The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) has expanded its role from managing the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) in Nelson Mandela Bay to acting as implementation agents for various government contracts for a range of infrastructure projects around the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Over the past three years the CDC has managed schools, hospital and road-building projects, using its organisational expertise to drive socio-economic development in two provinces.
“The CDC boasts one of the best concentrations of highly qualified and experienced staff in the province and arguably ranks favourably with the best of the best in its class nationally. This includes a range of engineering professionals, project managers, quantity surveyors, architects,” said Ayanda Vilakazi, CDC head of marketing and communications
“The Coega project was founded by and continues to be managed by these specialists. The wealth of in-house skills, and an organisational decision to diversify revenue streams, has resulted in us managing major infrastructure projects on behalf of the Departments of Roads and Public Works, Education and Health in the Eastern Cape and the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal. We are able to put our specialist skills – and our experience in establishing the IDZ – into action across the two provinces to ensure that critical infrastructure is delivered to communities.”
The flagship project is the three-year Departments of Roads and Public Works’ (DRPW) Roads Enterprise Development Programme (REDP), a ground-breaking initiative which sees the dual benefit of roads construction in the Eastern Cape and simultaneous training and development of small, micro, and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs).
The programme matches established contractors with emerging companies for skills development and mentorship. The REDP also enables contractors to move up levels in their Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) ranking and thereby win bigger contracts. The enterprise development programme targets contractors, material suppliers, quarry operators, plant hires, consultants and mechanics on road infrastructure construction and maintenance in the region.
“The REDP is equipping Eastern Cape roads construction companies – particularly SMMEs – with skills and experience that will enable them to grow as enterprises. It is also empowering them to provide the critical infrastructure needed in the province,” said Vilakazi. “This approach ensures delivery and high impact skills development.”
The REDP programme is being rolled out in all district municipalities in the Eastern Cape including Joe Gqabi, Chris Hani, Alfred Nzo, Cacadu, Amathole and OR Tambo. It also includes the Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City municipalities.
Similarly, the CDC is managing a major infrastructure programme on behalf of the Eastern Cape Department of Health and was appointed as implementing agent to expedite the delivery of enabling infrastructure throughout the province in 2011.
It has since worked on planning and execution of construction and upgrade projects to the investment value estimation of over R4-billion for 14 hospitals, maintenance for four provincial clusters, construction of modular housing and six nursing college revamps. Some projects are in the planning phase and others are well into the construction phase. Leading projects include Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane outside East London; the Frere Hospital in East London; Dora Nginza Hospital in Port Elizabeth and Frontier Hospital in Queenstown.
“The Eastern Cape Department of Health projects are critically important to the province as they address serious shortfalls in health care facilities across the province and show the department’s commitment to delivering quality services from well-built and resourced facilities.”
The CDC also provides services to the Eastern Cape Department of Education through its School Building Program (SBP). This programme includes the provision of Early Learning Centres and the eradication of school mud structures dotted around the rural Eastern Cape countryside. The CDC in 2012/13 implemented a total of 252 projects valued at R227-million.
In October 2012, it was appointed by the National Department of Basic Education (DBE) to act as a programme implementing agent to manage the construction of 25 schools. These projects fall under the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) and aim to address the backlogs in the eradication of inappropriate school structures and in the provision of basic services to schools that do not have such services.
“The new schools are state of the art institutions with fully-furnished libraries, labs and admin buildings – and are now homes to a new type of learning compared to what was previously there. This project is literally making a difference, one brick and one school at a time,” said Vilakazi.
The CDC also expanded its offering to neighbouring provinces and runs a fully-fledged operation from KwaZulu-Natal. The KZN office was established in 2010 and manages projects to the value of R846-million for the KZN Department of Education and is involved in the construction and upgrade of Early Learning Centres and small and large schools.
Vilakazi said the Coega IDZ was also booming with construction activity and that the joint Coega internal and external projects were having a massive socio-economic impact in terms of infrastructure delivery, job creation and investment.
“In a far-reaching contribution to socio-economic development the CDC ensured that a total of 13 569 jobs were created during the course of the 2012/13 financial year alone and since inception has created over 45 000 direct and indirect jobs. “The CDC is making great strides offering its mega and complex infrastructure projects expertise as a service to various clients while at the same time servicing the growing basket of investors in the Coega IDZ,” said Vilakazi.
The Coega Boom Town Numbers:
- 21 Operational investors: Coega IDZ: Bosun Bricks (SA), Dynamic Commodities (SA), UTI Couriers (SA), Cerebos (SA), MSC (SA), PE Cold Storage (SA), Digistics (SA), Electrawinds (Belgium), General Motors Part and Accessories Distribution Centre (SA/USA), Cape Concentrates (SA), Universal Wind (Sweden), Coega Dairy/ Coega Cheese (SA), AP Moeller (SA/Holland), Discovery Holdings Pty Ltd (SA), Famous Brands (SA). NMBLP: Faurecia (French), Rehau (German), Grupo Antolin (Spain), Benteler (German), Inergy (French), Kuehne and Nagel, and Hella (Germany).
- 5 Investors under construction: First Automobile Works (FAW)(China), Agni Steels (India), Rehau Extension (Germany) in NMBLP, and DCD Wind Towers (SA), Air Products (SA).
- 6 Investors completing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): AfriSam (SA), AMG (China), Casa Steel (SA), OSHO Cement (SA) First-in-Spec Biofuels (SA) and Phyto-Energy (SA).
- 5 Signed term sheets
- Pipeline information: Projects in negotiation stage are valued at R8.1-billion and those under feasibility at R116.3-billion.
Alan Straton
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