Mining, booze and food companies step up to invest

13 April 2023 - 14:59
By THABISO MOCHIKO
President Cyril Ramaphosa makes his opening remarks of the SA Investment Conference at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on April 13 2023.
Image: Freddy Mavunda President Cyril Ramaphosa makes his opening remarks of the SA Investment Conference at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on April 13 2023.

The government met its R1.2-trillion investment target set five years ago with black-owned firms, with mining, manufacturing, energy and chemical sectors leading the pledges. 

At the fifth SA Investment Conference held at the Sandton Convention Centre on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said with the investment “we can realise more growth, offer more opportunities and create even more jobs”.

He said participation at this investment conference was “ a clear demonstration that South Africa continues to be an attractive investment destination despite a strained domestic and global economic climate”.

The funds pledged will be invested in areas such as renewable energy, mining chemicals, manufacturing and construction. 

Among the 44 companies that have pledge investments is Hive Hydrogen with the biggest investment of R105bn.

Nkwe Platinum, represented by former finance minister Tito Mboweni, is investing R13bn.

Heinken’s R15bn investment will be spent on, among other things, expanding its plants.

SAB will put in R5.8bn and RCL Foods will invest R620m.

Mining companies such as Anglo American pledged R29bn, Ivanhoe will invest R6bn, PMG Mining R1.25bn and and AfroZonke Group will invest R1.5bn.

Ramaphosa said the country was on “a long journey to rebuild our country and recover the ground we have lost. Our recovery is a mission that will take time to accomplish. We are on the recovery path, we refuse to be daunted by the challenges we face, we are confident that we will recover.

“We remain convinced that South Africa is an investment destination with significant untapped potential. We do believe that by leveraging our unique value proposition, we have the ability to attract higher levels of investment.” 

Ramaphosa said it has been a core conviction of this administration that to create jobs “we must drive growth, and to achieve growth we must implement fundamental economic reforms”.

He said the energy sector remains the priority.

South Africa has seen increased blackouts in the past few months which have cost companies billions of rands in lost sales and increased their costs, with, for example, the need to buy diesel to keep their operations running.

Ramaphosa acknowledged that “the lack of reliability in electricity supply weakens business and consumer confidence, taints international perceptions about our country and affects investment sentiment and decisions”.

The government has announced several initiatives to address the electricity crisis. These include enabling private investment in electricity generation and accelerating the procurement of new-generation capacity from solar, wind, gas and battery storage. 

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