Welcome signs of economic revival – but on our terms

Foreign direct investment is integral to development, including in South Africa. We in the Eastern Cape feel the need for it keenly, given our unemployment levels. In July, when StatsSA revealed that the national unemployment rate for Q2 had jumped to 29%, the figures indicated that the Eastern Cape had contributed 35.4% of that total – the highest in the country and way above the two provinces with the lowest unemployment rates, Limpopo with 20.3% and the Western Cape with 20.4%.

Against this backdrop, proposals for investment in our province are always good news.

On Monday premier Oscar Mabuyane met with a Chinese delegation in Port Elizabeth where eight co-operation projects were signed. Two days later, he met the Chinese ambassador to SA in Mthatha, and there were discussions on building a harbour in Port St Johns, as well as on developing agro-processing industries and the oceans economy.

These proposals come barely a month after East London played host to a cannabis conference, as well news of talks of co-operation with Mauritius in our budding film industry.

Clearly there is huge interest in investing in the Eastern Cape. We hope it does not degenerate into a scramble to exploit the people and resources of this province and leave it even worse off.

We welcome the speech by Mabuyane on Wednesday in which he indicated to the Chinese delegation that despite the province’s poverty, it is unequivocally not for sale.

Well said, Mr Premier. We hope that your subsequent actions match your words. We need fair bilateral terms and no opaque deals from investors. We do not want to find ourselves in the same predicament as Zambia, where China recently threatened to take over the country’s international airport should it fail to pay back its huge foreign debt on time. The last thing we need is to be sold a dummy, or to find ourselves in a vicious financial spiral with unsustainable debtservicing costs. Investors must be told that business will be on our terms, not those imposed from elsewhere. Let us take a leaf from the brave and dignified Xolobeni community on the Wild Coast, which is resisting foreign exploitation of its mineral resources on unfavourable terms, and stay as vigilant as they have done so far.

We do not want to find ourselves in the same predicament as Zambia, where China threatened to take over the airport