be built by the Gibela consortium, which was recently awarded a R51-billion contract to supply the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa with 600 commuter trains over the coming ten years.

It had been reported that Gibela planned to build a R1-billion factory in Dunnottar, 10 km north of the town of Nigel, to produce the 580 trains that would be made locally.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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