Speaking at the official launch of a multi-billion-rand catalytic and industrialisation investment involving Chinese companies at the Maluti-A-Phofung Special Economic Zone (Mapsez), Ramaphosa said the quality of municipal service delivery directly influences investors’ decisions on where to establish businesses.

He delivered the keynote address at the Phuthaditjhaba Multipurpose Centre in QwaQwa on Friday (9/10), where he welcomed an investment by Joy Long Automotive Distribution, which manufactures electric vehicles, and YJC, which manufactures batteries for electric vehicles.

The investment is expected to create 6,500 jobs over the next five years. He warned poor municipal services could drive investors away, depriving communities of employment opportunities and undermining economic development.

“If a municipality does not provide good services, investors will leave. We’ve had that experience here where investors said, because the municipality is not working well, we are packing, and we are leaving and we are going elsewhere. This must stop; we have to end that thing. Municipalities must know that it’s work is to serve the people.”

He said the investment demonstrates confidence in the Free State, but municipalities must create an environment that encourages businesses to remain, expand and employ local people.

The Maluti-A-Phofung Special Economic Zone was designated in 2017 on land at Harrismith and Tshiame, along the strategically important N3 corridor between Johannesburg and Durban.

The planned investment forms part of broader efforts to strengthen the province’s industrial base and expand its role in South Africa’s energy sector.

Ramaphosa said the government must ensure investors receive the necessary support to establish and grow their operations, while also encouraging them to expand local manufacturing. 

“We are like the bride, and therefore we must make sure that we treat them well. We must make sure that we make it a bit easier for them to invest, to employ our people. But we must also tell them, we want you to invest to start with the CDK, where we package the components that you would have brought, but we want you to migrate.”

He welcomed the projected employment opportunities but said the long-term objective should be to manufacture more vehicle components locally rather than relying on imported parts for assembly.

“This is a good start; you will employ some 6,000 people. But the trajectory we are on as a country is that we want to make the components here as well.”

He emphasised the importance of developing a complete automotive manufacturing ecosystem in which vehicle components are produced locally, supplied to factories and assembled into finished vehicles. He said expanding local production would strengthen industrialisation and create further opportunities for employment.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi dg

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