The Centurion Aerospace Village (CAV) industrial park could be transformed from a national State-owned non-profit entity into a Gauteng Provincial Government-owned for-profit company, CAV CEO Lance Schultz told “Engineering News Online” on Thursday. “We are conducing a due diligence into our possible incorporation,” he reported. “This would give us access to Government incentives. The preliminary report has been completed and it looks good.”

If the CAV was “provincialised” it would fall under the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency, which, in turn, was under the Gauteng Department of Economic Development. In the meantime, the CAV was in the advanced stages of talks with the (national) Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), concerning its short to medium term financing.

Meanwhile, work was continuing on the site, in preparation for the two new tenants that CAV announced at the Africa Aerospace and Defence 2018 exhibition in September. “We are currently concluding all the minimum bulk earthworks and infrastructure,” he stated. This would allow the agency to receive the necessary authorisations from the Tshwane (greater Pretoria) Metropolitan Municipality for the new buildings to be occupied. These were expected by April.

The two new tenants would be local enterprises Aerosud and African NDT. Both would be based in the park’s new Aerospace Training and Certification Centre (ATCC). (To avoid confusion, it must be noted that Aerosud’s own facility was immediately adjacent to the CAV. The company was expanding and taking up space in the park.) African NDT carried out non-destructive testing (NDT – hence its name). But it also provided certified training for NDT for aviation.

The development of Phase 1A of the CAV would continue after the completion of the ATCC. “We now have 100% subscription for Phase 1A on the land side,” he affirmed. “We can’t name these future tenants yet.” Some of them planned to rent facilities from the park, once they were completed. Others intended to lease sites and erect their own buildings.

“One of the latter plans to set up a significant composites production facility to supply a global major aerospace company,” reported Schultz. “They hope to start operations in 2021. The various concomitant legal and technical issues are currently being addressed.”

The CAV was planned to be a specialised industrial park intended to host aerospace and other high-technology manufacturing companies. The project had suffered significant delays, having been officially opened in 2008 but then spending years in the doldrums, with only one tenant company (which has since departed, needing access to a runway). In 2015 the DTI decided to revitalise the project, and new management was appointed.