Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism
(a) At which phase is the Saldanha IDZ, (b) (i) what are the names of the community members who are participating in the board of the project and (ii) how were they selected, (c) how many jobs (i) have been created and (ii) were created for local people, (d) how many Broad Base Economic Empowerment (BBEE) businesses are benefitting from this project, (e) (i) what are the various training programmes that have been implemented and (ii) at which level?
(a) The Saldanha IDZ is in pre-construction phase. After the designation in October 2013, the IDZ team applied for funding from the SEZ fund, which was approved and received by the end of March 2014. Since the start of the new financial year the Saldanha Bay IDZ Licencing Company (LiCo) has procured project managers and design engineers for some of the infrastructure projects. The infrastructure construction roll-out should start within the next two months.
(b) The SBIDZ LiCo is the Company that holds the License from the Department of Trade and Industry to implement the IDZ in Saldanha.
(i) The LiCo is in the process of establishing its full Board of Directors. None of the representative Directors has been appointed yet.
(ii) The agreement between Local, Provincial and National Government is that there will be Board representation by all three spheres of Government and by the community. The letters of invitation to nominate Board members have gone out to the Government stakeholders. The allocation of community representatives has not been finalised.
(c) The initial phases will be focused on setting up the IDZ structures, once the companies are entrenched jobs will be created. The feasibility study found the IDZ had the potential to create 15 000 jobs over the next ten years and generate R10 billion for the region’s economy over the longer term.
(i) The IDZ presents significant medium- and long-term opportunities for the West Coast. That is why it is vital that local residents become appropriately skilled. To ensure a match between the supply and demand for skills we have launched the Artisan Development Programme which aims to build skills in the oil and gas industry
(ii) Local job creation and labour intensive construction methods are part of a strategy to ensure benefit to the local community. Every contractor will have these parameters as part of their bids and reporting structures.
(d) Similar to creation of jobs, the real business opportunities will be the sustainable ones for the companies that will establish themselves in the zone. This will only happen once the infrastructure is established. In the mean-time, a Business Forum has been created in order to get local businesses involved in the SBIDZ. This Forum includes the BBBEE Forum as well as the Saldanha Bay Black Business Women’s Forum. The first four companies have been identified for development assistance under a UNIDO funded programme.
In the construction phase, all tenders specify the need for BBBEE, local content and preference for companies that are established in the Saldanha Bay area. A Saldanha based company (Level 4 BBBEE Contributor who partnered with a 100% Black Female owned company) has been appointed onto the Preferred Service Provider Panel for health and safety services during the construction phase of the SBIDZ.
(e) As mentioned above, the Western Cape Government has launched the Artisan Development Programme to ensure that local residents are able to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the IDZ.
In addition, training is also being is co-ordinated through the Community Skills and Training Committee, for which a charter has been signed between the SBIDZ and the community. Two representatives from each ward in the municipal area meet regularly with the SBIDZ. In partnership with the Department of Labour, the ESSA database is being used as a platform for community members to access training opportunities.
(i) In co-operation with the Skills Unit in the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, 23 people from the West Coast have been included in an artisan training programme, currently running at Armscor in Simon’s Town. The West Coast Skills Plan from the Department will soon start a 12-week work readiness course for candidates from grade 10 upwards. The idea is to provide 520 learners with Maths, Science and Life Skills training in order to prepare them for gaining access into the FET system.
(ii) Most skills interventions are aimed at artisan level training. Nonetheless, a large proportion of the roughly 14 000 Saldanha Bay residents registered on the ESSA database require pre-artisan level training to progress along the vocational development pipeline.
