Manufacturing News South Africa

Job creation continues with Coega

The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) in its 2014/15 financial year contributed 14,623 direct and indirect jobs to the South African economy and since inception has created in excess of 62,142 jobs, thanks to the investor confidence in the IDZ.
Job creation continues with Coega
© Dmitry Kalinovsky – 123RF.com

"It's important that we consistently provide an environment in which job creation is at the axis of what we do. Our approach is to enable and address skills development through a number of initiatives," said Dr Ayanda Vilakazi, CDC head of marketing and communications.

Late last year and beginning of 2015 the CDC had six investors under construction, namely Dedisa Peaking Power Plant, Digistics Logistics expansion, ID Logistics, cold storage facility for Vector Logistics, UTi Distribution Centre and Afrox's air separation unit. This has resulted in 2,400 people directly benefiting from jobs.

"Investment growth and confidence in the CDC has contributed tremendously to the creation of opportunities. We have managed to create as many jobs as possible as a result of our service offering."

CDC's diversified service offering as an implementing agent on infrastructure development for various government departments has immensely contributed to increased jobs as well. The organisation's growing national footprint provides a wide pool of labour and as such impacts several communities.

Coega's national footprint is able to provide skilled and semi-skilled jobs. In the FY 2014/15 the organisation created over 11,000 (unaudited) number of jobs within the construction sector and has continued this year in the same vein.

"Skills training is an important aspect of what we do. Our objective is to provide labour that is well rounded and is able to tackle all aspects of investor and client needs," said Duncan Grenfell, CDC unit head of recruitment and placement.

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