The money will be used for land acquisition and the provision of roads, reticulation and power and communications grids in the first phase of the IDZ development, according to communications manager Raymond Hartle. According to Hartle, government has spent R25-million since 1998 on the Coega IDZ, which will be served by the port of Ngqura.

The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) “currently owns or controls 55 per cent of the land” in the 12 000 hectare industrial zone, which is earmarked for export-focused manufacturing. Total cost of developing the first 6 500 hectares of the IDZ over the next four years is estimated at R550-million. Government will provide the R550-million in development funds, according to Hartle.

This is in addition to the R1.65-billion budgeted by Portnet for the building of the port of Ngqura, which is expected to be operational in time for the first exports and imports from the Coega IDZ. Hartle says there are “nine or ten fairly serious investors who are engaged in pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for the Coega IDZ.”

An additional income stream for the deep-water port will be through a purpose-built container facility. CDC partner P&O Nedlloyd is expected to spend a further R800-million on the container facilities, which could be the first port facilities in South Africa that are concessioned out to a private company.

They will have a design capacity of up to a million containers a year. The South African government is in the “final phases” of drafting regulations for the concessions, says Hartle. CDC ceo Pepi Silinga says the Coega development could also “fast-track the privatisation of rail in South Africa.”

He points out that the existing rail links between Port Elizabeth and the industrial heartland of Gauteng will have to be upgraded to handle the expected container volumes. This would provide government with an ideal opportunity to enterinto a private public partnership in order to increase capacity on the line.