Daily Dispatch
Nut factory can boost province
THE news that a new Macadamia factory is planned for East London brings a lot of hope, especially in a province that has become accustomed to economic doom and gloom.
The announcement was made by Mkululi Pakade, the director of Eastern Cape Macadamia at the Local Economic Development (LED) partnership summit which ended on Wednesday.
The company already produces 1 200 tons of macadamia each year at their sites in Ncera and Mbashe – with plans to involve small-scale producers, to grow their own macadamia, to increase production. The two sites are a total 420 hectares and have already created 300 jobs
The factory would be a first-of-its-kind macadamia processing factory, based in the Eastern Cape that is projected to create more than 500 jobs.
Currently the product is exported as a raw material. Research shows that producers or farmers make the least money in the production value chain. It is processors and retailers who reap the biggest rewards.
Therefore to have a processing factory in the Eastern Cape would also add to the growth of our economy and create more opportunities for the production of other byproducts.
This would be a boost for the local economy as we have seen a number of businesses going down in recent months, resulting in hundreds of jobs being lost.
It is also encouraging news as the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, by Statistics South Africa, once again showed a depressing picture of the state of our province. In the third quarter (June to September 2017) we lost 216 000 jobs as the Eastern Cape – maintaining our position as the province with the highest unemployment rate at 35.5%. In the preceding quarter, we stood at 34.4% unemployment, while the national average is still 27.7%.
In Buffalo City Metro unemployment went up from 28.1% to 34.1% when compared to the same period last year.
The reality is that we cannot rely on the government to sort out our problems.
We need more entrepreneurs like Pakade and his partners. The recent mid-term budget by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba gave us the clearest indication that the incumbent government has no plan in place to resolve the economic crisis that we find ourselves in. This means we need entrepreneurs to invest in our economy. But they require a conducive political climate to do so. Political instability hampers economic growth as investors withhold their money.
At the LED summit, where municipalities were in attendance, Economic Development MEC Sakhumzi Somyo cautioned municipalities against wasting time and not prioritising businesses who want to work in their areas. “So the failure . . . to take those [council] decisions impacts negatively on the growth of business. Your decisions are decisions which we need in support of economic growth . . .”, he said.
So it is important for BCM leadership to work closely with Pakade to ensure that usual government red tape and unnecessary delays are avoided. The sooner work begins on the new factory, the better.