Coega project benefits women
Lucky Khumalo
30 November 2004
The Eastern Cape government in conjunction with the Coega Development Corporation have ensured that women were among the key beneficiaries of economic benefits of the multibillion Rand Coega project.
The Industrial Development Zone is one of the government's high priority projects, with the potential to bring about significant economic benefits to the Eastern Cape region, create employment, energise industrial development and promote international trade.
The zone consists of 11 hectares of industrial land, which is being developed into the manufacturing centre of South Africa.
A significant step toward the development of the Coega IDZ took place recently, when water was pumped into the R3.2-billion Ngqura deepwater port.
The port is situated at the mouth of the Coega river, about 20km north of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape's Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality.
The port has been designed to handle containers and
various bulk materials, taking into account the projected business opportunities as well as changes in world shipping and logistics operations.
In less than a year, the first commercial vessel is expected to dock at the Deepwater Port of Ngqura.
According to the Eastern Cape Review, women entrepreneurs have made visible strides in South Africa's economic infrastructure development project.
At least 52 percent of the 83 contracts with a combined value of R65-million awarded in mainly construction projects over the past two years went to small, medium and micro enterprises.
The review said over 40 percent of those contracts in terms of value, just over R26-million, were awarded to women-owned companies.
According to Nosiseko Kunge of N&N Construction, winning a contract from CDC was a first for N&N Construction since she started the company in 2001.
Kunge is one of the women who have ventured into the mainstream of the economy in one of the most
impoverished provinces in the country.
"When I formed my company, I had only four people working with me, and when I finished the recent contract I had 27 people, but had to demobilise 12 who were specifically employed for the Alstorm project," she said.
She said one thing she has learned from winning contracts on the Coega projects was that the capabilities of her company lie in an efficient and effective resource management.
Kunge won a R2.1-million contract in 2002 as one of the six women who were among the contractors who built the Coega Construction Village Housing Units.
Thirty percent of the R38-million construction contracts for the village's single and duplex housing units went to six companies owned by women.
The CDC's target is for 10 percent of the contractors at Coega to be women-owned companies.
The involvement of women-owned SMMEs also extends to building material supplies and services for cleaning and catering.
The
Labour Department and the Eastern Cape Development Corporation have entered into a partnership with the CDC in ongoing training, development and mentorship programmes as well as bridging finance for the women-owned companies.
Source: BuaNews
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