Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane unveiled a raft of plans to reignite the province’s economy, including the expansion of the offshore bunkering services provided off Port Elizabeth, during his State of the Province (Sopa) address last Friday. Bunkering is one of a number of logistics-related promises made by the premier in his maiden Sopa. He was formerly the MEC for finance, economic development, environmental affairs and tourism. “We will continue our journey with Samsa and work closely with them towards positioning the Eastern Cape as a strategic centre of offshore supplies and off-shore bunkering. “It is expected that the support will be included in a provincial Oceans Economy Master Plan, which is to be launched in September this year.” On the land-side, the province will focus on three transport corridors to promote economic growth. “Our Provincial Development Plan directs us to prioritise three growth regions for economic infrastructure development during this term. “These include the Nelson Mandela Bay Corridor, the N2-N6 Central Corridor, as well as the Wild Coast Corridor, which is now going to be anchored by the Wild Coast SEZ.” This special economic zone (SEZ) is to be focused on agroprocessing. If it is successful it will increase demand for storage and refrigerated transport in the region. For it to be competitive from a transport cost perspective the Wild Coast toll road will need to be completed, and the Port of East London upgraded. “We will also pursue the re-opening of the coal mine in Emalahleni as well as the biofuels in the Karoo,” he said. There may be fresh opportunities for hauliers and other logistics services providers in the former manufacturing hubs which shut down overnight when the subsidies to the factory owners were withdrawn in the early 1990s. “We are upgrading the infrastructure of industrial parks at Komani, Vulindlela, Fort Jackson, Somerset East, Butterworth and Dimbaza, to create jobs in these small towns that were once vibrant economic hubs. Security upgrades in some of these parks have been completed, we will now invest more resources to revitalise bulk infrastructure,” he said. On the land-side, the province will focus on three transport corridors to promote economic growth. – Oscar Mabuyane
