Mpumalanga Business

2017 EDITION

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS THE GUIDE TO BUSINESS AND INVESTMENT IN MPUMALANGA PROVINCE

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M PUM A LA NGA

SASOL SECUNDA OPERATIONS The core of Sasol�s Southern African operations

Sasol is an international integrated chemicals and energy company that leverages the expertise of its 30 100 people working in 33 countries. Sasol develops and commercialises technologies, and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of high-value product streams, including liquid fuels, chemicals and low-carbon electricity.

The company's Secunda Operations are the core of Sasol's Southern African Operations, producing a wide range of petroleum products including diesel, petrol and jet fuel, as well as chemical products which include ethylene, propylene and ammonia value chains.

The operations contribute to job creation, sustainable development and security of supply in chemicals and energy. The site is host to the following businesses and operating hubs: Sasol Mining, Secunda Synfuels Operations, Secunda Chemicals Operations and Sasol Energy.

Sasol Mining operates �ve coal mines in Mpumalanga that supply feedstock for the Secunda Synfuels Operations complex. The coal is mainly used as gasi�cation feedstock and to generate electricity. As some of these mines are approaching the end of their useful lives, new developments are underway to ensure continued supply through the company's Mine replacement programme.

Secunda Synfuels Operations is a large-scale coal-and-gas-based synthetic fuels manufacturing facility, applying the unique Fischer-Tropsch technology. This operating hub also produces utilities, such as oxygen and steam for the Secunda site, required in the production process and generates about half of its own electricity.

Secunda Chemicals Operations is a large-scale integrated chemical product manufacturing facility that produces and adds further value to the Sasol chemicals value chains. Secunda Chemicals Operations also provides Sites Services, Infrastructure Maintenance and Product Logistics Services for the Secunda site.

The Energy Business, that is key to Sasol's growth aspirations inside and outside South Africa, manages the marketing and sales of all oil, gas and electricity products in Southern Africa.

As an active corporate citizen, Sasol meaningfully invests in communities close to its operations with the main objective of sustainably contributing to the broader socio-economic development of the Mpumalanga province as well as South Africa.

For more information on the company's products, growth projects, �nancial results or social investment initiatives visit www.sasol.com.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS Mpumalanga Business 2017 Edition.

Introduction Foreword Mpumalanga Business is a unique guide to business, investment and tourism in the province.

6

Special features Regional overview of Mpumalanga New and improved infrastructure and the awarding of Special Economic Zone status to specific areas within the province aim to attract new investment into Mpumalanga.

8

Investment opportunities packaged for success Mpumalanga has put together a range of priority projects to attract investors across a range of sectors from agri-processing to hydro-electric, solar and wind power.

20

SA investment incentives The South African government, particularly the Department of Trade and Industry, has a range of incentives available to investors, existing companies, entrepreneurs and co-operatives across many sectors.

24

Establishing a business in SA South Africa has eased the barriers to doing business in South Africa for locals as well as international companies and individuals.

26

Economic sectors Agriculture and agri-processing Mpumalanga’s macadamia nut sector is cracking on.

32

Sugar Irrigation schemes have helped sugar cane producers avoid the worst of the drought.

37

Forestry and paper Mpumalanga accounts for 40% of South Africa’s forestry hectares

38

Mining The latest technology is improving platinum yields in Mpumalanga.

40

Oil and gas Mpumalanga is well-placed for a new national focus on gas.

46

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

4

It is estimated that about 80% of all new small businesses fail in the first year. Notably, when small businesses closethat down, not80% onlyofarealljobs thebusinesses potential forfail creating eroded. when For small It is estimated about newlost, small in the new first jobs year.isNotably, s estimated that about 80% of all new small businesses fail in the first year.

Notably, when small businesses more than ten years we at the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) have been supporting, close down, not only are jobs lost, the potential for creating new jobs is eroded. For more than ten year se down, not onlyEnterprise are jobs lost, the potential for creating new is eroded.

For more than ten years we at the Small Development (Seda)enterprise; havejobs been supporting, developing and a developing andthat promoting smallofAgency and medium helping them to createNotably, jobs.

If promoting you medium are a small It is Development estimated about 80% all new small businesses fail in the first year. when small busines mall Enterprise Agency (Seda) have been supporting, developing and promoting small and enterprise; helping them to create jobs. If you are a small enterprise owner in need of added-value no closeenterprise down, only are the for creatingowner new jobs is eroded.

Foronmore years we at small owner in jobs need of support contact (012)than 441ten 1000 erprise; helping them not to create jobs.

Iflost, youadded-value arepotential a smallnon-financial enterprise in need of Seda added-value non-financial support contact Seda on (012) Agency 441 1000 or visit Small Enterprise Development (Seda) havewww.seda.co.za been supporting, developing and promoting small and med pport contact Seda on (012) 441 1000 or visit www.seda.co.za or visit www.seda.co.za

enterprise; helping them to create jobs. If you are a small enterprise owner in need of added-value non-finan support contact Seda on (012) 441 1000 or visit www.seda.co.za

TOG ETHE AD VANENTERPRISE CIN G SM A L LDEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT G ETH E R AD VAN CIN GRSMALL TO G ET H E R AD VAN C I N G SM AL L ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT

CONTENTS Energy Biomass puts Mpumalanga on the renewable energy map.

48

Engineering Bursaries are available for aspirant engineers in Mpumalanga.

50

Water De Hoop Dam is delivering water for bulk distribution in Mpumalanga.

51

Manufacturing A Special Economic Zone is to be established in the Nkomazi area.

58

Transport A new railway line between Lothair and western Swaziland will promote trade.

62

Construction and property Infrastructure spending is a big sector driver in Mpumalanga.

64

Tourism Mpumalanga regularly attracts more than a million tourists.

68

Banking and financial services All of South Africa’s major banks are well represented in the province.

74

Development finance and SMME support Public-private partnerships are supporting entrepreneurship in Mpumalanga.

84

Education and training Teaching is under way at the new university in Mpumalanga.

86

Government South African government An overview of South Africa’s national government departments.

88

Mpumalanga provincial government A guide to the provincial government departments.

92

Mpumalanga local government A guide to district and local municipalities.

94

Reference 30

Locator map

16

Municipal map

95

Index

96

13

MUNICIPALITIES IN MPUMALANGA Limpopo

Bushbuckridge

Dr JS Moroka

North West

Thaba Chweu

Ehlanzeni

Thembisile

Nkangala

Mbombela Emakhazeni Umjindi

eMalahleni

Gauteng

Albert Luthuli

Govan Mbeki

N

Msukaligwa

Swaziland

Gert Sibande

Dipaleseng Lekwa

Free State

Pixley Ka Seme

Metropolitan/District Municipality Boundary

Local Municipality Boundary

District Municipality Local Municipality

6

Nkomazi

Steve Tshwete

Delmas

Mkhondo

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

Mozambique

Sector contents Maps Regional map

Amajuba uMlalazi

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FOREWORD

Mpumalanga Business A unique guide to business, investment and tourism in Mpumalanga.

CREDITS Publisher: Chris Whales

Publishing director: Robert Arendse Editor: Simon Lewis

M

pumalanga Business 2017 is the seventh edition of this highly successful publication that has since its launch in 2008 established itself as the premier business and investment guide to Mpumalanga Province. Supported and utilised by the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA), Mpumalanga Business is unique as a business journal that focuses exclusively on Mpumalanga. It has an independently audited and verified print run of 10 000 copies, an e-book edition hosted at www.mpumalangabusiness.co.za, and a monthly e-newsletter for up-to-date news and announcements.

Global Africa Network Media (www.gan.co.za), the publisher of Mpumalanga Business, specialises in business-to-business print and electronic publications, producing a series of region-specific annual print journals. Every province in South Africa is covered by this unique range of journals and websites, complemented by a national title, South African Business, and the business matchmaking online platform Matchdeck.com.

Writing: John Young, Karen KĂźhlcke, Simon Lewis Online editor: Christoff Scholtz Art director: Brent Meder Design: Colin Carter Production: Lizel Olivier Ad sales: Sam Oliver, Gabriel Venter, Jeremy Petersen, Nigel Williams and Sydwell Adonis Managing director: Clive During Administration & accounts: Charlene Steynberg and Natalie Koopman Distribution and circulation manager: Edward MacDonald

Chris Whales Publisher, Global Africa Network Media Email: chris@gan.co.za

Printing: FA Print

DISTRIBUTION Mpumalanga Business is distributed internationally on outgoing and incoming trade missions. Through the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA); at top national and international events; through the offices of foreign representatives in South Africa; as well as nationally and regionally via chambers of commerce, tourism offices, trade and investment agencies, airport lounges, provincial government departments, municipalities and companies.

PUBLISHED BY Global Africa Network Media (Pty) Ltd Company Registration No: 2004/004982/07 Directors: Clive During, Chris Whales Physical address: 28 Main Road, Rondebosch 7700 Postal address: PO Box 292, Newlands 7701 Tel: +27 21 657 6200 | Fax: +27 21 674 6943 Email: info@gan.co.za | Website: www.gan.co.za ISSN 2222-3274

COPYRIGHT | Mpumalanga Business is an independent publication published

by Global Africa Network Media (Pty) Ltd. Full copyright to the publication vests with Global Africa Network Media (Pty) Ltd. No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Global Africa Network Media (Pty) Ltd. CREDITS | COVER IMAGE: Isibonelo Mine in Secunda, Anglo American.

Pictures supplied by flickr.com, Anglo American Brand Toolkit, Wikimedia Commons, SA Tourism, Buhle Farmers’ Academy, Ferrochrome Furnaces, TC Designs, Eugene Armer and Pixabay.

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

8

DISCLAIMER | While the publisher, Global Africa Network Media (Pty) Ltd, has used all reasonable efforts to ensure that the information contained in Mpumalanga Business is accurate and up-todate, the publishers make no representations as to the accuracy, quality, timeliness, or completeness of the information. Global Africa Network will not accept responsibility for any loss or damage suffered as a result of the use of or any reliance placed on such information.

Global Africa Network Promoting business, trade and investment in SA’s nine provinces www.gan.co.za www.southafricanbusiness.co.za

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A REGIONAL OVERVIEW OF

MPUMALANGA

New and improved infrastructure and the awarding of Special Economic Zone status to specific areas within the province aim to attract new investment into Mpumalanga, the “Place of the Rising Sun”.

T

he Province of Mpumalanga is blessed with superb natural resources. The mineral wealth of the province – in the form of coal – drives most of South Africa’s power stations, while the natural beauty of the Blyde River Canyon and the Kruger National Park (and a host of private and exclusive game lodges) ensure that more than a million tourists visit every year. The Sasol petrochemical complex at Secunda is the foundation of South Africa’s fuels sector, there are large

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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SPECIAL FEATURE

11

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE smelters in the province, and a thriving forestry sector dominates the economy of the eastern parts of Mpumalanga.

A downturn in the commodities cycle has reminded all economic planners that relying too heavily on one or two resources is not a wise strategy.

Mpumalanga has been investing heavily in infrastructure in order to attract investors. The type of investment that is being targeted is beneficiation or manufacturing.

The raw materials that leave the province earn good money for farmers and miners, and the dollars earned from exports help the nation balance its books. But if the minerals or fruits were to have value added to them before they leave South Africa’s shores, then they would earn a great deal more. Also, more jobs would be created.

This is one of the reasons for Special Economic Zones (SEZs). One of them is strategically located along the Maputo Corridor at Nkomazi. Infrastructure to support investment will be built at the SEZ, and different rules will apply in the zone, encouraging investors with less red tape and a focus on a particular economic activity. Tax advantages and proximity to the Port of Matola (Mozambique) should attract investors in the logistics or dry port sectors.

The road infrastructure of Mpumalanga is good but it takes a hammering from coal haulage trucks.

In successive years, the Provincial Government of Mpumalanga has spent R2.3-billion (2015/16) and R2.4-billion on road maintenance and construction.

A huge investment is being made on the railways that run to and through Mpumalanga. This includes upgrading the commuter railway linkages to the province from the province of neighbouring Gauteng and building new railway lines to transport coal through Swaziland and on to either Richards Bay or Maputo.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is another form of infrastructure that has been receiving investment in recent times. A provincial ICT Strategy has been developed to coordinate and implement steps to improve ICT performance in the province.

In addition to provincial and national government spending on infrastructure, MEGA (the provincial government’s economic growth agency) is MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

establishing a Provincial Infrastructure Fund to pool private funds in order to tackle various publicprivate projects.

Provincial Premier David Mabuza reported in his State of the Province address in February 2016 that there has been interest in this type of infrastructural investment from China, Italy and Russia.

Economy Mpumalanga has rich and varied mineral resources and fertile soil that supports diverse farming. The province is also host to a number of important companies in the manufacturing sector, with internationally renowned firms such as Sasol (synthetic fuels and chemicals) and Xstrata (ferrochrome) having large operations in the province. The steel industry took a knock when Ervaz went into business rescue in 2015.

The province’s rich agricultural produce is used by companies such as McCain, Nestlé and PepsiCo and there are also pulp and paper plants (Sappi and Mondi), fertiliser facilities and textile manufacturing concerns. The decision by Sappi to start producing chemical cellulose at its Ngodwana Mill has significantly increased the manufacturing capacity of the province.

The country’s major power stations, three of which are the biggest in the southern hemisphere, are located in Mpumalanga. The building of the new Kusile Power Station is one of the biggest current infrastructure projects in the country.

New coal mines are under construction and several existing mines are receiving expensive upgrades to enhance productivity and extend their lives. Eskom owns several mines that other

12

SPECIAL FEATURE companies run for them, but it wants to change some of its contracts.

Sasol, the integrated oil, gas and chemicals company, runs several plants at Secunda. Products manufactured at the complex include synthetic fuel, petroleum, paraffin, jet fuel, creosote, bitumen, diesel and lubricants. The primary feedstock for synthetic-fuel production is coal, and the plant is located in the heart of Mpumalanga’s coalfields.

More than 80% of South Africa’s coal is sourced in Mpumalanga, with the town of eMalahleni (Witbank) being the centre of the industry. Other minerals found in the province include gold, platinum-group minerals, chromite, zinc, cobalt, copper, iron and manganese. These minerals support a strong manufacturing sector.

The southern half of the eastern limb of the platinum-rich Bushveld Igneous Complex runs south towards the towns of Lydenburg and Machadodorp.

Deposits of chromite, magnetite and vanadium in this area are the basis of the ferro-alloy complex in Witbank-Middelburg and Lydenburg. Nkomati Mine is South Africa’s only pure nickel operation.

Columbus Stainless in Middelburg is a major producer of stainless steel, while Middelburg Ferrochrome and the Nelspruit-based Manganese Metal Company are among other important, heavy industrial companies.

Mining is responsible for 21.8% of provincial GRP, wholesale, retail, catering and accommodation is 13%, manufacturing (12%) and general government services (10.8%) are other major contributors.

Finance, real estate and business is 9.4%.

Further east and south, sugar is the major crop.

The Mpumalanga forestry sector is one of the most important in the country: 11% of the total land area of Mpumalanga is covered either by plantations or natural forests.

Geography The geography of the province is sharply delineated by the Drakensberg escarpment, which forms the dividing line between the western grasslands at high altitude (Highveld) and the subtropical component to the east, the Lowveld. The central region of the province is mountainous, with some dramatic landscapes presenting exciting vistas for visitors. The Lebombo Mountains rise in the east. The area south of the capital city of Mbombela (Nelspruit), near Barberton, has some of the world’s oldest rocks forming the Crocodile River Mountains.

Most of the province receives summer rainfall, often via thunderstorms. Frost is common on the Highveld, but is almost absent in the subtropical regions where fruit, nuts and citrus thrive. Differences in temperature and rainfall between the Highveld and Lowveld can be considerable.

Large parts of the province are located in the so-called Middleveld comprising high-plateau grasslands. Forestry operations are found in central and south-eastern Mpumalanga, but the heart of this important industry is around Sabie in the north-east.

Agriculture The southern and northern Highveld regions produce large quantities of field crops such as barley, soya beans, maize, grain and sorghum. Potatoes also flourish in this area.

The Nelspruit district in the Lowveld is South Africa’s second-biggest producer of citrus fruit, while vegetables of all sorts do well in this area too.

One of the fastest-growing agricultural sectors is macadamia nuts. These are cultivated in the Lowveld and are exported in ever-growing volumes.

13

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE The province has excellent roads and railway connections and is well served by airports, airstrips and heliports. The Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport opened in 2002, but the old Nelspruit airport is still operational. Comair has regular flights into the province from Johannesburg.

The Maputo Development Corridor is a transportation corridor comprising road, rail, border posts, port and terminal facilities, running from Pretoria in Gauteng through Mpumalanga to the Port of Maputo in Mozambique. The corridor supports high volumes of cross-border freight services and aims to boost trade within and beyond the region.

Industry and tourism benefit from the concentration of resources and ease of transportation. This international initiative emphasises Mpumalanga’s excellent location as a logistics and transport hub.

Water and its management will always be an important task in a region where industries like mining and heavy manufacturing coexist with agriculture and urban settlements. National government has convened a water summit and the provincial government has committed itself to providing support to municipalities through the Heritage, Greening Mpumalanga and Tourism Flagship Project.

The major new dam at De Hoop (in the neighbouring Limpopo Province) is having a positive effect on water management in Mpumalanga.

The capital city Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit) is the capital city of Mpumalanga province and the main town of the Mbombela Local Municipality within the Ehlanzeni District Municipality.

With a diverse manufacturing sector and as the headquarters for most financial institutions in the province, Nelspruit also lies in a strategic position along the Maputo Development Corridor (MDC).

The MDC, along the national N4 highway, forms the link between the central Gauteng region and the Mozambican port of Maputo.

There are two airports. The older aerodrome, south of the city, is used by small planes, while the more modern Kruger Mpumalanga International MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

Airport is the gateway to many of the tourist highlights in the province. The city is also well-served by rail links, which connect to Swaziland, Mozambique and other South African provinces.

Manganese Metal Company is the largest producer of pure electrolytic manganese metal in the world. The products are created from high-grade manganese ore extracted by means of a hydrometallurgical process. The plant has an annual capacity of 27 000 metric tons.

Other manufacturing enterprises in Mbombela include paper and pulp producers and furniture factories.

The new University of Mpumalanga has its headquarters in Mbombela.

The Lowveld Show and the InniBos Arts Festival are major events that showcase Mbombela’s diversity and importance as a regional hub.

The fertile Crocodile River Valley ensures good fruit crops in a typically subtropical climate.

Mangoes, litchis and avocados are among the crops grown most profitably and the town is at the centre of the regional citrus sector. The Lowveld Botanical Gardens contain many rare species.

Ehlanzeni District Municipality Towns: Mbombela, Malelane, Hazyview, White River, Sabie, Lydenburg, Barberton.

The urban centres are nodes of manufacturing in this region, which is also at the heart of Mpumalanga’s tourism offering. The Kruger National Park, the Blyde

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SPECIAL FEATURE River Canyon, Bourke’s Luck Potholes, God’s Window and other attractions make this a highly desirable place to visit. Citrus, sugar and forestry are the major agricultural products, all being major contributors to export earnings. The Sappi paper mill at Ngodwana is one of the biggest of its kind, while RCL Foods operates two large mills in the east. The population is about 1.5-million.

centre of the fly-fishing sector that includes hatcheries and accommodation for tourists. Just over a million people live in the district.

Gert Sibande District Municipality Towns: Bethal, Secunda, Standerton, Ermelo, Volksrust, Mkhondo (Piet Retief), Carolina.

Power stations abound in this region, which stretches across the southern half of the province, and it is the home of the giant Sasol facilities at Secunda. The area is also on the top of South Africa’s maize triangle and agriculture and food processing are well developed sectors. Sheep, chicken, sunflower and sorghum are just some of the areas’s many agricultural products.

Nestlé has a processing plant at Standerton and Mondi has a pulp and paper facility in the southeast. About 900 000 people live in the Gert Sibande district.

Nkangala District Municipality Towns: Middelburg, Delmas, Kriel, Emalahleni (Witbank), Emakhazeni (Belfast), Dullstroom, Emgwenya (Waterval Boven).

This area straddles the north-west. The district is rural and traditional in the north-west where the King of the Ndebele is still revered, a coal mining and steel producing area in the industrial centre and has a trout fishing triangle in the north-east. The district is at the

POLOKWANE

MPUMALANGA PROVINCE

Phalaborwa

Mokopane

Mookgophong

Thabazimbi

Tzaneen

Limpopo

Lebowa Kgomo

N1

Hoedspruit

R37

Roedtan

Modimolle

H7

Bela-Bela

Pilgrim’s Rest

North West

Centurion

eMalahleni N12

JOHANNESBURG

Delmas

Meyerton

Gauteng

Sasolburg

R38

Breyten

Evander

Komatipoort

N17

Ermelo Morgenzon

R23

Standerton

R35

N2

N

R33 R65

Amsterdam

SWAZILAND

N11

Mkhondo

N3

Frankfort

Free State

N4

Bethal

R50

Heilbron

MBOMBELA

Carolina

Vandyksdrif

N17

Balfour

H10

Hazyview

Barberton

R35

Ogies

R40

White River

Machadodorp Middelburg eMakhazeni Emgwenya

Leandra

N1

Sabie

Dullstroom

R33

N11

N4

N14

N12

Stoffberg

Cullinan

PRETORIA

Graskop R37

R36

R25

N4

Lydenburg

Groblersdal

Temba Brits

MOZAMBIQUE

R40

Motorway

Wakkerstroom Vrede

Volksrust

KwaZulu-Natal

R34

15

Main Road Railway N2

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

PROFILE

Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency The Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) is the official Economic Development Agency of the Provincial Government of Mpumalanga.

The agency aims to foster the sustainable growth and development of the Mpumalanga economy by attracting investment to the province, facilitating investment in the province and maximising the development impact of investment in the province.

MEGA is an expert on the economy of Mpumalanga and the investment opportunities it offers. It uses its knowledge of the province and alliances with strategic partners to package investment opportunities that have the highest probability of success and is able to provide support to both local and international investors.

MEGA offers a range of services relating to trade promotion, investment, funding and property management.

Trade promotion

• Export and import enquiries • Market information and contacts • Advice on customs duties and foreign trade documentary requirements

• Market research • Information on regional trade issues and prefer-

• Promoting and facilitating provincial access to

ential trade agreements

• Organising foreign trade and investment missions • • •

the Sector Specific Assistance Scheme (SSAS)

and exhibitions Providing counselling and training to SMMEs regarding export issues Advising local business on technical trade issues Promoting and facilitating provincial access to the Export Marketing and Investment Assistance Scheme (EMIA)

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

Investment promotion

• Targeting investors via the media, the MEGA web-

•

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site, incoming and outgoing delegations, foreign embassies, exhibitions, chambers of commerce and municipalities Facilitating feasibility studies

PROFILE • Providing investment information, intelligence • • • • • •

• Generate income • Help to achieve organisational sustainability • Facilitate employment creation

and research Assisting with obtaining factory space and/ or land Advising on commercial statutory requirements Facilitating joint ventures via the identification of local partners Providing opportunities for emerging B-BBEE businesses Assisting in identifying potential suppliers of raw materials and feedstock Assisting with the lodging of investment incentive claims with the dti

Our commitment

MEGA is focused on customer needs and provides innovative solutions with a high level of service.

Don’t hesitate to make contact if you are interested in exploring some of the opportunities that Mpumalanga offers.

CONTACT INFO

Funding

Mega Head Office ABSA Square Building, 20 Paul Kruger Street, Mbombela, 1200, Mpumalanga, South Africa Postal Address: PO Box 5838, Mbombela, 1200 Tel: +27 13 752 2440 | Fax: +27 13 755 1756 eMail: trade-invest@mega.gov.za

MEGA funds SMMEs and businesses that specialise in agro-processing, mining, energy, manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, forestry, services, government and community. Preference is given to businesses owned by historically disadvantaged individuals.

Property management

MEGA owns and manages a number of industrial and commercial properties around the province.

The Property Development and Management Programme is geared to build and maintain a property portfolio that can:

Ekandustria Office (Bronkhorstspruit) 215 Iridium St, Ekandustria, Bronkhorstspruit, 1028 Tel: + 27 13 933 3421 eMail: phineas.makgopela@mega.gov.za Secunda Office Office A, Secunda Town Centre, Rautenbach Street, Secunda, 2302 Tel: +27 (0) 17 634 8458 eMail: nimrode.dlamini@mega.gov.za Siyabuswa Office Siyabuswa Shopping Centre, Main Road, Siyabuswa, Dr JS Moroka Rural, 0472 Tel: +27 13 973 1049 eMail: lazarus.mahlangu@mega.gov.za Johannesburg Office 33 Scott Street,Waverley, Johannesburg, South Africa Tel: +27 82 905 4938 eMail: paresh.pandya@mega.gov.za

17

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

PROFILE Mpumalanga – Place of the Rising Sun Mpumalanga, which is in the north-east of South Africa and borders Mozambique and Swaziland, offers a strategic location to investors and export-oriented businesses.

The Mpumalanga Economic Growy Agency can help you take advantage of this.

ZIMBABWE BOTSWANA Limpopo

Gauteng North West

MPUMALANGA

MOZAMBIQUE

T

he provincial economy is highly diverse with significant activity in mining, agriculture, stainlesssteel production, petrochemicals, pulp and paper, manufacturing and tourism. Mpumalanga’s position NAMIBIA and resources make it a valuable transport and logistics hub.

In addition to good infrastructure, abundant natural resources and fertile soils, the province also boasts great scenic beauty, making it a desirable place in which to live and work.

The Mpumalanga Economic Northern Cape Growth Agency (MEGA) facilitates investment in the province and is always keen to talk to potential investors.

SWAZILAND

Free State LESOTHO

KwaZuluKwaZuluNatal Natal

Eastern Cape GAUTENG

Pretoria Joburg

MPUMALANGA

Western Cape eMalahleni Mbombela Middleburg

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

MOZAMBIQUE

Nkomazi SEZ

Komatipoort

Lebombo

18

Maputo

FOREIGN MARKETS

Africa & Middle East Asia & Australasia Europe & the Americas

PROFILE

Maputo Development Corridor

Special Economic Zone

The Maputo Development Corridor (MDC) is a Spatial Development Initiative linking Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the Nkomazi SEZ and the Port of Maputo in Mozambique.

The MDC incorporates road, rail, the SEZ, border posts, port and terminal facilities along one of the most industrialised strips in Southern Africa.

The longest part of the corridor runs through Mpumalanga Province.

Infrastructure along the corridor has been upgraded and it provides investors and exporters with good access to the markets of East Africa, the Indian Ocean rim and East Asia.

The MDC forms part of a greater transport axis that seeks to link the Atlantic and Indian oceans via Southern Africa and a network of corridors exists in the region.

The Nkomazi Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is positioned on the Maputo Development Corridor in the border town of Komatipoort (which straddles Mpumalanga Province and Mozambique).

The SEZ offers numerous opportunities for those with export-oriented businesses – bonded warehouse, distribution centre, container yard, truck stop and petrol depot.

Other identified opportunities in the SEZ include mining services, mineral beneficiation, agro-processing (which could leverage the provincial citrus and sugar industries) and activities relating to import, distribution and local manufacture of automobiles.

SEZs are a key initiative of the South African government and the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) is making a package of tax incentives available to qualifying companies located in approved SEZs.

For advice on investing in or trading with Mpumalanga email the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) on trade-invest@mega.gov.za call them on Tel: +27 13 752 2440 or visit www.mega.gov.za.

PROFILE

Standard Bank Mpumalanga Management Team

TIMOTHY WHATI PROVINCIAL HEAD

CHARMAINE HALFPENNY PA - PROVINCIAL HEAD

JULIAN FELIX BUSINESS BANKING

BONGANI THABETHE RM: LOWVELD

SUHAIL ROW RM: HIGHVELD

IAN NUNES PSSM

MORGAN MBHELE FINANCE

LAWRENCE NTIMANE PUBLIC SECTOR

ZANARIA KHAN PRIVATE BANKING

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

20

PROFILE

Prioritising customer-centric banking

FRANS STAPELBERG SBFC

THABANG TAU, VEHICLE AND ASSET FINANCE

STEVEN DICKINSON HUMAN CAPITAL

AAIESHAH BADAT OPERATIONAL RISK

TEMPLETON ROBIYANA SECURITY MANAGER

DEIRDRE BARTON CHANGE & ADOPTION

DERICK MTHABINE MARKETING

FARHAAD CHOONARA WORKPLACE

DENVER RANGARU WORKFORCE

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MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE

Investment opportunities packaged for success Mpumalanga has put together a number of priority projects to attract investors across a range of sectors from agri-processing to hydro-electric, solar and wind power.

T

he provincial government of Mpumalanga, through its economic development agency MEGA, has developed a set of investment opportunities that will expand the scope of existing public-private partnerships and drive economic growth in the province.

Projects range from a fresh produce market to take advantage of Mpumalanga’s superb fruits, nuts and vegetables, and road and rail projects, to the rolling out of information and communications technology (ICT) to schools, and the building of a new dam and a hydro-electric plant. The provincial government (which owns several mines) and private citizens who have mining licences are looking for partners to help them develop their coal or gold mining assets. The mining industry in Mpumalanga MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

is well developed and good infrastructure exists to support the mining industry (engineers, transport, etc).

The ICT project aims to extend connectivity across the province, much of which is very rural. The School-Online programme will roll out computers and iPads to schools and teachers within the province and the investor would be expected to install broadband and provide training.

The Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) promotes foreign investment into the province, facilitates trade and supports local businesses.

MEGA is an agency of the Mpumalanga Department of Economic Development and Tourism.

All of the projects aim to leave a legacy of good infrastructure, but they would be structured in such

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SPECIAL FEATURE a way that investors can make a good return on their investment as well.

and a Forestry Technology Park in the town of Sabie.

Strategic Economic Zone (SEZ) and Hubs

Agriculture and produce

One project that cuts across sectors is the plan to develop a Strategic Economic Zone at Nkomazi.

The Nkomazi Local Municipality has already earmarked land for the SEZ, which will be established in terms of the Special Economic Zones Act of 2014 (Act 16 of 2014). The act defines an SEZ as “geographically designated areas of the country that are set aside for specifically targeted economic activities, and supported through special arrangements and systems that are often different from those that apply to the rest of the country”.

Infrastructure at an SEZ should support the specific industry and attract foreign investors with a strong focus on beneficiation of local produce or materials. Skills transfer is another stated aim behind the SEZ programme.

The location of the SEZ near the Mozambique border and along the Mozambique Corridor gives investors in the SEZ logistical advantages and opportunities. There are tax advantages for investors in the SEZ and proximity to the Mozambican port of Matola would be a large benefit to anyone wanting to create a dry port or logistics base.

The provincial government has a broader plan to create what Premier David Mabuza has called “industrial centres of competence”. The idea is to cluster in a particular geographical area, centres that will provide economies of scale for manufacturers and traders but also training and research facilities that will benefit the relevant sector. These might be described as sector hubs. Plans are in place for the creation of several such hubs, including: • Mining and Metals Technology Park, Steve Tshwete Local Municipality • Petro Chemical Industrial Technology Park, Secunda • Agriculture and Forestry Industrial Centre of Competence, Mbombela area The planned SEZ falls within this quite large geographical area and the two other focus points are an International Fresh Produce Market (Mbombela)

Land in Mbombela has been bought and registered for the required use as the Mpumalanga International Fresh Produce Market. Investors in fresh produce are invited to be take advantage of Mpumalanga’s superior fruit, vegetables and nuts.

The 248ha site is near rail and road links and private investors are sought to be partners in building the top structure; services are being laid on by the province.

The aim is to make the Fresh Produce Market excellent in every way, including cold chain protection and in terms of ripening facilities. Access to such facilities will improve market access for every type of Mpumalanga farmer, but in particular it will open up new opportunities for small-scale farmers who had previously not had access to such facilities. Helping these farmers and co-operatives gain access to new domestic and international markets is among the aims of the Fresh Produce Market.

A large proportion of South Africa’s grain, citrus, sugar and soft fruits come from Mpumalanga. The province is one of the key exporters of macadamia nuts, a subsector that is growing at a remarkably fast pace.

But there is relatively little agri-processing that takes place in the province, with most of the products being exported in their raw state. The Fresh Produce Market can accommodate investors who want to start factories to manufacture products such as juice, or packaging firms.

Transport infrastructure The Moloto Development Corridor refers to rail and road links running west-to-east from Gauteng Province into Mpumalanga. The project to upgrade this corridor has been approved by national government and has been handed over by the national Department of Transport to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA).

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MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE PRASA has invited private investors to come on board to build a railway line using a wider gauge and to undertake to build railway stations. The movement of increased numbers of commuters will obviously also create opportunities for selling things, and so the project is inviting retail firms to get involved.

Better access along the corridor will also improve access for companies in the manufacturing sector and there will be opportunities in the housing sector as well. The very efficient Gautrain in neighbouring Gauteng Province has shown that good rail links drive property development because commuters are attracted to the idea of getting to and from work quickly.

The economic benefits of the improved rail link will be especially felt in the local municipalities of Thembisile Hani and Dr JS Moroka.

The National Minister of Transport announced in June 2016 that the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) will spend R3.7-billion on upgrading the Moloto Road. The R573 is one of South Africa’s busiest roads, carrying at least 150 000 commuters every day, mostly to and from Pretoria.

With a good road in place, conditions for traders and manufacturers along the corridor will be very favourable.

Almost all the roads in the province are maintained by the provincial government. Coal haulage in huge trucks takes a toll on the province’s roads and many of the province’s townships (neglected during the apartheid era) lack tar roads and have poor drainage.

MEGA proposes a system of concessions to be granted to private developers who would take responsibility for a section of road: the developer would provide funding for the planning, construction and maintenance of the roads for the duration of the concession.

Mining has also been going on for many years with the result that the water table has risen and acidic mine water damage is widespread. Partners are sought to address the acid mine water problem, using the latest technology.

Many of the province’s water treatment plants are outdated and need either to be updated or new ones built, especially because urban areas are growing very quickly and the plants were built to cater for much smaller populations.

Opportunities for investors to be involved in public-private partnerships exist for: • The construction of dams and reservoirs • Purification and desalination of acidic water • New treatment plants • Water pipelines and water reticulation • Installation of pre-paid meters

Health infrastructure Providing healthcare to citizens is a core function of provincial government. Nearly R500-million will be spent in the next three years by Mpumalanga on renovating and building new primary healthcare facilities. In the 2016/17 financial year, an amount of R162-million has been allocated to upgrading two hospitals (Bethal and Middleburg) and building one new one.

The province hopes to find investors to build another three new hospitals. Medical staff in such facilities would be from the Department of Health but all non-core activities would be provided by the private company, including management of the hospital.

A related scheme aims for the development of a healthcare park to accommodate a range of healthrelated companies and service providers. Serviced land has been allocated for this project.

Water infrastructure Housing Mining and agriculture – two of Mpumalanga’s biggest sectors – are thirsty industries and South Africa is a water-scarce country. Mpumalanga itself has good rainfall but there are not enough dams to take advantage of that blessing.

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

So strong has been the demand for housing in Thekwane in the Mbombela Municipality that planners want to develop a fully-formed town to accommodate it.

24

SPECIAL FEATURE Tourism

A phased development would see a private developer work with MEGA, who would assist with all landuse issues and planning approval. The plan envisages a mix of residential, commercial and public land-use.

Across the province, there is a housing backlog of 600 000. The provincial government owns many parcels of land throughout the province that are suitable for housing developments and seeks investors who are willing to build mixed-use developments that includes low-cost housing and rental stock.

This may mean that higher income-generating units have to be incorporated into the broader development (office spaces, retail, etc) but affordable housing must form part of the package.

Mpumalanga is already a much-visited area. The famous Kruger National Park, several exclusive private game reserves and many areas of great natural beauty ensure that Mpumalanga is a must-see destination for most international visitors. Further leveraging these advantages could bring greater economic development to the province. To that end, MEGA has identified several priority projects that have been packaged to appeal to international investors: Blyde River Tourism Cluster More than a million visitors every year look into this awe-inspiring canyon, but they seldom stay for long.

This project aims to give the visitor something to do and a closer look at the canyon via a cable car trip to Blyde Lake. A related hotel and restaurant development (and a skywalk for another, adventurous, way of looking) are all part of the proposal, which could be parcelled out to a number of investors.

Energy Mpumalanga is one of the most important provinces in South Africa in terms of power generation, but coal-fired power stations cannot be the only solution.

To that end, the national government has started a programme to get private investors to build renewable energy plants to provide to the national grid.

Mpumalanga aims to provide at least 2 000MW as part of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP). The Boschejskop Hydro Dam project would achieve two goals – alleviate the water shortage in the provincial capital of Mbombela and provide 300MW of power.

A private investor would be asked to do the feasibility study and then finance and construct the facilities with two future revenue streams in prospect: a water off-take agreement with Mbombela and the sale of electricity to the national power utility Eskom.

Other projects suitable for public-private partnership include the construction of a solar park to power the Nkomazi Special Economic Zone and a wind power plant to be built at Sabie and Lydenburg.

On a smaller scale, solar street lighting is seen as the answer to providing lighting for areas that are currently don’t have street lighting. Concessions are on offer to private operators who can install, operate and maintain such a system. The provincial government will sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the concessionaire.

International Convention Centre Land is available for developers in the province’s capital city of Mbombela to create an International Convention Centre. Conference delegates always like to be in nice places, and the selling point here would be to link the centre to the province’s greatest tourism assets like the Kruger National Park, the Blyde River Canyon and God’s Window. Space is also available for the construction of a related hotel and multi-purpose recreational facilities.

Visitors to the Kruger National Park can fly into the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, which is on the outskirts of Mbombela, and the town is located near to Swaziland and Mozambique, both tourist destinations of their own.

Mandela Iconic Eye Mbombela aims to build a statue to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela, an icon of the struggle against apartheid and the first president of democratic South Africa.

The statue is planned for a hill overlooking the town, and will be accompanied by a tourist wheel, a cable car, restaurants and a conference facility. The value of the whole project has been estimated at R2.2-billion. www.mega.gov.za

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MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

SPECIAL FEATURE

South African investment incentives The South African government, particularly the Department of Trade and Industry, has a range of incentives available to investors, existing companies, entrepreneurs and co-operatives across many sectors.

S

outh Africa wishes to diversify its economy and incentives are an important part of the strategy to attract investors to the country. The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) is the lead agency in the incentives programme, which aims to encourage local and foreign investment into targeted economic sectors, but the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) is the most influential funder of projects across South Africa.

There a variety of incentives available and these incentives can broadly be categorised according to the stage of project development: MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

•

•

•

26

Conceptualisation of the project – including feasibility studies and research and development (grants for R&D and feasibility studies, THRIP, Stp, etc) Capital expenditure – involving the creation or expansion of the productive capacity of businesses (MCEP, EIP, CIP, FIG, etc) Competitiveness enhancement – involving the introduction of efficiencies and whetting the competitive edge of established companies and commercial or industrial sectors (BBSDP, EMIA, CTCIP, etc) Some of the incentives are sector-specific

SPECIAL FEATURE for example the Aquaculture Development and Enhancement Programme (ADEP), Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Improvement Programme (CTCIP) and the Tourism Support Programme (TSP).

Incentives for SMMEs A lot of emphasis is placed on the potential role of small, medium and micro enterprises in job creation and a number of incentives are designed to promote the growth of these businesses. These include: • Small Medium Enterprise Development Programme (SMEDP) • Isivande Women’s Fund • Seda Technology Programme (Stp) Seda is the Small Enterprise Development Agency, an agency of the Department of Small Business Development that exists to promote SMMEs.

Manufacturing Key components of the incentive programme are the Manufacturing Incentive Programme (MIP) and the Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Programme (MCEP). The initial MCEP, launched in 2012, was so successful that it was oversubscribed with almost 890 businesses receiving funding. A second phase of the programme was scheduled for launch in 2016. The grants are not handouts as the funding covers a maximum of 50% of the cost of the investment, with the remainder to be sourced elsewhere.

The Enterprise Investment Programme (EIP) makes targeted grants to stimulate and promote investment, BEE and employment creation in the manufacturing and tourism sectors. Aimed at smaller companies the maximum grant is R30-million.

Specific tax deductions are permissible for larger companies investing in the manufacturing sector under Section 12i of the Income Tax Act. Other incentives available to investors and existing businesses in more than one sector include the: • Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP) • Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII).

• Black Business Supplier Development Programme (BBSDP), which is a cost-sharing grant offered to black-owned small enterprises.

• Critical Infrastructure Programme (CIP) that covers between 10% and 30% of the total development costs of qualifying infrastructure.

• Co-operative Incentive Scheme, which is a 90:10 matching cash grant for registered primary co-operatives • Sector Specific Assistance Scheme, which is a reimbursable 80:20 cost-sharing grant that can be applied for by export councils, joint action groups and industry associations.

Trade-related incentives The Export Marketing and Investment Assistance (EMIA) Scheme includes support for local businesses that wish to market their businesses internationally to potential importers and investors. The scheme offers financial assistance to South Africans travelling or exhibiting abroad as well as for inbound potential buyers of South African goods.

ONLINE RESOURCES Official South African government incentive schemes: www.investmentincentives.co.za Department of Trade and Industry: www.thedti.gov.za Industrial Development Corporation: www.idc.co.za Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency: info@mega.gov.za

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MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

Establishing a business in SA South Africa has eased the barriers to doing business in South Africa for locals as well as international companies and individuals.

S

outh Africa has a sophisticated legal, regulatory and banking system. Setting up a business in South Africa is a relatively straight-forward process with assistance being offered by organisations such as the Department of Trade and Industry and provincial investment agencies like the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA).

South African law regulates the establishment and conduct of businesses throughout the country. Tax, investment incentives, regulations governing imports, exports and visas are uniform throughout the country. The particular environment varies from province to province with regard to the availability of human and natural resources, the infrastructure and support services, business opportunities and the quality of life.

In this respect, MEGA can offer specific advice about the business environment in the province.

Business is regulated by the Companies Act and the Close Corporation Act, which cover accounting and reporting requirements. Under new legislation, no new Close Corporations can be created but CCs can convert to companies.

Bank account A business bank account must be opened in the company’s name with a bank in South Africa.

Registration of company

Other procedures Checking exchange control procedures (note that non-residents are generally not subject to exchange controls except for certain categories of investment) • Obtaining approval for building plans

Registration with the receiver of revenue • As a Provisional Taxpayer • As a VAT vendor • For Pay As You Earn (PAYE) income tax payable on money earned by employees • For Standard Income Tax on Employees Registration with the Department of Labour Businesses employing staff will have to contact the Department of Labour regarding mandatory contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).

Register with Compensation Commissioner for Compensation Fund: Files with the Compensation Fund (in the Department of Labour) for accident insurance (Workmen’s Compensation).

Registration with the local authority Relevant only to businesses dealing in fresh foodstuffs or health matters.

The company must be registered with the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission, (CPIC) in Pretoria within 21 days of the company being started. There are a range of administrative procedures that need to be fulfilled.

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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SPECIAL FEATURE • Applying for industry and export incentives • Applying for import permits and verifying •

• Is the prospective employee appropriately qualified and do they have the relevant experience?

import duties payable Registering as an exporter if relevant and applying for an export permit

Business permits Foreign nationals who wish to establish their own business or a partnership in South Africa must, apart from having sufficient funds to support themselves and their family, be able to invest at least R2.5-million in the business.

The funds must originate overseas, be transferable to South Africa and belong to the applicant (ie emanate from the applicant’s own bank account). The business must also create jobs for South African citizens. After six months to a year, proof will have to be submitted that the business is employing South African citizens or permanent residents, excluding family members of the πemployer.

Applications for work permits for self-employment can only be lodged at the South African Consulate or Embassy in the applicant’s country of origin. The processing fee is US$186. The applicant would also have to lodge a repatriation guarantee with the consulate/embassy equivalent to the price of a one-way flight from South Africa back to his or her country of origin.

This guarantee is refundable once the applicant has either left South Africa permanently or obtained permanent residence. Any application for an extension of a business permit may be lodged locally. The processing fee per passport holder is R425. Some countries also need to pay R108 per return visa.

A list of countries to which this applies is available from the Department of Home Affairs.

MEGA assists investors in applying for the relevant work permits to conduct their business.

Business entities There are a variety of forms which businesses can take, including private and public companies, personal liability companies , non-profit companies, state-owned companies and even branches of foreign companies (or external companies).

Branches of foreign companies fall under section 23 of the Companies Act of 2008 and are required to register as “external companies” with the CIPC. An external company is not required to appoint a local board of directors but must appoint a person resident in South Africa who is authorised to accept services of process and any notices served on the company. It must also appoint a registered local auditor and establish a registered office in South Africa.

Patents, trademarks and copyrights Trademarks (including service marks) are valid for an initial period of 10 years and are renewable indefinitely for further 10-year periods. Patents are granted for 20 years, normally without an option to renew. The holder of a patent or trademark must pay an annual fee in order to preserve its validity. Patents and trademarks may be licensed but where this involves the payment of royalties to non-resident licensors, prior approval of the licensing agreement must be obtained from the dti. South Africa is a signatory to the Berne Copyright Convention.

Permits for foreign nationals Work permits In considering whether or not to grant a work permit, the Department of Home Affairs will first evaluate the validity of the offer of employment by conducting a number of checks to confirm the following: • Has the Department of Labour been contacted?

• Has the position been widely advertised?

• Is the prospective employer able to prove that he or she has tried to find a suitably qualified local employee prior to hiring a foreigner?

What would MEGA do for you?

MEGA will help new businesses by assisting in project appraisal and packaging, putting investors in touch with relevant agencies and government departments, alerting investors to investment incentives and setting up joint ventures where required.

A full description of the services offered by MEGA is reflected elsewhere in this publication.

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MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

FOCUS

A full range of business solutions Relevant financial and advisory services are offered to clients throughout Mpumalanga

M

anaging a business entails a range of challenges. As a business grows, different problems and opportunities demand specific solutions – what worked in the past might not be the best approach now.

Nedbank Business Banking’s team in Mpumalanga offers a full range of financial and advisory services to businesses in and around the province. The bank’s expertise, combined with a deeper understanding of the local economy, allows us to provide you with relevant, timeous solutions that can make taking your business to the next level happen.

Loderick Lubisi, Nedbank’s Regional Business Head in Limpopo and Mpumalanga

Advantages of banking with Nedbank A single point of contact A business manager, located in your region and supported by a team of specialists, is dedicated to servicing your business and managing your banking needs, whether your business is just starting or established and growing.

Industry-tailored solutions Specialist industries require specialist solutions. Nedbank has designed solutions that address the specific needs of the franchising, agricultural and government and public sector. Speak to our team of specialists with first-hand knowledge and experience in these industries.

• • • • • • •

Transactional banking Nedbank Business Banking fully understands the importance of transactional banking requirements as the core of any business operation. Our transactional banking solutions integrate seamlessly into your business processes.

Nedbank Business is a highly secure, world-class internet-based electronic banking system that will transform your business. Imagine your day-to-day banking, only 100% more efficient. Our incredibly versatile and easy-to-use structure will prove infinitely more functional and will improve the practicality of your company’s banking enormously: MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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First bank to use token technology Segregation of duties and account permissions Accurate transaction referencing on all channels Multiple statement formats Free statement downloads Free five-year history online Free online cheque and deposit slip images

For more information about our specialised service offering please contact Loderick Lubisi, Nedbank’s Regional Business Head in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, at loderickl@ nedbank.co.za

FOCUS

Making banking accessible to all and supporting small business Nedbank is a bank for all

N

edbank prides itself on making things happen and is committed to making banking accessible to all in South Africa.

As a bank, Nedbank repositioned its strategy to become a bank for all – and we continue to grow our footprint in communities where we were previously not represented.

Our new “Branch of the Future” is a client-centred branch engineered to provide a distinct client experience enabled through state-of-the-art technology. Innovative features deployed in our new branches include video banking facilities, state-of-the-art cashdepositing ATMs, queue management that reduces waiting times, as well as internet banking facilities.

From a small business perspective, Nedbank is a bank for entrepreneurs. We recognise the challenges of unemployment facing the country, and we have an extensive list of interventions to support small business as they are key in creating jobs, and boosting our economy.

Providing solutions for entrepreneurs

Nedbank has built a solid foundation and reputation as a bank for small businesses through national initiatives like: • Small Business Seminars — are held biannually and are free. The seminars provide practical advice and solutions on basic financial planning, cash flow management, etc.

• SimplyBiz — is an electronic platform which is free and used for networking and sharing of best practices for business owners in the same industries. Check out the portal SimplyBiz.co.za.

• Market Edge™ is a Nedbank Big Data tool that intelligently packages client information as a service to clients in an easy-to-consume online tool, aggregating all card transactions passing through a Nedbank point-of-sale (POS) device.

• Gap Access™ was introduced by Nedbank in 2015 as a cash advance solution with access to working capital for businesses that accept cards as payment. Advance of funds and repayment terms are linked directly to card turnover.

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Maki Mahlaba, Regional Manager Retail Relationship Banking Nedbank sponsors and partners with external stakeholders like Raizcorp, who host workshops for entrepreneurs wishing to obtain advice on how to pitch their business ideas effectively.

Nedbank also caters for business owners, households, young professionals and professional banking.

•

For more information about our Small Business Services and Professional Banking call Maki Mahlaba +27 10 235 3007 or send an email to margaretma@ nedbank.co.za

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

KEY SECTORS Overview of the main economic sectors in Mpumalanga Agriculture and agri-processing

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Sugar

37

Forestry and paper

38

Mining

40

Oil and gas

46

Energy

48

Engineering

50

Water

51

Manufacturing

58

Transport

62

Construction and property

64

Tourism

68

Banking and financial services

74

Development finance and

SMME support

84

Education and training

86

OVERVIEW

Agriculture and agri-processing Mpumalanga's macadamia nut sector is cracking on.

T

he agricultural sector accounts for 3.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Mpumalanga and for nearly 12% of employment. Separate overviews of the sugar and forestry sectors appear elsewhere in this publication.

Mpumalanga is one of South Africa’s most productive and important agricultural regions and plays a key role in the export profile of South Africa, primarily in fruit and nuts.

Big companies cultivate maize, sugar, timber, vegetables, fruit and tea on a large scale and are active in the raising of poultry and cattle. Large commercial farmers account for the bulk of crop and livestock production. Macadamia nuts have grown in popularity as a crop for export exponentially in recent years.

The drier Highveld region with its cold winters supports crops such as cereals, legumes and nuts. There is extensive irrigation in the Loskop Dam area. Ermelo in the centre of the province is one of South Africa’s main centres of sheep-farming and wool-production.

Standerton in the south-west is a dairy centre and Piet Retief in the south-east concentrates on sugar and tropical fruit.

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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SECTOR INSIGHT The provincial government supports agricultural entrepreneurs.

• A public-private partnership aims to ensure delivery of chickens to market from small-scale producers.

• Macadamia plantings are growing by more than 1 500 hectares every year.

Subtropical fruit flourishes in the Lowveld and the capital city Mbombela (formerly called Nelspruit) is a major citrus pro-

ducer. Mangoes, avocados, pecan and macadamia nuts, bananas and papayas also thrive in the area. The Subtropical Fruit Growers’ Association represents about 400 avocado growers. The subtropical fruit sector has a combined turnover of R950-million and employs about 13 000 people.

Mixed farming and potatoes, sweet potatoes and beans are mostly found in the southern and western parts of the province.

Between them, the high-lying areas of Mpumalanga and the Free State account for 40% of South Africa’s potatoes.

A land rehabilitation project is underway with the provincial government, in partnership with mining company BHP Billiton.

This will release more land for agricultural use.

The provincial government of Mpumalanga has instituted a support programme for farmers in terms of its Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP). The Masibuyele Esibayeni Programme distributes animals in order to improve the breeding stock throughout the province. There is also a cropmassification programme.

In terms of the CRDP, small-scale farmers will have the opportunity to supply the food to be used by schools in the nutrition programme. Each village and town covered by the CRDP will also have an opportunity to have its produce taken up to be displayed at the main provincial fresh produce market.

Emerging farmers can sell their goods at the International fresh market near Mbombela. The Mpumulanga Fortune 40 Young Farmer Incubator Programme aims to support young agricultural entrepreneurs as well as the commercialisation of 20 farms specifically for young people, which will boost agricultural production.

Another public-private partnership will allow easier access to market for the chickens produced at the eight poultry houses, which the provincial government is to construct at a cost of R11-million. An agreement has been signed for distribution to the following private companies: Early Bird Chicken, Afgri and Super Grand Distribution.

This scheme forms part of a larger effort to integrate the poultry value chain, which is being led by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in partnership with the Mpumalanga Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

Mbombela is the location of one of South Africa’s premier research institutions, and the Agricultural Research Council – Institute for Tropical and Sub-Tropical Crops (ARC – ITSC) in Mbombela is a leader in the field of research. Specialising in crop varieties and research into the origin and cure of diseases, the ITSC has had a number of successes with avocados (new root stock), coffee yields and banana cultivars.

The Lowveld Agricultural College offers a range of diplomas in Mbombela. A new satellite facility is being developed in the

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OVERVIEW Nkangala District Municipality on the site of the old Marapyane College of Education near Siyabuswa. The college offers three-year diplomas and two-year certificate courses in crop production and animal husbandry. Some students go on to study further aspects of agriculture at the University of the North West.

The Buhle Farmers’ Academy near Delmas runs successful training for existing farmers. Trainers like Mposa Agricultural Consultants provide SETA-accredited courses and the academy claims that just 8% of its graduates have remained subsistence farmers, with 53% producing at a commercial level. Funders include Monsanto Fund (USA), the Maize Trust, Standard Bank, Tongaat Hulett Starch and Omnia.

Companies Fresh fruit and nut supplier Halls has developed a countrywide reputation since it was incorporated as a company in 1921. Halls’ Mpumalanga operation (Mataffin) produces an avocado crop of about 1 300 tons, 37% of the company’s output.

Europe buys most of Halls’ 1.6-million cartons of exports (4kg equivalents) and this represents about 60% of production. The company is one of South Africa’s biggest exporters of litchis, with a total production of about 850 tons in a good year.

Halls cultivates 375 hectares of its own land and has another 1 400 hectares under management. The Matsafeni Trust is the company’s biggest outgrower and it exports in the region of 300 000 cartons every year.

Westfalia is a diversified agricultural group that runs extensive operations in the province. The group’s South African operations regularly sell more than five-million cartons of avocados (50% of the country’s export volume) and seven-million cartons of mangoes. Westfalia is a subsidiary of the Hans Merensky Group and most of its holdings are in the neighbouring province of Limpopo.

Umbhaba Estates is one of the biggest banana growers in the province. An idea of the size of the operation can be gauged from the fact that Umbhaba runs its own rigs and trailers – 36 of them – and four

LAND USAGE

AREA

Commercial dry land

1 088 209 square kilometres

Commercial irrigation

110 734 square kilometres 99 710 square kilometres (20% of this land is suitable for crop production) 6 530 390 square kilometres

Subsistence agriculture Total

Land statistics in Mpumalanga SOURCE: MPUMALANGA PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

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70-seater buses for staff transport.

About a quarter of South Africa’s tobacco crop is cultivated in Mpumalanga. British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA) has about 65% of the legal domestic cigarette market and its factory in Heidelberg (in neighbouring Gauteng) makes about 26-billion cigarettes every year. South Africa’s annual production is in the region of 15-million kilograms of tobacco.

While downstream production facilities exist in the province, much more can be done to beneficiate the region’s rich natural resources, including fruit juice blending, sugar byproducts, processing of sauces, oils, confectioneries, canned products and cattle feed.

Excellent returns on investment are anticipated given the close proximity of the province to the economic heartland of South Africa to the west and the international port of Maputo to the east.

Crops South Africa’s production of macadamia nuts-in-shell (NIS) has grown from about 35 000 tons in 2012 to an estimated 46 000 tons in 2015. International production of the nut has been expanding by 20% year-on-year for some time, and this trend is expected to continue for at least another five years, driven by strong demand from Asia, although drought, hail and high temperatures are expected to adversely affect the 2016 harvest.

There are more than 500 farmers growing the nuts and there are 14 cracking factories in South

OVERVIEW Africa. The sector employs about 4 500 people, of which 1 500 are permanent employees.

The South African Subtropical Growers’ Association manages the business of four growers’ associations, including macadamia growers. About 21 500 hectares are planted with macadamia in South Africa, most of which is in Mpumalanga (Barberton/ Hazyview), Limpopo and coastal KwaZulu-Natal. More than 95% of the annual crop is exported.

Mpumalanga produces onemillion tons of maize that is cultivated on 291 788 hectares. About 53 000 tons of wheat and 33 000 tons of sorghum are produced annually. Soya bean is another major crop, and more than half of South Africa’s soya bean crop is produced in Mpumalanga’s

Highveld areas. National annual production levels are between 400 000 and 500 000 tons of soya bean.

Mpumalanga accounts for about 21% of South Africa’s citrus production and a third of its export volumes. Valencia oranges are the province’s most popular varietal. Hazyview is an important source of bananas, with 20% of South Africa’s production originating in this district. About 110 000 tons of avocados are produced in South Africa every year, with a high proportion of those coming from Mpumalanga.

About 45% of the crop is exported.

Deciduous fruits are cultivated in smaller quantities. The village of Tonteldoos north of Dullstroom hosts an annual peach festival that includes liquid marvels such as peach mampoer (the South African version of moonshine). About 15 000 tons of table grapes are produced in the province annually and Mpumalanga produces its own wine.

A specialist fruit that does well in the province is the marula. The marula fruit makes a popular beer and is used in the production of a liqueur that has done well on the international market.

Potatoes and potato seed thrive in Mpumalanga’s fertile soil, with one operation in the higher reaches of the Drakensberg range producing more than 2 000 tons of seed every year. Tomatoes, onions and cabbage are also farmed profitably.

Mpumalanga is a relatively minor producer of cotton, but there are areas of the province where the crop is important. It is grown

OVERVIEW

Livestock mostly under dryland conditions in Marble Hall. The province has 1 500 hectares of dryland under cotton.

Much of South Africa’s total annual production of about 34-million kilograms of tobacco, especially Virginia tobacco, takes place in the north-western parts of Mpumalanga as well as in neighbouring Limpopo. Several of Mpumalanga’s tobacco farmers have switched to table grapes or citrus in recent years.

Crops produced for export in Mpumalanga include cut flowers, pot plants and nursery plants.

ONLINE RESOURCES Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa: www.aeasa.org.za ARC-Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Crops: www.arc.agric.co.za Citrus Growers Association: www.cga.co.za Deciduous Fruit Producers Trust: www.dfpt.co.za Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: www.daff.gov.za Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum: www.fpef.co.za Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Administration: www.mpu.gov.za Perishable Products Export Control Board: www.ppecb.com South African Cactus Pear Association: www.cactuspear.co.za South African Macadamia Growers’ Association: www.samac.org.za South African Subtropical Growers’ Association: www.subtrop.net

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About 14% of the province’s land area is natural grazing land.

Products include beef, mutton, poultry, dairy and wool.

Dairy and poultry do well in the southern parts of the province. A number of poultryproduction companies have large facilities in the StandertonVolksrust area. The town of Ermelo is the centre of one of the country’s most important sheepfarming districts, with the export of wool greatly benefitting the province and country.

The province is home to one of South Africa’s largest pig farms, Kanhym, near Middelburg. Karan Beef has recently built a large abattoir in Balfour to service its massive feedlot in neighbouring Gauteng. Up to 1 800 head of cattle can be processed every day at the facility.

Goats are an important source of protein and milk for many of the rural population and the raising of goats is widespread, especially in traditional areas.

OVERVIEW

Sugar Irrigation schemes have helped sugar cane producers avoid the worst of the drought.

R

CL Foods’ continuing growth strategy saw the diversified food group acquire TSB Sugar in 2014. TSB Sugar runs three mills in the Lowveld region (two of which have refining capacity) and employs about 4 700 people. More than 1 400 commercial and small-scale farmers deliver sugar cane to the company. TSB brands are Selati (sugar) and Molatek (animal feed).

Formerly a wholly-owned subsidiary of Remgro, TSB Sugar contributed R505-million to RCL earnings in 2015 (or 23%). RCL used to be called Rainbow Chickens.

Mpumalanga has the second-biggest sugar industry in South Africa, after KwaZulu-Natal, but only TSB has mills in the province.

TSB Sugar has been increasing the amount of cane it takes from community trusts and small-scale growers. The proportion of land used to harvest cane from small-scale growers on community land has grown to 15%, with 64% coming from commercial farmers and community trusts and 21% from TSB’s own land. About 12 000 hectares of agricultural land has been sold to communities at Tenbosch and Matsamo to settle land claims.

TSB’s three mills (including Pongola in northern KwaZulu-Natal) have been able to maintain volumes because of extensive irrigation schemes.

The provincial government of Mpumalanga has set aside R7.4million to provide irrigation for small-scale farmers in Malelane in the Nkomazi Municipality.

TSB milled a record 702 000 tons of raw sugar in 2014/15. The Selati retail sugar brand is one of the most popular in the country. The expenditure of R6.5-billion in Mozambique will greatly increase TSB’s land holdings and its refining capacity.

About 44 000 hectares in the province is under sugar cane.

Commercial farmers account for 27 000 hectares, emerging farmers for

ONLINE RESOURCES South African Cane Growers: www.sacanegrowers.co.za South African Sugar Association: www.sugar.org.za South African Sugar Industry and Sustainable Development: www.sugarindustrydev.co.za Sugar Milling Research Institute: www.smri.org

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SECTOR INSIGHT TSB Sugar is now part of RCL Foods.

• Dry weather can also improve crop quality.

• The provincial government will spend R7.4-million on irrigation for small-scale farmers in Malelane.

9 500 hectares and TSB Sugar has 7 800 hectares of its own.

Saleable sugar production in South Africa decreased by 10% in 2014/15 to a total of 2.1-million tons, but this still represents something of a recovery from 2011 and 2012, when total saleable sugar production dropped below two-million tons.

The Akwandze Fund, an initiative of the Liguguletfu Cooperative and TSB Sugar, makes loans for small-scale farmers. Liguguletfu came into existence with small investments from each of the co-op’s 889 members, which eventually amounted to R5-million in share equity. TSB Sugar matched this rand-for-rand. Farmers must join a savings scheme to belong, and Akwandze has more than 1 200 customers.

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

OVERVIEW

Forestry and paper Mpumalanga accounts for 40% of South Africa’s forestry hectares.

SECTOR INSIGHT Imvelo Forests is testing firedetection by thermal imaging.

• The Community Conservation Resilience Initiative has been launched in the province.

M

pumalanga has South Africa’s biggest sawmill and its largest panel and board plant, together with the biggest integrated pulp and paper mill in Africa.

The forestry sector comprises logging, saw-milling, wood product and pulp and paper manufacture. Pulp and paper are the main industry exports, along with sawn lumber, wood chips and wattle extract. The major export markets are the Far East, Europe and the UK. Timber volumes started increasing in 2014 and continued for most of 2015 but the drought affecting most of the nation then had an impact.

York Timbers is reporting increases in production volumes, revenue and profit. This Sabie-based company, together with large global brands Sappi and Mondi, are the largest companies operating in the forestry and paper sector, which accounts for 8% of Mpumalanga’s gross geographic product.

York Timbers has 61 000 planted hectares, five sawmills and a plywood plant. York Timbers is spending about R1-billion on the upgrade of its Sabie plant.

Global paper giants Sappi and Mondi have extensive plantation holdings and mill operations in the province, while Komatiland Forests (a 100%-owned subsidiary of state company SAFCOL) has big plantations in several districts. The group turned a R55.7-million profit in 2015 on the back of improved log sales and cost-cutting.

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TWK is a R6-billion agricultural company with its headquarters in Mkhondo (Piet Retief).

Asset management company Global Environment Fund created Imvelo Forests in 2013. In 2015, the company investigated using thermal imaging to detect fires. A technology developed by Insight Robotics claims to be able to spot a single tree on fire within a 5km radius (SA Forestry).

Among the other private timber growers in the province are Pull Scar Timber Co, and United Forest Products.

The Community Conservation Resilience Initiative (CCRI) has been introduced to Mpumalanga, on the basis that local communities can play a big role in biodiversity conservation and restoration.

The first two communities to be part of CCRI are Mariepskop and Houtbosloop Valley.

Private rail operator Sheltam specialises in transporting paper and pulp, and the company also has extensive operations in Mpumalanga.

OVERVIEW Forestry The South African forestry industry is valued at R40-billion per year. The National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reports that South Africa has a shortage of sawn timber and that this problem is set to get worse.

Timber volumes are down quite substantially from 2008 when 19-million tons (mt) were harvested, but in 2015 a figure of 15.8mt was recorded, bringing in R28.1million in revenue. Production dropped quite substantially in the final quarter due to the drought, but a similar total tonnage was expected to be harvested in 2016.

The forestry sector accounts for about 12.3% of the nation’s agricultural GDP, while the forestry products sector contributes about 1% to national GDP, as it has done for many years (Forestry South Africa).

Mpumalanga has the ideal climate and topography for forests.

Sabie and Graskop represent the hub of the industry, but commercial forests are also found to the east and south along the Swaziland border. About 11% of the land mass is forested, with 4% of that being natural forest. The province is the national leader in total hectares under forest (514 000) and export earnings.

The Low veld Botanical Gardens in Nelspruit has more than 650 of the 1 000 trees indigenous to South Africa.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) forestry-research unit aims to improve tree breeds. Mondi has instituted

an ecosystem management plan throughout its forestry operations, with the intention of better managing the impact its work has on the environment. Some areas have been set aside to cater for biodiversity and endangered species.

Sappi Forests’ purchase of the 14 500-hectare Sjonajona plantation took the paper and pulp manufacturer’s plantation ownership in Mpumalanga up to 229 000 hectares, of which 143 400 hectares is planted.

The Industrial Development Corporation has a stake in York Timbers and a 42.6% share in Hans Merensky Holdings, a company with timber and processing interests in three provinces. Merensky is responsible for 20% of South Africa’s sawn pine lumber.

The commercial-forest sector offers attractive business opportunities for small-scale entrepreneurs, particularly small-scale growers, contractors and sawmillers. The pulp and paper industry is ideal for recycling. Forested areas lend themselves to bee-keeping and honey-making.

PG Bison operates a sawmill in Empuluzi, while Mondi’s softwood sawmill in Sabie is South Africa’s largest of its type. Sonae Novoboard’s panel and board plant is likewise impressively big.

The biannual Sabie Forest Fair is a major event on the forestry calendar as well as on the region’s social calendar.

Pulp and paper Wood from the Sjonajona plantation will help Sappi achieve selfsufficiency at its massive Ngodwana Mill, which has annual capacity to produce 140 000 tons of newsprint and 240 00 tons of kraft linerboard and white-top linerboard.

Although local demand is dwindling, the export market for pulp and paper from South Africa remains strong. Pulp production figures have been on the rise for several years and companies like Mondi are increasingly focusing on pulp export because of the better margins that this product offers.

ONLINE RESOURCES Forestry South Africa: www.forestry.co.za National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries: www.daff.gov.za Paper Manufacturers of South Africa: www.thepaperstory.co.za South African Institute of Forestry: www.saif.org.za Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry of South Africa: www.tappsa.co.za Wood Foundation: www.thewoodfoundation.co.za

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OVERVIEW

Mining The latest technology is improving platinum yields in Mpumalanga.

C

oal, platinum, gold and nickel are the province’s major mineral resources and all of these minerals are still in demand, even if coal and platinum have experienced roller-coaster price fluctuations in recent months.

South Africa no longer enjoys world dominance in gold production – both China and the US produce more ounces – but it does produce 75% of the world’s platinum, 80% of its manganese, 73% of its chrome and 45% of its vanadium. Mpumalanga has significant resources of each of these minerals, and several others.

The Witbank coal fields are the most productive in Africa and the province lies at the southern end of the eastern limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex. Chromite, magnetite and vanadium are found in significant quantities in the province. The ferro-alloy industry is centred on the town of Middelburg.

Deposits of chromite, magnetite and vanadium in this area are the basis of the ferro-alloy complex in Witbank-Middelburg (in the District Municipality of Nkangala) and Lydenburg (Mashishing). Nkomati Mine is South Africa’s only pure-nickel operation. The province’s coalfields are in the south and west of the province.

Mining contributes 21.8% to provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the relative contribution of the province’s sector to mining in South Africa has risen in recent years, from 18% in 1995 to 21%.

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SECTOR INSIGHT A Mining and Metals Technology Park is to be developed in the Steve Tshwete Local Municipality.

• Exxaro is developing a new coal mine at Belfast.

• Anglo American aims to sell all its coal businesses.

• Northam Platinum has purchased the Everest mine from Aquarius Platinum.

A slump in world commodity prices has meant a decline in activity in most mining sectors, which in turn has led to a number of retrenchments. The provincial government believes

OVERVIEW that more beneficiation would assist in creating employment.

Although the province has a number of processing plants, a large percentage of minerals leave the province (and country) in their raw state, and consequently attract less value.

In terms of new mining legislation, mining licences now include a provision whereby some of the resources mined must be made available to local manufacturers. The idea behind the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act is to boost the minerals beneficiation sector, which, it is believed, will increase employment levels and stimulate economic growth.

The first “pilot commodity value chain” has been developed by the National Department of Mineral Resources and applies to the iron and steel industry.

Future value chain strategies will be developed for energy (coal, uranium), catalytic converters, jewellery and pigment production.

The Mpumalanga provincial government has announced that it has plans to develop a Mining and Metals Technology Park in the Steve Tshwete Local Municipality.

A coal beneficiation project in the eMalahleni district has been acquired by a local joint venture. Mining Weekly reports that Exxaro has disposed of the asset to Lurco Group and Burgh Group has acquired the asset from Exxaro and that the plan is to produce 25-million tons of coal for export and for domestic markets.

Coal Mpumalanga accounts for 83% of South Africa’s coal production and is the third-largest coal exporting region in the world. The coalfields of the province feed a number of power stations situated nearby. The town of eMalahleni (Witbank), in Nkangala District Municipality, is at the centre of the coal industry.

Eskom told South Africa’s parliament in 2013 that hundreds of millions of tons of coal are needed in the short and medium term to ensure stable electricity supply. Sixty percent of the utility’s supply comes from companies that have coal mines near to power stations (Exxaro, Anglo Coal and BHP Billiton) and these companies supply on a “cost plus” basis (in other words, the price Eskom must pay must reflect any additional costs that the miner has to bear). Short-term contracts are generally more expensive for Eskom, but these are growing in importance because the “cost plus” suppliers have not been able to hit their targets.

In 2015, nearly 30% of Eskom’s coal (33.3-million tons) was supplied

by Exxaro. The Exxaro group produces 39-million tons of coal annually.

Exxaro is going ahead with plans to spend R3.8-billion on a new coal mine at Belfast. In 2015, engineering companies Arup and DRA signed contracts to deliver different aspects of the project, and SRK Consulting has been hired to build a railway siding. The mine will annually produce 2.2-million tons for export and 500 kilo-tons of power station coal.

Although Anglo American announced in February 2016 that it planned to get out of the coal business altogether, the company still produced in 2015 a total of 50.3-million tons of it, with 17.4-million tons being exported at the end of 2015.

Anglo’s sell-off will obviously re-shape the coal industry in Mpumalanga. It is not clear whether one buyer will take all or most of Anglo’s Mpumalanga’s assets, or whether the sale will be of a more piecemeal sort. Sibanye has already shown interest in many of Anglo’s assets (and has already acquired some of the platinum mines) so it might be a suitable suitor, and Exxaro has also indicated that it may be interested in buying some assets. However, anyone buying new coal mines will want to be sure that any contracts to supply coal to Eskom are water-tight.

There may also be some interest in using the sell-off to bring more black-owned companies into the sector.

State coal company AEMFC (African Exploration Mining & Finance Corporation) runs a colliery at Vlakfontein near Ogies and is planning to develop other projects. A plan to mine more coal for power stations near Kinross is under way and a smaller project in the eMalahleni area has also been assessed and will be developed once financing has been secured.

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OVERVIEW BHP Billiton Energy Coal SA (Becsa) has three existing collieries in the province and is engaged in rolling out two more big projects. These entail doubling capacity at Klipspruit and improving efficiencies at Middelburg to such an extent that it will extend the life of the mine by 10 years.

Former coal trader Wescoal became a coal producer in 2010, and is increasing its exposure to mining. Wescoal is applying for several new coal mining rights in Mpumalanga. It owns and manages the Khanyisa colliery which supplies the Eskom power station at Kendall with coal.

Coal of Africa Limited’s Mooiplaats mine, in the Ermelo coalfields in the eastern Highveld, was put on care and maintenance in 2013 and sold in 2015 to Blackspear Capital for R250-million. It was built to supply the Eskom power facility at nearby Camden. Blackspear has a mine (Overvaal) next to Mooiplaats, as well as other mines at Puleng (Middelburg) and the Thutsi mine (Business Day).

ArmCoal is a black-owned coal company that arose out of a deal between Xstrata Coal SA and African Rainbow Minerals Limited (51%).

ArmCoal was the vehicle used in the creation of the large open-cut thermal coal mine at Goedgevonden.

Gold Sibanye Gold’s list of acquisitions continues to grow. Formed as a gold-mining company with one mine in the Free State, Sibanye has rapidly been buying up platinum assets and showing an appetite to become a multi-mineral operation. In Mpumalanga it has purchased and started to develop the Burnstone gold mine near Balfour.

After the Canadian-listed company Great Basin Gold went into liquidation in 2012, Wits Gold acquired the mine and Sibanye has purchased Wits Gold. Sibanye is reviving the mine and reports that Burnstone has a maiden gold reserve of 1.8-million ounces.

Stonewall Resources runs the TGME Project, near the towns of Pilgrims Rest and Sabie. Operations began in 2011, expanding from an existing tailing operation. The area is historically one of the oldest gold-mining areas in the country. Stonewall has ambitious targets of going beyond production of 40 000 ounces from this and other historic mines in the area.

There is renewed interest in the Barberton Greenstone Belt. Having listed on the Australian stock exchange, Vantage Goldfields owns the Lily mine which was in the news spotlight in 2016 when three workers were trapped underground in a container after a rock slide. Vantage purchased Barbrook because it has a processing plant. This plant has been renamed Central Metallurgical Complex.

Galaxy and Gold Hill mine currently produce 20 000 ounces of gold per year. The Galaxy company is using new technology to get the ore body out of the sulphide minerals in which it is embedded.

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Having taken full control of its Barberton mines, Pan African improved its BEE position (Shanduka Gold is a 23.8% shareholder) and set about increasing its annual gold output to 100 000 ounces.

The company announced in 2010 that new finds at Royal Sheba will extend the life of Barberton mines by another 15 years. Pan African acquired the Evander gold mine from Harmony and runs two tailings retreatment plants, at Barberton and Evander.

Cement Sephaku Cement produces 1.4-million tons of cement at its grinding plant in Delmas. There is undercover storage available for 15 000 tons of bagged cement at the facility.

Clinker for the Delmas plant comes from Aganang in the North West Province and fly-ash is sourced from the Sephaku classification plant at the Kendal Power Station, located about 35km to the east of Delmas. Fly-ash is an extender in the final cement product and Sephaku makes about 1.3-million tons of it.

This development is partly a response to increased activity in the power sector (Eskom’s build programme) but the company is also very upbeat about the country’s housing sector and the national government’s infrastructure programme. The company was responsible for a 1.2-million ton fly-ash-beneficiation plant at the Kendal power plant.

The Provincial Government of Mpumalanga is in a partner-

OVERVIEW ship with Eskom, in which opportunities for young people who own businesses are created through the fly-ash beneficiation programme.

will allow it to produce about 42 000 ounces of PGM concentrate per annum.

Sylvania Platinum now has seven PGM recovery plants that extract chrome from tailings on both sides of the Bushveld Igneous Complex. The company also has some shallow mining projects.

Platinum group metals (PGMs)

Ferrous metals

Northam Platinum, which has assets on both limbs of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, has purchased the Everest mine from Aquarius Platinum. Everest is adjacent to Northam’s existing Booysendal mine (35km west of Mashishing, formerly Lydenburg).

By the end of 2016, and with this new asset, Northam expects to be producing 460 000 ounces of platinum group metals (PGM). A concentrator and a chrome extraction plant were included in the sale price of R450-million.

The platinum concentrator at Northam’s Booysendal plant was the site of a technology first in 2014/15, with the first use of a type of flotation control introduced

by Mintek, the organisation that does research and development for the mining industry. The technology is software-based and is called FloatStar Grade Recovery Optimiser (FSGRO). The grade measurements that make the process possible were obtained from another South African product, the BlueCube MQi slurry analyser.

Jubilee Platinum has sold its smelting and refining business in Middelburg to Siyanda Resources for R110.5-million in 2015. Jubilee wants to concentrate on being a miner, and is confident that its two projects

Lydenburg is home to the Lion ferrochrome smelter that is a joint venture between Glencore and Merafe Resources. Feedstock is primarily provided by mines run by the same two companies, namely Magareng, Helena and Thorncliffe.

Assmang, the joint venture between ARM Ferrous and the JSE-listed Assore, operates a chrome mine (Dwarsrivier) and a ferrochrome plant where chrome alloys are made (Machadodorp) in Mpumalanga. The mine has been converted from an operation run by a contractor to an owner-operator mine. Reduced demand for stainless steel in the recession meant that some of the furnaces at Machodadorp had to shut down.

The Manganese Metal Company (MMC) in Mbombela is the largest producer of pure electrolytic manganese in the world. MMC is owned

by Samancor (51%) and Bilston Investments owns the balance.

Nickel Most of the R3.9-billion that has been committed to the upgrade project of the Nkomati operation of ARM Platinum and Norilsk Nickel Africa has been spent.

A full nickel off-take agreement exists with Metal Trade Overseas (MTO). A 375ktpm concentrator plant has been built, allowing for greater volumes to be milled. Production levels are rising on the back of increased global demand.

Niger Uranium Limited has entered into a joint venture with Southern African Nickel Limited (San) to explore nickel opportunities near Burgersfort in Mpumalanga. Exploration is going to be done for the joint venture by Pangea Exploration.

ONLINE RESOURCES Aluminium Federation of South Africa: www.afsa.org.za Chamber of Mines South Africa: www.bullion.org.za Geological Society of South Africa: www.gssa.org.za Mining Qualifications Authority: www.mqa.org.za Mintek: www.mintek.co.za National Department of Mineral Resources: www.dmr.gov.za South African Mining Development Association: www.samda.co.za

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FOCUS

KUKA Mining Logistics – Industrial Aerial Ropeways Superior materials handling in areas with limited access.

K

uku Mining Logistics is a specialist developer of Industrial Aerial Ropeways for the transport of ore. It focuses on areas that are difficult to access without decent road/rail infrastructure in Africa, Australasia, Asia and South America.

Since the company’s inception in 2003, KUKA has accumulated significant intellectual property through its internal professional team whose expertise is continually enhanced by exposure to mining and industrial projects worldwide. The company has developed a highly skilled team of South African engineering companies, and entered into a technical agreement with Leitner, one of the leading ropeway companies in the world with 150 years’ experience. Leitner acts as system integrator and supplies the critical components.

“Meeting client needs with superior materials handling system solutions has placed KUKA at the forefront of the development of material ropeways as utility assets for a range of mining clients. KUKA offers the full spectrum of activities from planning and basic design, through detailed engineering design, contractors’ activities, procurement and MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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commissioning, project financing and risk insurance, ending with project delivery, operations and maintenance,” says Louis van der Walt, Managing Director.

Described as a revival of an old logistics concept tailormade for new mines developed in remote and difficult accessible terrain, Industrial Aerial Ropeways is normally the most efficient form of mining product transportation.

In most countries the mining industry has sought to complement the existing rail capacity, with the introduction of a substantial number of articulated tipper trucks in order to transport mined ore and coal from the mines to plants and ports. Unfortunately this has led to a number of unintentional consequences, including alarming degradation in the quality of available road infrastructure, with substantial damage being done to the roads on an ongoing basis; ongoing negative environmental impact manifested primarily as noise and dust pollution and heightened emissions; and high cost to build heavy-duty roads from new mines in remote areas to processing plants or ports.

In comparison, rope technology possesses the advantage of being: • Adaptable: Traversing prohibitive

FOCUS

or mountainous areas; Long distance (100km+) ; High freight rates (800tph+) • Robust and Durable: Low life cycle cost; Operate > 50 years • Simple: Very high availability; relative low operating cost • Environmentally sustainable: small footprint; energy efficient; no noise; no emissions • The ideal mode of transport: Provide competitive interface to rail networks; ideally suited for remote areas and difficult terrain.

KUKA has completed numerous small ropeway projects and feasibility studies for a number of large ropeway projects in Africa and South America. KUKA should start with the construction of a 16km long ropeway in Steelpoort Valley during the second half of 2016.

CONTACT INFO Physical address: 1st floor, Block 5 Bryanstongate Office Park 170 Curson Road, Bryanston, South Africa Postal address: PO Box 414, Petervale, 2151 Tel: + 27 82 949 2333 Fax: + 27 86 521 2230 Email: info@kukaropeways.com Website: kukaropeways.com

Specialist developer and operator of bulk aerial ropeway logistics infrastructure for clients in the mining sector, as well as aerial based people transporting systems.

Contact Details: Louis van der Walt 082 949 2333 • louis@kukaropeways.com

OVERVIEW

Oil and gas Mpumalanga is well-placed for a new national focus on gas.

A

new national focus on gas as a fuel to supply energy will benefit the province of Mpumalanga, which is already geared to use and transport gas.

Sasol and the provincial government have commissioned an in-depth technical feasibility study for a Petrochemical Technology Park to be located in the province, which report is due in the course of 2016.

Evidence of national government’s new focus came in the 2016/17 budget speech of the Department of Energy, when plans for a 600MW gas-fired power plant were announced.

The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) is creating a special unit to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the country, as part of the strategy to overcome the reliance on coal to power South Africa’s power stations. The vast gas fields off the coast of Mozambique are the most obvious source of supply, and in January 2016, Sasol obtained approval from the Mozambican government for a field development plan that will see hydrocarbon resources developed. It already produces gas and condensate from the Mozambican Pande and Temane fields, with most of the gas currently exported for use as feedstock for its chemical and synthetic fuel operations in South Africa as well as for the South African gas market.

Sasol Energy supplies natural gas to Sasol Secunda Synfuels Operations and buys Sasol Secunda Synfuels Operations methane-rich pipeline gas to sell to customers in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

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SECTOR INSIGHT National government is backing a new 600MW gas-fired power project.

• Sasol completed its R13.8billion Secunda growth programme in 2016.

Natural gas is an inexpensive alternative to coal. Although the coal industry still has life in it, it is a finite resource. Sasol’s R14billion mine replacement project in Secunda, which extends the lifespan of its Southern Africa integrated value chain, is substantially complete.

Petroleum Agency SA is the state agency responsible for promoting and regulating exploration and production of oil and gas in the country. Two methane-gas exploration rights have been granted to Highland

OVERVIEW Exploration in the Evander area in Mpumalanga.

Many of the big mining and manufacturing concerns in Mpumalanga have long-term contracts for the supply of gas with big gas companies. Afrox and Air Liquide are two of the biggest, with the latter having 3 500 national customers, which include Sappi and Sasol.

Eskom’s innovative underground coal-gasification (UCG) project puts the power utility at the forefront of exploring ways of using coal in a more environmentally responsible way. UCG is a process whereby coal is converted into a synthetic powergenerating gas underground.

When it comes to liquid petroleum gas, mostly used in households (and normally delivered by canisters), some changes are coming for consumers. The Competition Commission wants to make the sector more competitive, and aims to do this by reducing the duration of contracts between bulk sellers and refineries.

(Mail & Guardian). South Africa’s LPG market is worth R1.5-billion per annum and the country produces 300 000 tons of product.

One of the aims of the commission is to make LPG cheaper and more easily available to private consumers, who currently make up just 3% of the market.

Fuel The Secunda Synfuels Operations facility, which forms part of the Sasol complex at Secunda, is the only commercial coal-to-liquid

fuel plant in the world, and forms a vital part of South Africa’s oil and gas sector.

Sasol is an international integrated chemicals and energy company that produces a range of product streams including liquid fuels, chemicals and low-carbon electricity. Several of the company’s divisions have plants at Secunda in Mpumalanga.

In 2016 Sasol completed the R13.8-billion Secunda growth programme, which delivered an increase in volumes from Secunda Synfuels (to a record 7.8-million tons).

Pipelines Together with its partners in Rompco (a consortium that includes a Mozambique gas company and iGas, the South African state agency for gas), Sasol will spend a total of R4.8-billion on pipelines to get gas to customers in Mozambique and in South Africa. The main pipeline runs to the Sasol facility at Secunda from the processing plant at Temane, Inhambane Province, southern Mozambique, 870km away. The upgraded and expanded pipelines should be able to carry upwards of 200-million gigajoules per annum.

A 145km multi-product pipeline links the Sasol facilities at Secunda and Sasolburg in the Free State province.

South Africa has four major pipeline networks: crude oil, gas, jet fuel and multi-product.

The first litres of diesel fuel ran along Transnet Pipelines’ new multiproduct pipeline (NMPP) in January 2012, launching a new era for the transportation of fuels to the Highveld. The old pipeline was inaugurated in 1965.

The NMPP will be able to carry about 26-billion litres of fuel every year. Refined products such as jet fuel, sulphur diesel and both kinds of octane petrol will be carried.

State entity Transnet Pipelines owns, operates, manages and maintains a network of the 3 000km pipelines that make up the bulk of the national network.

ONLINE RESOURCES Central Energy Fund: www.cef.org.za Petroleum Agency SA: www.petroleumagency.co.za PetroSA: www.petrosa.co.za Sasol: www.sasol.com South African Oil and Gas Alliance: www.offshoreafrica.co.za South African National Energy Association: www.sanea.org.za South African Petroleum Industry Association: www.sapia.co.za Transnet Pipelines: www.transnetpipelines.net

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OVERVIEW

Energy Biomass puts Mpumalanga on the renewable energy map.

SECTOR INSIGHT A 25MW power plant at Sappi’s Ngodwana mill is part of the drive to provide South Africa with renewable energy.

• Power is expected from the new power station Kusile in 2017.

O

ne of the world’s most efficient public-private partnerships is under way in South Africa. In the drive to provide new sources of power for the national grid, the focus has mostly been on solar power and wind power, but the acceptance of the bid by Sappi and its partners as providers of 25MW of biomass power in 2015 shows that the process is open to many types of power generation.

The national programme to procure power from private producers is called the Renewable Energy Independant Power Producers’ Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). By May 2016 the REIPPPP had delivered on its promise of 6 377 megawatts (MW) with an investment value of R250-billion and many of the projects are already delivering electricity to South Africa’s grid.

The REIPPPP has so far seen four phases of bidding (known as bidding windows), and competition among investors is fierce. The most recent, fourth, window attracted 77 bids; initially just 13 were selected but a further 13 bids were accepted later. The Sappi-led consortium’s bid was part of Window 4. Collectively the 26 projects will add 2 205MW of power and inject R23-billion into the economy.

Sappi’s international partner is KC Africa (part of KC Green Holdings of South Korea) and two local trusts will hold 10% of the project between them. Fusion Energy is the other stakeholder while the banks behind the project are Absa and Nedbank. The principal contractor to build the plant, which will be powered by Sappi’s wood, is Johannesburg-based ELB Engineering Services.

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As the renewable energy programme thrives, another national trend that is showing itself in Mpumalanga is the move to gas as a source of power. City Press reports that mining for natural gas has begun in the southern part of the province near Volksrust and Amersfoort. The rich coal deposits of the province make it an obvious target for exploration of coalbed methane. A joint venture between South African company Badimo Gas and Kinetiko-Energy from Australia has two licences covering 1 601km².

Coal and alternatives Most of the nation’s coal-fired power stations are in Mpumalanga and a massive new one is under construction at Kusile.

Three previously mothballed power stations have been reopened. Camden, near Ermelo, was the first to come back on stream, with 1 520MW being added to the grid. Komati and Grootvlei are on

OVERVIEW stream again and will eventually be contributing 800 megawatts.

Arnot and Kriel have been upgraded while the refurbishment of Matla power station is under way.

The massive Duvha power station has a capacity of 3 450 megawatts.

The new coal-fired power station being constructed at Kusile near Delmas in the eMalahleni Municipality will add 4 800MW to the grid when complete. Several delays have pushed back the date when power can first be expected: the latest information is that power from Unit 1 can be expected in the first half of 2017.

The provincial government of Mpumalanga has conducted a pre-feasibility study into building a hydroelectric plant at Nkomazi, a sign that South Africa’s biggest producer of coal-fired power is looking at alternative ways of generating energy.

Independent power producers have expressed interest in the project and with a number of strongrunning rivers and steep ravines in the province, hydro power certainly has potential.

A new transformer at the Acornhoek substation in Bushbuckridge has been installed by national utility Eskom.

This will improve power supply to towns such as Bushbuckridge‚ Acornhoek‚ Hoedspruit‚ Hazyview and Phalaborwa, and make investment in those areas a more attractive proposition.

York Timbers, in the course of the R1-billion upgrade of its Sabie processing facility, will build a cogeneration plant that will produce about 15MW of electricity every year.

Anglo American has plans to build a 450MW power station near eMalahleni to supply its platinum mines with electricity.

Assmang is among several resources companies looking into establishing cogeneration plants. The ferroalloy producer intends building a 20MW plant to serve its smelter at Machadodorp.

Eskom is investing in a solar-power pilot project at its Kendal power station. Power company ABB has been contracted to build a solar photovoltaic power plant with a 620-kilowatt capacity that will be used to run some of the power station’s functions.

The Combined Cycle Gas Turbines at Sasol’s Secunda complex in Mpumalanga have been generating power since July 2010 and can generate up to 280MW from natural gas.

A scientific research project known as Hydrogen SA (HySA) is investigating the use of this powerful but volatile element as an energy source. Fuel cells usually use hydrogen and platinum, which is widely found in Mpumalanga.

ONLINE RESOURCES Eskom: www.eskom.co.za National Department of Energy: www.energy.gov.za National Development Agency: www.nda.org.za National Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technologies Research, Development and Innovation Strategy (HySA): www.hydrogen.qsens.net Sustainable Energy Africa: www.sustainable.org.za Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa: www.sessa.org.za

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OVERVIEW

Engineering Bursaries are available for aspirant engineers in Mpumalanga.

E

ngineers of every sort are needed to build and maintain the complex facilities that underpin Mpumalanga’s economy, from Sasol’s complex synthetic fuel plant and the biomass power plant being built for Sappi to the coal mines and platinum extractor plants in the mining industry.

Experience gained in a wide range of complex projects has enabled White River-based Steval Engineering to expand its services into Mozambique and Ghana. By working on projects in sectors as diverse as sugar-milling, oil and gas, petrochemicals, mining, pulp and paper and power, Steval has become adapt at making and erecting structural steel, platework, steel bulk storage tanks and pipes.

Mpumalanga Consulting Engineers (MCE) focusses on providing a Mechanical Design Service. Clients range from Sappi and Nkomati Mine to Glencore and Samancor.

Contracts signed by Concor Engineering with Eskom (for the erection of workshops and the fabrication of steel-flue cans at the Kusile power plant building site), and with Sasol to work on its Secunda facility’s coal tar filtration plant, are typical of the type of engineering work done by engineers in Mpumalanga.

The other big employer of engineers is the mining sector. Exxaro is drawing on the expertise of several engineering specialists for the construction of its big new coal mine at Belfast. Both DRA Taggert and Arup are part of huge international engineering practices with offices in most parts of the world where mining takes place. SRK Consulting is another major firm working on the Belfast project, and it is active on several mines in Mpumalanga.

ONLINE RESOURCES Consulting Engineers South Africa: www.cesa.co.za Engineering Council of South Africa: www.ecsa.co.za South African Institution of Civil Engineering: www.saice.org.za South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors: www.safcec.org.za Southern African Institute for Industrial Engineering: www.saiie.co.za Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa: www.seifsa.co.za

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SECTOR INSIGHT Mpumalanga engineering companies are expanding into Africa.

• ELB Engineering Services has been hired for the Sappi biomass energy project.

The sugar and forestry industries also need technical expertise, and Sappi has started work on a new biomass-to-energy plant at its Ngodwana Mill: ELB Consulting has won the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract.

Mpumalanga is home to several large-scale processing plants that require high-end engineering skills: for example, the manganese works in Nelspruit and the ferrochrome plants at Middelburg and eNtokozoweni (Machadodorp).

A joint venture comprising Group Five, Stefanutti Stocks, WBHO and Basil Read is tackling the civil engineering work on the massive Kusile Power Station contract. The Cosira Group and Alstom S&E are contracted to supply the boilers. Bateman Engineering Group is carrying out materials handling on the site.

OVERVIEW

Water The new De Hoop Dam is delivering water for bulk distribution in Mpumalanga.

SECTOR INSIGHT • Sasol has reduced water usage by 10%.

• Sappi is raising the wall of the Comrie Dam.

F

our large rivers run through Mpumalanga: Usutu, Crocodile, the Sabie-Sand and the Komati, but most of them are stressed. The catchment areas are Olifants, Nkomazi, Usutu and Upper Vaal.

The province’s biggest industries of forestry, mining, synfuel production and power generation are all thirsty activities. Old mines in particular present problems in that they can pollute groundwater.

This means that Mpumalanga has to conserve its waters, build more dams and commission new water-treatment plants.

Many municipalities in Mpumalanga have been struggling for some time to provide water for their citizens.

The completion of the De Hoop Dam means that people living in municipalities can now expect bulk water delivery. The Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) is responsible for seeing that bulk water supplies are laid on, but making the local connections and actually delivering the water is up to municipalities and water boards.

The Provincial Government of Mpumalanga has pledged significant resources to this end: • R2.7-billion in 2015/16 to municipalities for water and sanitation projects • 32 boreholes have been built to help during the drought, and in 2016/17 a further 582 boreholes will be sunk • R91-million on the Lushushwane Bulk Water Supply in the Gert Sibande District Municipality • Waste-water treatment works to be refurbished in Emakhazeni

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Municipality (funding from national Department of Water and Sanitation) • Inyaka Water Treatment Works, the Acornhoek Bulk Water Pipeline, and water reticulation projects to 15 villages in the Bushbuckridge Municipality About 137-million litres of water is supplied on a daily basis to about 1.2-million people in the Bushbuckridge and Mbombela local municipalities by Rand Water. The company runs 11 water-treatment plants, two river schemes and a sewage-treatment plant.

Large schemes The De Hoop Dam is the centrepiece in the very large Olifants River Water Resource Development Project (ORWRDP), which will transform and control water usage for industrial, commercial and private users.

As the catchment area for this huge scheme is to the north of Mpumalanga, the spinoff effect on the province is significant.

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

OVERVIEW

The Olifants River System (and associated systems such as the Blyde Irrigation Scheme) feeds the region that is South Africa’s greatest producer of citrus and subtropical fruits.

The TCTA has delivered the Komati Water Supply Augmentation Project: an extra 57-million m³ of water every year is now available for the Duvha and Matla power stations in the eMalahleni (Witbank) area, and other water users.

To make sure that its big Saiccor Mill receives a steady supply of water, Sappi is to raise the wall level of the Comrie Dam. Across its global operations, Sappi claims to return 93% of the water it uses back into the environment once it has been cleaned.

Another important piece of infrastructure being worked on is the second phase of the Vlakfontein canal rehabilitation project. Located between Secunda and Standerton, the canal carries water to vital facilities run by Sasol and Eskom.

A big water user in the province is Sasol, and it reduced its water usage in 2015 by 10% on the previous year (135 458m³ against MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

149 552m³). In addition, the company is working with the Govan Mbeki Municipality to help residents of the township of eMbalenhle to conserve water.

The R300-million water reclamation plant built by Anglo Coal South Africa and BHP Billiton Energy at eMalahleni has proved such a success that the UN Conference on Climate Change singled it out for praise.

About 30-million litres of water are treated every day, with the bulk of the potable water going to the eMalahleni Local Municipality and the balance going to the mines and coal-washing plants of the two companies.

The Ehlanzeni District Municipality has a Water and Sanitation unit.

The White River Water Augmentation Scheme has improved water supplies in the White River area.

Rand Water currently provides water to all but one of the local municipalities in the Nkangala District Municipality (western region) and one of the local municipalities in the Gert Sibande District Municipality in the southern part of the province.

The Komati Basin Water Authority (Kobwa) covers the major rivers of the eastern Lowveld, the Lomati and Komati. Kobwa is a bi-national agency with Swaziland and South Africa each supplying three members to the commission. Phase one of the Komati River basin development project entailed building dams in South Africa (Driekoppies) and Swaziland (Maguga).

ONLINE RESOURCES De Hoop Dam: www.dhcw.co.za Inkomati Usuthu Catchment Management Agency: www.inkomaticma.co.za Komati Basin Water Authority: www.kobwa.co.za National Department of Water and Sanitation: www.dwa.gov.za Rand Water Board: www.randwater.co.za Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority: www.tcta.co.za Water Institute of South Africa: www.wisa.org.za

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PROFILE

Rand Water Rand Water is an essential services utility accountable to the Minister of Water and Sanitation.

Inyaka Dam and part of Inyaka Water Treatment Works in Bushbuckridge area.

Rand Water took over the services of Bushbuckridge Water in Mpumalanga from April 2014.

provision before expanding to other municipalities in the province.

The water board’s primary function is the provision of bulk-water supply and sanitation services for the benefit of the people of Mpumalanga Province, specifically its existing clients ie Bushbuckridge and Mbombela Local Municipalities. The aim of the Utility is to excel in its current service

The Utility’s strategic drive is to improve water accessibility for communities, while increasing water quality management. Drought and ageing infrastructure are some of the challenges but, for the two years of the Utility’s existence in the province, numerous stakeholders have registered their

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PROFILE Bushbuckridge; 4 in Mbombela and 1 in Nkomazi Local Municipalities benefit from the JoJo tank project completed in June 2016. These schools will now store water during this season of drought.

Other projects implemented during 2016 by the Rand Water Foundation include the crèche built at Mgcobaneni in Mbombela and food gardening projects in Bushbuckridge.

THE UTILITY’S STRATEGIC DRIVE IS TO IMPROVE WATER ACCESSIBILITY FOR COMMUNITIES WHILE INCREASING WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT As an essential services utility, Rand Water is committed to contributing to the socio-economic development of people in Mpumalanga Province through the provision of bulk sustainable services.

Rand Water has installed JoJo tanks at various schools in Mpumalanga.

Water is everybody’s business – let’s save water as every drop counts!

satisfaction in the water services supply. Rand Water knows that further improvements in capital development of infrastructure are required to increase efficiency and performance.

Rand Water has improved its relationship with its stakeholders in Mpumalanga. A partnership with the Mpumalanga Legislature led to the support of Moseterata High School in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality for “The Speaker Legacy Project”.

Rand Water rehabilitated the school borehole and installed a new JoJo tank to increase storage capacity and water accessibility for the school in May 2016.

This served to benefit the entire village.

CONTACT INFO Physical address: 8 Chief Mgiyeni Khumalo Drive, White River Postal address: Box 2048, White River, 1240 Customer Service Centre: 0860 10 10 60 customerservice@randwater.co.za Tel: + 27 13 750 0399 Website: www.randwater.co.za

A further partnership with Radio Ligwalagwala FM, as part of its social investment, saw 5 schools in

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INTERVIEW

Providing access to clean water a priority Inkomati-Usuthu CEO Thomas Gyedu-Ababio shares the challenges of water availability during a drought.

Dr Thomas Gyedu-Ababio

BIOGRAPHY After studying science, Thomas worked as a science teacher for eight years before pursuing his masters and doctorate in water quality and water resources management. Thereafter he worked for Rand Water Board, managing the Vaal Dam Catchment for six years, followed by 10 years as the Water Resources Manager for the Kruger National Park. He was appointed to the position of CEO of InkomatiUsuthu Catchment Management Agency in 2016, after serving three years as COO.

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

What is the agency’s current mandate?

Inkomati-Usuthu CMA has to ensure proper management of water resources at the local level involving stakeholders. We do not provide water services, but work with water services authorities, making sure the resource that they use and give to people is protected, clean and safe. We investigate and advise as well as empower stakeholders on water use. We undertake verification and validation to ascertain whether or not people have the right to use water.

What are the challenges the agency faces with regard to the drought?

We have to monitor water allocation, which is a challenge as the Kwena Dam that supplies an area from upstream of Nelspruit to Mozambique isn’t big enough to release water for all the people.

The impact of drought on our planning activities in the past year has been bad for us. We have international obligations to honour, with an agreement to supply a certain volume of water to the other side of the Crocodile and Komati rivers across the Mozambique border.

However, we don’t have enough water as our catchment area gets insufficient rainfall. We don’t have enough water storage for the region, as we also share water with Swaziland.

Please share with us the details of the agency’s successes that you are most proud of.

As the first CMA in the country, we are proud of what we achieved so far: the compilation of the CMS; reducing pollution in the water management area; empowering stakeholders, especially Historically Disadvantaged Individuals, to understand issues of water resources management and legislation; verification and validation of water uses; Water Use Authorisations and bringing stakeholders together.

We have also assisted schools by providing water and sanitation as part of our Corporate Social Investment.

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SAVE WATER WHEREVER YOU CAN!

The Inkomati-Usuthu Catchment Management Agency (IUCMA) has been working hard to alleviate the effects of the drought on the country's water supply.

The IUCMA is responsible for water-resource management at local level, which entails protection, use, development, conservation, management and control of water resources within the Inkomati-Usuthu catchment area.

The agency has already put several measures in place to overcome the effects of the drought, such as increasing releases from the dams as well as increasing restrictions in accordance with the operating rules for the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga.

Suite 801, 8th Floor The MAXSA Building 13 Streak Street Private Bag X11214 Mbombela 1200 Tel: 013 753 9000 | Fax: 013 753 2786 Web: www.inkomaticma.co.za or www.iucma.co.za

OVERVIEW

Manufacturing A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is to be established in the Nkomazi area.

T

he last two years have been very tough for steel makers. Ervaz Highveld Steel cut its workforce nearly in half, then it went into business rescue in 2015. Attempts to stop cheap steel imports came too late to save the company, but attempts are still being made to find a buyer. Middelburg-based Columbus Stainless is a major supplier of stainless-steel products to the domestic and international market. About 25% of the company’s production is sold domestically.

The presence of ferrometals means that Mpumalanga is still an important place for metals and machinery manufacturing, but the turbulence in the steel sector has reminded everyone of the need to diversify. Samancor Chrome (which runs Ferrometals) is the secondlargest ferrochrome producer in the world with three plants, two of which are in Mpumalanga: eMalahleni (Witbank) and Middelburg.

There has been good news in the food processing sector, with McCain Foods investing R40-million to upgrade its processing plant in Delmas.

The Mpumlanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) has been appointed to establish an SEZ in the Nkomazi area of the province. This move is intended to boost manufacturing capacity.

Most manufacturing in the province takes place in the Highveld where there is access to chrome, steel and coal. Sasol’s petrochemical complex and Sappi’s huge Ngodwana Mill are among Mpumalanga’s biggest manufacturing assets.

Manufacturing accounts for 15% of Mpumalanga’s gross geographic product (GGP). The Manganese Metal Company in Mbombela is the largest producer of pure electrolytic manganese metal in the world.

Delta EMD, in the same town, is one of the biggest producers of electrolytic manganese dioxide, a material used in the manufacture of alkaline batteries.

The Lowveld area supports food and beverage enterprises and timber processing. Approximately 70% of jobs in the manufacturing

ONLINE RESOURCES Middelburg Chamber of Commerce & Industry: www.middelburg info.com Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency: www.mega.gov.za National Department of Trade and Industry: www.thedti.gov.za South African Iron and Steel Institute: www.saisi.co.za Southern Africa Stainless Steel Development Association: www.sassda.co.za

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SECTOR INSIGHT Sasol makes a major contribution to manufacturing capacity.

• McCain Foods has upgraded its Delmas potato processing plant.

sector are in food and forestry.

Stander ton has textilemanufacturing capacity in the form of Standerton Mills. It is also home to several plants that use local raw materials: Nestlé has an infant-cereal manufacturing plant, Rainbow runs farms in the Carolina district and Early Bird is prominent. McCain and PepsiCo (Simba) have plants that use the province’s plentiful potato crop.

Africa Silks Weavery in Graskop employs 70 people to create luxury silk items. Mbombela and White River have several furniture manufacturing concerns.

TSB Sugar, now part of RCL Foods, runs two large mills and produces fruit juices through a subsidiary company. Mbombela is the centre of the province’s foodprocessing cluster. Hops Hollow Brewery is located at Lydenburg.

Piet Retief in the Mkhondo Local Municipality is the site of a large pulp and paper plant run

by Mondi.

Columbus Stainless, founded in 1966, is South Africa and Africa’s only producer of stainless steel flat products. Because of the boundless potential for stainless steel as a metal for the future, we at Columbus remain dedicated to becoming one of the leading suppliers of stainless steel in our domestic market and the global arena.

We have created a modern, efficient stainless steel production facility that meets the changing demands of users in the domestic market and around the world. With a wide range of products in Austenitic, Ferritic, Utility and Duplex grades produced in our plant in Middelburg, Mpumalanga we are able to offer a variety of grades of stainless steel suitable for most applications. Backed by sound technical support, we are also able to make recommendations on correct material selection as part of our customer support process.

Our exported products are channelled through a well-developed network of agents and group sales outlets operating in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and the Far East.

For all your stainless steel requirements, please contact us at your earliest convenience.

Columbus Stainless (Pty) Ltd Head Office Hendrina Road, Middelburg, 1050 P O Box 133, Middelburg, 1050 Tel:+27 (0) 13 247 9111 Fax: +27 (0) 13 246 1681 Email: commercial-enquiries@columbus.co.za

www.columbus.co.za

INTERVIEW

Columbus Stainless (Pty) Ltd The company has provided Mpumalanga with the opportunity to beneficiate otherwise exported minerals.

As the only flat steel producer in South Africa, what success and achievements has Columbus Stainless enjoyed since its inception?

Columbus Stainless is the largest producer of stainless steel flat products in the southern hemisphere. It produces 80% of all stainless steel flat products used in South Africa and still exports 70% of its production capacity.

Columbus Stainless has grown together with the local stainless steel value chain and was instrumental in growing the almost non-existent local market to the current over 120 000 tons of stainless steel consumption per year. It has provided the technical know-how and logistical support that allowed the strategically important automotive industry to be where it is today. We have introduced grades such as 409, 441 and 436 to the automotive market, 444 as an alternative to 316 and recently 301 for the manufacturing of Prasa’s rail cars. Columbus is dedicated to the South African economy in a way that our overseas competitors will never be.

depend on local and global GDP growth which translates into growth and demand for durable goods such as stainless steel.

Has Columbus Stainless contributed to the success of its clients and suppliers?

Columbus has sucCarlien van der Merwe, Human cessfully been able to Resources supply on short lead Development times the automotive Manager component makers who rely on Just-InTime deliveries. There are also a substantial number of local suppliers and service providers that are fully or partly dependent on Columbus for their existence. These include IDC-backed Hernic Ferrochrome and 100% BEE-owned Dispack Packing. Columbus Stainless has recently started a supplier and enterprise development programme from which numerous QSE’s (Qualifying Small Enterprises) and SMME’s have benefited.

How has operating a steel plant contributed to the province’s economy?

Columbus contributes ±4.7% of the GDP of Mpumalanga and 0.3% (2015) of the GDP of South Africa while employing around 2 100 people, including permanent staff, apprentices, contractors, temporary workers and trainees.

Is Columbus Stainless contributing to economic opportunities for other businesses in Mpumalanga?

Columbus Stainless brought to Mpumalanga the opportunity to beneficiate otherwise exported ferrochrome, nickel and iron scrap thereby generation generating a constant inflow of US dollars, euros and other foreign currencies into the country and the province. There is an

In terms of your industry, what are some of the important numbers/statistics?

Raw material prices and exchange rates are the main drivers in our input costs. We also strongly MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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INTERVIEW portunity to develop industries that manufacture goods for household applications. Also, given the water situation in South Africa, there is also an opportunity to focus on water treatment and sanitation plants that utilise stainless steel components.

determination of raw materials, electricity and other value adding costs. These strategies and incentives are currently not in place in South Africa, placing a harsh penalty on South African manufacturers when trying to compete with their foreign counterparts.

What main challenges is the industry facing now?

Globally, the stainless steel industry is facing an oversupply of stainless steel flat product, and an imbalanced competition in export markets.

Countries competing for the global stainless steel market tend to protect their own manufacturing industries by following some proven strategies, including import duties, export rebates, government support in the sourcing and price

What manufacturers is Columbus Stainless supplying to?

Columbus’ stainless steel is used by various manufacturers/industries such as: automotive component makers to manufacture exhaust pipes, catalytic converters, etc; household items; transport vehicles and industrial applications. Further, there are many applications in the architectural, mining and power-generation industries Carlien van der Merwe.

Columbus is an incredible success story in terms of transformation and empowerment.

Please share your experience of how this was achieved.

Transformation is one of the company’s strategic pillars. As a large enterprise, Columbus has to apply the generic scorecard. The new Codes of Good Practice have presented opportunities for innovative solutions.

We are also workKutala Bizana, ing very closely with General Manager, Mpumalanga Stainless Legal and Initiative (MSI). MSI is Transformation an incubator that specialises in manufacturing stainless steel products. We provide stainless steel at discounted prices as well as assist them with technical support. This in turn will ensure that there is continuous demand for our product.

We firmly believe in Corporate Social Investment.

Columbus’ CSI is geared towards children and schools.

Kutala Bizana

Tell us about your training initiatives, how they were formulated and rolled out, as well as the successes that they have yielded to date.

Columbus Stainless has various training initiatives that include learnerships, apprenticeships, experiential learning and graduate development pro grammes and a developmental programme.

These programmes include the gaining of work place experience Verina Roach, during an enhanced Strategist training period. The two learnerships offered are Business Administration, a National Qualification Framework, Level 3, and Metals Production, a National Qualification Framework Level 2. The apprenticeship offered by Columbus includes millright, instrumentation machanation, fitters, fitters and turners, boiler-makers, diesel mechanics, riggers and electricians. Columbus is an accredited training provider, therefore all training is provided by Columbus and Merseta.

Verina Roach

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MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

OVERVIEW

Transport A new railway line between Lothair and western Swaziland will promote trade.

SECTOR INSIGHT Major upgrades have been promised along the Moloto Corridor.

• The Maputo Development Corridor is a vital part of South Africa’s importexport infrastructure.

T

he already successful Maputo Development Corridor will soon receive a further boost with the upgrading of the Komatipoort Dry Port into a Special Economic Zone. The national Department of Trade and Industry (dti) has designated the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) as the lead agent to develop the SEZ. Another specific infrastructural development that will boost trade is Transnet’s Swaziland Rail Link (SwaziLink) project. A 146km railway line between Lothair in Mpumalanga and Sidvokodvo in Swaziland will allow for better movement of freight between the countries and provide a possible alternative route for freight through to Richards Bay, thus freeing up space on the dedicated coal line.

The Maputo Development Corridor is Africa’s most advanced spatial development initiative (SDI), comprising road and rail infrastructure, border posts as well as port and terminal facilities. Run by the Maputo Development Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI), the corridor runs from just outside Pretoria in Gauteng, through eMalahleni, Middelburg and Mbombela in Mpumalanga, and then on to Maputo in Mozambique.

The Port of Maputo is handling ever-increasing quantities of cargo, but this could grow exponentially if many of the planned regional rail-network upgrades happen. About 82% of the port’s transit exports come from South Africa.

Rail The Mpumalanga rail system generates more freight traffic than any other province in South Africa and is of great strategic value. Transnet MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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Freight Rail is the main operator and the chief freight movements are coal, fuel, chemicals, timber, iron and chrome ore, fruit, maize, animal feed, wholesale and retail goods, steel, building supplies, fertiliser and consumer goods. The port of Maputo in Mozambique is an attractive option for freight. The coal terminal at Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal receives the majority of the coal that is mined in the province.

A new rail siding is being built to service the Majuba Power Station. The 68km, single heavy-haul track will be a private line that is projected to cost in the region of R5-billion and it is estimated that it will create between 3 500 and 5 000 jobs.

Private rail operator Sheltam services the coal mining and ferrochrome-metal industries from its regional headquarters in eMalahleni. The company runs systems, hauls raw materials and rebuilds and refurbishes locomotives.

OVERVIEW Road The company that runs the N4 as a toll-road, Trans Africa Concessions (Trac), says that heavy-vehicle traffic on the road has increased by 20% every year since 2009. Trac is in the process of spending R1.8-billion on the 570km international highway.

The N4 highway runs east-west through the province and is the main arterial road as well as the backbone of the Maputo Corridor.

The R36 is a major north-south route, passing through Ermelo and connecting Mpumalanga with Limpopo in the north and KwaZulu-Natal in the south. The N17 runs east out of Johannesburg to Bethal.

The Moloto Corridor is the name given to the major route eastwards out of Gauteng towards Mpumalanga. The long-term aim is to create a coordinated road and rail corridor including rapid rail facilities. In the short-term the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) will spend R1-billion over the next three years to upgrade the R573 Moloto road.

With the power generation and mining industries playing such important roles in the

Mpumalanga economy, preserving the road and rail network that feeds them is vital. The provincial government spent about R2.3-billion on road construction and maintenance last year and will do so again in 2016/17.

About R500-million has been set aside by the provincial government for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the coal-haulage network, but with the estimated total cost in the region of R6-billion, the commitment made by Eskom to provide nearly R1-billion over three years is welcome.

The provincial authorities are upgrading gravel roads to hard surfaces, in so doing providing better mobility and access in rural communities (culverts, sidewalks, bus shelters and the provision of bicycles and animal-drawn carts) as well as scholar transport.

Air British Airways flies six times a week from Johannesburg into Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA). Airlink offers flights to Johannesburg and other regional destinations such as Livingstone.

SAA has a service to KMIA. Middelburg Aerodrome is one of the larger alternate airports in the province, boasting a 1.9km runway that can accommodate a 737, while many game lodges have airstrips and helipads. The SA Red Cross Air Mercy Service operates out of the old Nelspruit airport just south of the city.

ONLINE RESOURCES Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport: www.kmiairport.co.za Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative: www.mcli.co.za Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport: http://dpwrt.mpg.gov.za Railroad Association of South Africa: www.rra.co.za Sheltam: www.sheltam.com South African Civil Aviation Authority: www.caa.co.za South African National Roads Agency (Sanral): www.sanral.co.za

Cool Ideas Truck Stop Cool Ideas Truck Stop is situated 1km from the N4 on the R35 Bethal road near Middelburg, Mpumalanga.

According to Road Freight 6000 trucks are monitored in the Middelburg area. 200 Trucks per hour passes the truck stop. This makes Cool Ideas Truck Stop the ideal place for you to stop when driving on the N4.

We offer the following services: Safe parking for Trucks • Drive trough truck wash • Kiosk and Restaurant Overnight and Restroom Facilities • Laundry • 24 hour diesel facility MJ: 082 386 6789 • Dorus: 082 388 3248 • Victor: 074 513 7730 • Office: 083 788 0031 dorus@coolideastruckstop.co.za • admin@coolits.co.za • lana@coolits.co.za • mj@coolits.co.za PO Box 11741, Aerorand, Middelburg 1070 • Vaalbank Plot 17, Middelburg 1050

OVERVIEW

Construction and property Infrastructure spending is a big sector driver in Mpumalanga.

T

he Mpumalanga Provincial Government has committed to investing more than R4-billion in the short term in infrastructure in the province. A staged investment by the national government in support of the construction of the new University of Mpumalanga will see expenditure of about R1-billion per year for three years.

Provincial government priorities are roads, schools and health facilities. In 2015 an amount of R2.3-billion was spent on the construction and maintenance of rural and urban roads throughout the province.

The University of Mpumalanga has two campuses. Many of the facilities at the existing teachers’ training college at Siyabuswa are being upgraded, but new buildings are being added to the campus: six student residence buildings, a canteen and recreation room, as well as a student centre. At Mbombela, a student residence is being constructed to accommodate nearly 250 students, and there will also be an office block, council chamber and a modern auditorium and library.

In the public health sector, construction of four new primary healthcare centres will be completed by 2017 at an estimated cost of R385-million.

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SECTOR INSIGHT National government is spending R3-billion on the province’s new university.

• Many of the province’s tourist sites are set for upgrades.

Many tourism sites within Mpumalanga fall under the control of the provincial government and it is in the process of construction of new facilities (toilets, restaurants and accommodation) at Three Rondavels, Bourke’s Luck and the Blyde River Canyon. Facilities for small and medium-sized enterprises are also to be constructed. The

OVERVIEW government hopes that private investment will follow the improvement of basic tourism infrastructure. Various plans exist for a skywalk, a cable car and a hotel in the Bourke’s Luck area, but these would require a private-public partnership at least.

The provision of housing provides work for the construction sector, and the provincial government is again a major factor in this sector.

An amount of R545-million has been committed to rolling out housing projects across the province.

The new focus in providing communities with varied facilities (rather than simply “housing”) also presents opportunities for contractors. In line with national government policies, Mpumalanga’s provincial government is rolling out a human settlement policy that aims to provide sustainable housing through the strategy known as Breaking New Ground.

The Klarinet project has seen 1 027 houses built and a provincial government partnership with Absa has delivered 80 houses in the Gap market. These are houses bigger than RDP houses, but the people who can afford these houses can normally not afford a traditional home loan.

The upgrading of informal settlements such as Phola, Hlalanikahle Embalenhle – in addition to other areas like Leandra and Kwaguqa – is another priority, and 15 housing units have been built for military veterans. More than 17 000 housing units have been delivered so far.

Mpumalanga has a Construction Contact Centre (CCC). An initiative of the CIDB and the national and provincial Departments of Public Works, the facility helps contractors to register and allows contractors to keep track of their applications. The Sakh’abakhi Contractor Development Programme has been successful to a degree, but it has been difficult to find projects where these contractors can move from one level to a higher level within the structures of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Contractors must have certain qualifications before they can tender for work of a certain size.

Property Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit) and White River are attracting new residents and this is creating a good market for rental properties (Pam Golding). A factor in promoting interest in residential property in the eastern half of the province comes from Mozambican nationals looking for places to rent or buy. With the Maputo Corridor making movement between South Africa and Mozambique that much easier (and all of the traffic passing through Mpumalanga), areas such as Komatipoort and nearby Marloth Park are proving very popular for purchases and rentals.

The area north of Nelspruit, to White River, is a favoured destination for new developments, especially with a new and more reliable source of water having been arranged.

New and revitalised coal mines have helped boost property values in Belfast. The rental market in particular is doing well, with investors showing great interest in the town.

Further north, the town of Lydenburg has also experienced a rise in property values, boosted by the revitalisation of platinum mining, especially in the neighbouring province of Limpopo. Towns such as Burgersfort and Steelpoort are growing very quickly. Although the price of platinum has declined, the town of Steelpoort has for some time been growing on the back of the interest in this mineral.

ONLINE RESOURCES Construction Industry Development Board (CIBD): www.cidb.org.za Master Builders South Africa: www.mbsa.org.za Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements: http://dpwrt.mpg.gov.za/index.html National Department of Public Works: www.publicworks.gov.za SA Institute of Architects: www.saia.org.za SA Institute of Valuers: www.saiv.org.za SA Property Owners Association: www.sapoa.org.za

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INTERVIEW

HL Hall & Sons Holdings (Pty) Ltd This diversified group continues to make a significant contribution to the Mpumalanga economy.

James Aling PMS 3

BIOGRAPHY James is currently the Managing Director of HL Hall & Sons Properties (Pty) Ltd, the property development business of the Halls Group. He has been involved with the Halls Group for 20 years during which time he has been involved in various roles and capacities. Prior to this he worked at the Development Bank of Southern Africa and KwaZulu-Natal Finance and Investment Corporation, now Ithala, as an agricultural economist and project manager.

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

Please tell us more about the company.

Halls has a long history of farming and agriculture in the province. To ensure its long-term sustainability, the company has evolved over its 125-year history into a diversified group with operating businesses in fresh produce (Halls), property development (Halls Properties) as well as pharmaceuticals, technology and financial services (Halls Investments).

What have been the highlights of the past year?

The expansion of our French packing and handling facilities in both Paris and Marseille, in addition to opening a sales office in the Netherlands, served to strengthen Halls’ position as a leading producer and marketer of avocado.

What have been the benefits of doing joint venture property developments in the Riverside Park precinct?

Halls Properties has been involved in developing the Riverside node since 1995, when we acquired our first rights. Our joint venture approach has allowed us to partner with co-developers who have experience as well as to share the funding requirements, risks and rewards. Our most recent JV was the Riverside Development Initiative, a BEE initiative that developed the 35 000m² Grove shopping centre.

How important has the development of specifically Riverside Mall been to the area?

Riverside Mall was a catalytic anchor that stimulated the development of Riverside Park together with other big anchors, such as the Provincial Government complex and Emnotweni Sun’s hotels and casino. The continued development of the node together with the 2010 stadium and its associated infrastructure, the new university and high court are contributors to the growth of the region.

What growth areas are you looking to explore?

We are focused on Mbombela. We are excited about the partnerships we have established with Government, specifically with the Mbombela Local Municipality for the establishment of City Improvement Districts (CIDs) in the Riverside node and the establishment of the Mbombela Economic Development Partnership.

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HALLS GREEN

PMS 347C R 0, G154, B68 #009a44 C 95, M 0, Y100, K0

Digital breakdowns are slightly more saturated that print for better onscreen representation

PROFILE

Halls Properties making tomorrow today Halls Properties, the property development arm of the HL Hall & Sons Group, has been a major catalyst for regional economic growth.

Halls Properties creates real estate opportunities for developers and investors, with the vision of driving economic growth of the region. To date over R7-billion has been invested in the Riverside node, Halls Properties’ flagship development in the region.

Over 35 000 jobs have been created and close to R50-million per annum is generated in rates and taxes for the local municipality. Key to Halls Properties’ success has been their ability to create strong partnerships, first with government on the planning and servicing of their developments and secondly with a number of joint venture partners, service providers and investors.

Newly established Riverside Office Park coming out of the ground.

managed through the Halls Sake Sive Trust and is primarily aimed at education, health and enterprise development initiatives. These include Basisa Enterprise Development Programme, providing an opportunity to unemployed youth from the Mataffin settlement; working closely with Penreach sponsoring an early childhood development initiative and funding of the VizierMaths Programme for high school students.

Halls Properties’ approach is a visionary one. They believe that land is a valuable, non-renewable resource that must be managed and sustained for the benefit of future generations.

More than just a developer

As part of the HL Hall & Sons Group, Halls Properties has a well-established track record of working with government and the community to facilitate development. The Group has made a number of significant land donations to both government and the community, including land for the Provincial Government complex in Riverside, the Botanical Gardens and a 150ha donation to the Phumulani Village Association for the settlement of past and current Halls employees.

Committed to the future

An iconic Lowveld family-owned business that last year celebrated their 125th anniversary, long-term sustainability is not just their legacy it is the essence of who they are.

CONTACT INFO Postal address: PO Mataffin, Mpumalanga 1205 Tel: +27 13 753 5700 Fax: +27 13 753 5733 Email: info@hallsproperties.co.za Website: www.hallsproperties.co.za

HL Hall & Sons believes that business has a responsibility to contribute to the social and economic upliftment of all South Africans and has a long history of supporting communities in the Lowveld.

Their Corporate Social Investment programme is

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OVERVIEW

Tourism Mpumalanga regularly attracts more than a million tourists.

G

eologists believe that the mountains of Makhonjwa hold clues to the earliest history of earth. Geological tourism is a new concept that could find rich soil in Mpumalanga. The Makhonjwa Mountains around Barberton are unique and important in the history of gold mining. The Makhonjwa Mountainland area is on South Africa’s UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List and the tourist offering near Barberton has been branded the Genesis Route.

This is among the many new initiatives that aim to leverage Mpumalanga’s already well-established and successful tourism sector, in order to attract new visitors to the province. The National Development Plan has identified tourism as a sector that can spark rural growth, create jobs at a good rate and stimulate the creation of new businesses.

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SECTOR INSIGHT Mpumalanga is receiving new visitors from Africa.

• The Makhonjwa Mountain Range has been nominated as a World Heritage Site.

South Africa received 8.9-million foreign tourists in 2015 and they collectively spent

OVERVIEW R68.2-billion. Tourism accounts for 3% of South Africa’s gross domestic product and there are about 655 609 jobs in the sector (Treasury).

The Provincial Government of Mpumalanga, which owns many tourism assets in the province, intends to use the procurement chain to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and co-operatives.

More than a million tourists visit the province every year. In 2015 the figure rose to 1.3-million (up from 1.1-million in the previous two years), with the increase ascribed to new African visitors.

No province spends more on promoting and supporting its tourism than Mpumalanga, with

the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency receiving R311-million for its activities in the latest budget cycle.

Tsogo Sun has six hotels in the province, ranging from two EasyStays to The Ridge, which is attached to the Graceland Hotel Casino and Country Club in Secunda. Protea Hotels by Marriott also has six properties in Mpumalanga, including Protea Hotel Kruger Gate.

Forever Resorts has a big presence in the province, catering to many caravans and campers and holiday-makers wanting to stay in chalets.

There is also a four-star Forever Resorts Mount Sheba.

Provincial reserves and dams Mpumalanga has approximately 70 game and nature reserves, most of which are private and the provincial parks board looks after 13. The landscape ranges from the forested valleys and streams of the northeast, the large commercial forests and dramatic cliffs on the edge of the escarpment, to the bushveld, home to the rare wattled crane and many other varieties of birds. Verloren Valei Nature Reserve is another beautiful site that is an internationally recognised wetland. High in the mountains is one of the last surviving groups of black mountain leopards living in the wild. The Songimvelo Game Reserve is owned

OVERVIEW

by the provincial government and is part of a transfrontier project with its Swaziland neighbour. Covering 49 000 hectares, the park is home to large numbers of animals (white rhinos among them) and at least 1 400 species of flora, including rare cycads.

The south-eastern region of Mpumalanga is for nature-lovers. The many large lakes in the region attract birds and frogs, and tourists willing to spend money looking for both. Chrissiesmeer is South Africa’s biggest freshwater lake.

Further north, and closer to Johannesburg, the Loskop Dam is one of the biggest lakes in the southern hemisphere. Situated within the Loskop Dam Nature Reserve, the Loskop Dam is suitable for birding and visitors can have the unusual experience of game viewing from a boat. The nearby Loskop Cheetah Sanctuary is popular, while water sports are well catered for throughout the region, but particularly at the huge Witbank Dam. Plant enthusiasts will enjoy seeking out the Lanatus Cycad.

The Loskop Dam is another area that is receiving funding for upgrades. The Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency has responsibility for the facility and the improvements have been planned for some time. The national Department of Environmental Affairs has set aside R30-million for the project which should reach completion in the course of 2016.

The provincial investment agency, MEGA, has packaged a number of tourism investment opportunities that are set out in detail elsewhere in this publication.

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The underlying principle in each case is a form of public-private partnership where the agency would assist in getting land-use and other legal requirements, and perhaps in seeing that basic infrastructure was laid on, then the developer would build and manage a tourism facility.

Projects envisaged include a tourist wheel, a cable car, restaurants and conference facility in Mbombela (Mandela Iconic Eye), the Blyde River Tourism Cluster (a series of developments including a cable car, a hotel, a restaurant and a skywalk) and an International Convention Centre planned for the capital city of Mbombela.

Entrepreneurs and awards Tourism entrepreneurs are looking at several trends, includ-

OVERVIEW ing culture and nature-based tourism, adventure tourism and niche tourism. Geological tourism has already been mentioned. Mpumalanga can offer all of these experiences but products have to be developed, so there are opportunities for new businesses.

Other niche markets are volun-tourism (whereby young people use holiday time to serve less privileged people), base-jumping and rock climbing, food and wine tourism and the idea of “nano-breaks” or onenight holidays.

Mpumalanga is particularly well placed to take advantage of intra-Africa tourism. The Maputo Corridor initiative has already led to improved relations with Mozambique and the potential for cross-border tourism initiatives with neighbouring Swaziland are being explored.

The Heritage Project commissioned by the Mpumalanga provincial government showed that the area’s history could present opportunities for a new tourism market. History is already used for marketing Pilgrim Rest and there is a Jock of the Bushveld route that celebrates the fictitious adventures of a loyal hunter’s dog.

But the research that the Wits University History Department provided for the Heritage Project showed that there is great potential to grow this sector.

The Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP) is a Section 21 company that supports tourism entrepreneurship. A “Nelspruit Cluster” of starter tourism companies allows them to network with one another while TEP assists directly with things such as training and marketing.

An example of an entrepreneur in this field is former gardener and tour guide, William Hlatshwayo. After spells with Sabi Sabi and with the provincial park authorities of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, he now runs his own business, Crowned Eagle Tours and Safaris.

Mpumalanga’s tourism sector regularly provides winners in national award ceremonies. One such is Nomsa Mazibuko of Visit Vakasha Guest Lodge, winner of the Tsogo Sun Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 Award.

Tsogo Sun Entrepreneurs supports small businesses and the group of 170 entrepreneurs includes 120 owners of guest houses.

Mazibuko received a cash prize and a bursary to attend the Tsheto Leadership Academy.

The Lilizela Tourism Awards in 2015 provided a host of Mpumalanga winners, from the luxury game lodges (Tintswalo Safari Lodge and Umlani Bush Camp) and operators in the conference sector (Casambo) to camping and caravan parks (Blyde River Canyon Forever Resorts) and tour operators such as Simeliza Tours. Tour guide Raymond Khoza was also an individual winner.

The Kruger National Park “Kruger” is an iconic destination that hosts more than a million visitors annually. Its varied terrain of 20 000 square kilometres allows plenty of room for the original Big Five to roam and hundreds of other kinds of animals too.

The dry northern part of the park is more remote while the southern part of the park is the most visited section. Kruger offers 15 different conference venues, able to accommodate between 20 and 400 del-

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OVERVIEW egates in a wide range of rooms, halls and outdoor venues. Most of the venues offer accommodation options, as well as leisure activities including game viewing, hiking and various team-building activities.

The Protea group has hotels at Kruger Gate, Hazyview and White River, the last of which, “The Winkler”, offers motivational and group bonding activities such as outdoor paintball exercises.

A new plan to build a major conference centre  Skukuza Conference Lodge  aims to attract new markets to Kruger.

Private game lodges Several private game farms are strung along the edge of the Kruger National Park and beyond. Some of the more luxurious destinations, such as the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve, are ranked among the best in the world.

Where private game lodges border on Kruger, fences between the lodges and the huge game reserve have been taken down, allowing animals an even greater area in which to roam. This greatly enhances the chances of guests at the lodges seeing more game.

The two Singita lodges in Kruger are part of the Relais & Chateaux group and are distinguished by their breathtaking locations. The 15-suite Singita Lebombo hangs over a sheer cliff overlooking the N’wanetsi River near the eastern boundary of Kruger. Singita Sweni is even more exclusive – with only six luxury suites on stilts – and this lodge overlooks the Sweni River.

Londolozi Private Game Reserve is in the middle of the Sabi Sand Game Reserve and claims the best leopard viewing in Africa. The reserve is divided into four camps, none of which has more than 12 accomodation units. Londolozi comprises 14 000ha within the Sabi Sands 56 000ha area.

Tourism regions

Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport is vital to tourism.

Mbombela is home to the Lowveld Botanical Garden and has several hotels. The Sudwala Caves are said to the oldest dolomite caves in the world. White River is an excellent base for trips to the Kruger National Park and it has a Motor Museum.

Panorama This region encompasses the dramatic change in landscape as South Africa’s escarpment gives way to the lower country in the east. The mining town of Pilgrim’s Rest is a historical monument.

Adventure tourism is on the rise and the area is known for its waterfalls, white waters, cliffs and muddy paths. There are many opportunities for bungee jumpers, rafters, hot-air balloonists and off-road car enthusiasts to take advantage of the terrain. The annual Sasol motor rally earns a lot of money for the local economy.

Mpumalanga has seven tourist regions, each with a unique combination of sights and experiences.

Cultural Heartland

Lowveld Legogote

Covering the north-west sector of the province, the Cultural Heartland is close to the metropolitan areas of

The provincial capital of Mbombela is the hub of this region. The nearby MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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OVERVIEW Johannesburg and Pretoria. Close enough even for day trips but there are plenty of accommodation options, ranging from lakeside cottages and game lodges to city accommodation in eMalahleni or Middelburg. The Ndebele Cultural Village at Botshabelo is a highlight for many tourists. The Loskop Dam Nature Reserve offers outdoor enthusiasts many choices.

Wild Frontier

Cosmos Country

Highlands Meander

The south-western part of Mpumalanga is home to the biggest underground coal mining complex in the world. Together with the Sasol fuel-from-coal plant, these facilities attract visitors interested in mining and industry.

The region also has a reputation for beautiful pink flowers in late summer, hence its name. Secunda has a casino and a golf course designed

by Gary Player.

Mpumalanga’s north-eastern region contains stunning landscapes, fascinating history and heritage, opportunties for adventure tourism and wonderful trout fishing. Dullstroom is a trout-fishing paradise, and it is the northern tip of a Trout Triangle defined by eMakhazeni (Belfast) and Emgwenya (Waterval-Boven). Lodges, fly-fishing festivals and trout hatcheries are important parts of the area’s economy. The dramatic Long Tom Pass includes The Robbers’ Pass and leads to Lydenburg, where replicas of the 800-year-old Lydenburg heads can be seen. More than half of the tourists who visit Mpumalanga visit the spectacular Blyde River Canyon. An investigation is being conducted into the creation of a cable car over a section of the canyon. Gold rush town Pilgrim’s Rest is the subject of a R25-million project to upgrade and improve the town’s tourism offering. The original wood and corrugated buildings give an authentic picture of how the original town looked. There are four museums and good accommodation options for the traveller.

Although the province already caters for motor-rally enthusiasts, cyclists, runners, walkers, fishers, horse-riders, tree-gliders, abseilers, white-water rafters and rock climbers, there is still tremendous potential for more investment in the ecotourism and adventure tourism subsectors.

Grass and Wetlands The south-eastern region of Mpumalanga is for nature-lovers.

The many large lakes in the region attract tourists. Chrissiesmeer is also the site of two rather unusual annual events: a frog-watching festival and an Anglo-Boer War battle re-enactment. The eastern parts of the region abutting Swaziland are mountainous and the area is heavily forested in the south. The region’s main town, Ermelo, holds more than one agricultural fair during the year and the thriving merino-sheep sector attracts buyers and admirers from afar. The Lubombo Tourism Route is a regional project which covers Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal.

The Wild Frontier is one of the most important regions to the tourist economy of Mpumalanga, bordering as it does Swaziland and Mozambique and guarding the Malelane and Crocodile Bridge gates to the Kruger National Park. The Songimvelo Game Reserve is owned by the provincial government and is part of a transfrontier project with its Swaziland neighbour. Barberton is the centre of a range of mountains that are fascinating for geologists. Hiking and 4x4 trails are popular activities. The Leopard Creek golf course in Malelane attracts top golfers to the annual Alfred Dunhill championship. Badplaas has excellent spa and hot-water spring facilities.

ONLINE RESOURCES Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport: www.kmiairport.co.za Lilizela Tourism Awards: www.lilizela.co.za Mpumalanga Gaming Board: www.mgb.org.za Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency: www.mtpa.co.za South African National Parks: www.sanparks.co.za South African Tourism: www.southafrica.net South African Tourism Enterprise Partnership: www.tep.co.za South African Tourism Services Association: www.satsa.com

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OVERVIEW

Banking and financial services The Post Office bank will soon be offering loans.

SECTOR INSIGHT The stokvel market is worth R44-billion.

• Nedbank hosts a series of small business seminars.

I

n a province with a high proportion of rural citizens such as Mpumalanga, the prospect of Postbank being upgraded to a fullservice bank is positive news. In 2016, the bank (part of the South African Post Office, SAPO) received a first-level licence. Once a board has been appointed and a company formed, the Reserve Bank is likely to grant the full licence.

The current Postbank focuses on taking deposits and savings accounts. Postbank has secured a R3.7-billion loan to enable it to open its own loan book. The large geographical footprint of the Post Office will make the bank easily accessible to even remote parts of the country. National government wants the bank to serve a developmental agenda.

Finscope’s 2014 survey of South African banking and financial surveys shows that between 2004 and 2014, a remarkable eight-million people were connected to the financial system in some way. Overall, the “financially included” reached 31.4-million (up from 17.7-million in 2004). In a category called “formally served”, which includes services other than formal banks with branch networks, the percentage of South Africans so served grew from 50% to 80%; in the “banked” category (more traditional but including new devices), the percentage grew from 46% to 75%.

Although cellphone banking has not been a great successs in South Africa (partly because the formal infrastructure is so good), banks and cellphone companies continue to cooperate. Vodacom and Bidvest are working on the mobile money M-Pesa scheme, Standard Bank and MTN collaborate on mobile banking and there have been recent MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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moves linking Old Mutual and Telkom, and Sanlam and African Bank. Sifiso Skenjana has noted in the Sunday Times that African Bank has 400 branches and 150 000 people per month going through these branches, so this represents a huge potential market for a financial services company. Telkom is hoping that the link-up with Old Mutual will prove attractive to customers wanting funeral insurance.

Skenjana also points out that South Africa has a “stokvel” (savings club) market valued at R44billion: Sanlam is developing products to tap into that market.

Among other recent innovations designed to reach the unbanked were Teba Bank allowing customers to deposit at supermarkets, Pick n Pay Go Banking (a division of Nedbank), the fact that 70% of Absa’s new ATMs (400 in one year) were placed in poorer areas and that Absa launched two mobile banks, FNB also created mobile branches and most of Standard Bank’s new sites were planned for townships.

(Finscope).

OVERVIEW Absa’s partnership with Thumbzup allows shops to accept card payments with smartphones and tablets. Effectively, phones become terminals.

Absa’s Entry Level and Inclusive Banking (Elib) branches have proved popular, accounting for an increasingly high percentage of the bank’s loans, despite still representing quite a small number of actual branches.

Nedbank has deployed stateof-the-art- technology in its new branches in an initiative called “Branch of the Future™”.

FNB has a wide range of cellphone-banking options and a Facebook application whereby cellphone vouchers can be posted on the social-networking site. The eWallet application converts the voucher into cash or airtime.

Standard Bank’s communitybanking initiative offers a lowcost cellphone-banking service.

Retailers can act as agents for the bank, even in remote rural areas. Shops such as Shoprite, Pep and Spar are connected, as are certain spazas.

Sectors With agriculture being such an important part of the Mpumalanga economy, each of the Big Four banks has specialists in the province and dedicated units.

Another source of funding for farmers is the Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa (Land Bank), a developmentfinance institution that falls under the Ministry of Finance. Standard Bank has a black economic

empowerment agricultural fund designed to support emerging farmers. The R500-million fund is designed to connect farmers who have received farms in land reform projects to agri-businesses that will buy their produce.

The Masisizane Fund (Nedbank) makes loan financing available in sectors such as agriculture and agri-processing), commercial, supply chain and manufacturing. It also offers training and technical support and funding to help businesses to comply with legislation.

The Vumela Enterprise Development Fund of First National Bank is available to small businesses. FirstRand has put R186-million into the fund and to date it has invested R50-million in small businesses that have shown potential for growth.

Financial literacy is an important part of the requirements for running a business, an issue that a joint project of Absa and the Mpumalanga Enterprise Development Organisation (MEDO) is addressing.

Another area where banks are growing new markets is in affordable housing. Absa Property Development (Absa DevCo) has entered a partnership with municipal, provincial and national government to help provide mixed housing in the R1.6-billion Klarinet Ridge project in the eMalahleni Municipality.

The lead agency is the National Department of Human Settlements.

Housing options range from subsidised housing, rental and sectional-title flats and bonded homes. The intention is that a sustainable community with relevant amenities be created, rather than a sterile development comprising only “matchbox” houses.

Absa DevCo is backed by private investments and is a joint landowner and the project’s developer.

The four major national retail banks (Absa, Standard Bank, First National Bank and Nedbank) are well represented in Mpumalanga, with branches in all major towns and cities and extensive ATM networks reaching far into the rural areas. Relative newcomer Capitec Bank is rapidly closing in on the Big Four, as its growth from 43 branches in 2011 to 62 in 2016 shows.

ONLINE RESOURCES Auditor-General of South Africa: www.agsa.co.za Banking Association South Africa: www.banking.org.za Financial Services Board: www.fsb.co.za Institute of Bankers in South Africa: www.iob.co.za Insurance Institute of South Africa: www.iisa.co.za The Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa: www.landbank.co.za Office of the Ombudsman for Banking Services: www.obssa.co.za Post Bank: www.postbank.co.za Public Investment Corporation: www.pic.gov.za South African Reserve Bank: www.resbank.co.za

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Customers in Mpumalanga benefit from bank’s client-centricity Standard Bank offers individuals (personal and private banking), businesses and public sector clients in Mpumalanga a wide range of customised services.

Our province

A range of primary, secondary and tertiary activities drive the provincial economy of Mpumalanga.

Extensive mining is undertaken in the Highveld region, which is also home to a large synthetic fuel plant owned by Sasol. Elevon of Eskom’s coalfired power stations are located in Mpumalanga .

Government services, agriculture and tourismTimothy Whati related activities dominate the Lowveld region.

Provincial Head As Standard Bank we understand that this variety in terms of economic activity contributes to the need for a variety of banking services and we reject a “one size fits all” approach to banking.

Our approach

“Africa is our home, we drive her growth. Our purpose lies at the heart of our strategy. This is the reason we exist. It is the cornerstone upon which we define and plan our future.”

Our strategy for the province is underpinned by a number of principles: • The promises we make to our clients: This principle brings to life our commitment to client-centricity. Every person, process, decision, response and action by the bank or its staff is designed and intended to deliver an exceptional client experience.

• The culture we wish to build for our people: Our people on the ground are empowered to put the client first. If we think of everything we do, our greatest asset is our people. Our people should be motivated to deliver exceptional services and solutions, which in turn will help us grow Africa.

• The way we execute: Our strategy is as much about what we are doing as what we are not doing. All our businesses must have a strategy and be disciplined about the “what” and the “how”. We should only do things that deliver on our strategy.

Our infrastructure

Standard Bank is very active in the Mpumalanga Province and our physical branches, Business Banking and Private Banking Suites and ATMs ensure MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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we have an extensive footprint that allows us to live out our commitment to client-centricity.

Highveld region: • 24 Branches in the Highveld region and an extended-hours outlet at Highveld Mall – the biggest mall in Mpumalanga • 184 ATMs available in Witbank region Lowveld region: • 26 Branches in the Nelspruit region and an extended hours branch in the Riverside Mall • 170 ATMs located in the Lowveld region Our branches offer advanced ATMs that allow you to make a deposit anytime and the money will reflect into the account immediately (please note that the deposit needs to be made before 7pm to reflect immediately into the account).

Some branches have a forex offering including money gram.

A number of branches in the province have been refurbished with a new generation design.

These Generation 8 branches are designed to offer a warmer, more personal customer experience.

Aside from the physical infrastructure, Standard Bank has spe-

FOCUS cialists available to address the differing needs of our customers, be they individuals or companies requiring business advice. More information on these specialist teams is contained below.

Personal Banking

Whether you want to transact, save or borrow, Standard Bank Personal Banking has the financial solution for you, including innovative products and services designed to evolve with the changing needs of our clients.

The transactional banking solutions come with a range of features and benefits designed to add real value to your life.

Products available include transactional accounts, savings, investment and lending as well mortgage loans. Credit cards and vehicle financing are also available, while short- and long-term insurance offerings include home-owner’s insurance, funeral cover, household contents and even loan protection.

Life cover, disability insurance and investment policies are provided by qualified intermediaries.

Standard Bank Personal Banking also offers financial planning and fiduciary advice and is able to provide personalised and qualified assistance with personal matters such as will drafting, trust and estate administration.

Banking small and medium enterprises

We are keen to be the bank that collaborates with clients in making their entrepreneurial dreams come true – whether it’s a start-up business, a growing business or an SMME in the process of expanding to other provinces or countries.

Our Small and Medium Enterprises division has two segments. The first segment managed by business bankers caters for businesses in the startup phase and businesses with an annual turnover of up to R5-million. The second segment managed by business managers caters for businesses with an annual turnover ranging between R5-million and R20-million.

Our business bankers’ and business managers’ mission is to make sure that you get the best banking services for your business. They are supported by specialist bankers who are equipped to answer any questions you have and will also be able to assist in setting up accounts and arranging finance for all your small business needs.

Marketing: Derick Mthabine | Tel: +27 13 757 5622 Email: Derick.Mthabine@standardbank.co.za

Giving back

In addition to our range of banking services, Standard Bank Mpumalanga also strives to contribute more generally to the community in which we operate and we have committed R6-million for various CSI projects in the province.

Beneficiaries of these projects include the 100 early childhood development educators who have completed their training programme and are now eligible for employment by the Department of Education.

Different day-care centres and crèches in the province have been renovated with funds supplied by Standard Bank. House-building projects have also been undertaken.

Since 2013, Standard Bank has been the headline sponsor of Innibos Lowveld National Festival, the most well-attended Afrikaans music festival in South Africa with approximately 140 000 visitors to the festival over four days.

Standard Bank staff and their families also enjoy sponsored Family Days.

Lowveld region: Bongani Thabethe | Tel: +27 13 757 5595 Email: Bongani.Thabethe@ standardbank.co.za Highveld region: Suhail Row Tel: +27 13 653 0324 Email: Suhail.Row@ standardbank.co.za

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More to good advice than being sold a funeral policy In Standard Bank Financial Consultancy Mpumalanga there are 26 well-educated financial planners who are dedicated to do holistic financial planning for customers.

“Financial advice is an experience, not an event. In the past, brokers made it an event by being fly-by-night salesmen who sold you a financial product and never returned to service you,” Gerald Mwandiambira, the acting chief executive office of the South African Savings Institute (Sasi) said during a recent Liberty media event.

Mwandiambira, who holds the Certified Financial Planner accreditation, says a funeral policy is the only financial product many black people have. As a result, they have experienced bad advice because, while the policy provided cover for a funeral, it fails to meet their broader financial needs.

Many people do not know how life policies work; they can provide disability cover, income protection, income replacement during a severe illness or even a lump-sum payment on death to cover a child’s entire education.

“The funeral policy experience, with shortfalls in cover, insufficient cash to meet needs and no follow-ups after the initial sale, often reinforces their perception that financial advisers are not worth the effort,” Mwandiambira explained.

The Financial Services Board’s review of the way in which we pay for advice and the ways in which products are distributed, the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), will provide greater transparency about costs and enable individuals to choose advisers who sell financial advice, not financial products. Products are solutions that should enable people to implement the advice they have been given.

According to Mwandiambira, Sasi will embrace RDR, as it will ultimately expose more people to the power of life assurance products and real advice, which can enable people to create wealth across generations.

He said he hopes that this will lead to products suited to the growing black middle class, who typically face issues like single parenting, providing for members of the extended family, and inadequate retirement planning.

The team at Standard Bank concurs with Mwandiambira’s sentiments. In Standard Bank Financial Consultancy (SBFC) Mpumalanga we have 26 well-educated financial planners who are dedicated to do holistic financial planning for our customers. This means the following: MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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• Trust: Our clients need to feel safe doing business with SBFC and to be assured in their decision-making.

• Strong relationships: SBFC focuses on building relationships that bring long-term, sustainable benefits to our clients.

• Family: We promote a balanced lifestyle and recognise the paramount importance of family life for both colleagues and clients.

• Detail: SBFC applies the proper care and skill that would be expected from a professional financial advisor.

• Growth: SBFC continuously improves in knowledge, skill, efficiency and communication, and adapts to changing environments in the financial industry.

• Smart partnerships: SBFC works together with other professional service providers and our own expert partners and other in-house expertise to give our clients the best possible advice.

We provide feedback to you based on well-sourced comprehensive market information.

Through diligent financial coaching our aim is to secure your personal financial prosperity.

FOCUS For more information contact Frans Stapelberg, Regional Sales Manager Mpumalanga SBFC, or one of the other financial consultants at Standard Bank Mpumalanga.

CONSULTANT’S DETAILS SURNAME

FIRST NAME

OFFICE DETAILS BRANCH NAME

OFFICE NUMBER

EMAIL ADDRESS

HIGHVELD REGION Frans

Stapelberg

Witbank

013 653 0212

frans.stapelberg@standardbank.co.za

Nico

Botha

Witbank

013 653 0305

nico.botha2@standardbank.co.za

Louis

Gravett

Standerton

017 712 0458

louis.gravett@standradbank.co.za

Eddie

Hadland

Middelburg

013 249 7451

william.hadland@standardbank.co.za

Rose

Makhura

Emalahleni

013 656 8300 rose.makhura@standardbank.co.za

Anthony

Mashabela

Siyabuswa

013 973 9618

Elsie

Maluleka

Kwamhlanga

013 947 9928 elsie.maluleka@standardbank.co.za

Zodwa

Mokhare

Secunda

017 620 7532

Kamela

Mosoa

Witbank

013 653 0306 service.mosoa@standardbank.co.za

Mervin

Peerbhaai

Middelburg

013 249 7423

Frans

Prinsloo

Witbank

013 653 0252 frans.prinsloo@standardbank.co.za

Chanline

Stander

Nigel

011 730 8321

Calvin

Campher

Ermelo

017 801 1014

calvin.campher@standardbank.co.za

Chris

Gilday

Nelspruit

013 757 5681

chris.gilday@standardbank.co.za

Debonair

Mabaso

Bushbuckridge

013 795 4562

debonair.mabaso@standardbank.co.za

Precious

Makhanya

Elukwatini

017 883 7100

precious.makhanya@standardbank.co.za

Refilwe

Mekoa

Piet Retief

017 826 9661

refilwe.mekoa@standardbank.co.zaÂ

Mkhonto

Crossings Nelspruit

013 752 4185

isaac.mkhonto@standardbank.co.za

Thamsanqa Motha

Nelspruit

013 757 5693

thami.motha@standardbank.co.za

Sibusiso

Mungwe

Riverside Mall Nelspruit

013 757 9873

sibusiso.mungwe@standardbank.co.za

Ralph

Nkonde

Malelane

013 791 1534

ralph.nkonde@standardbank.co.za

Thulani

Phakthi

Ermelo

017 801 1027

thulani.phakathi@standardbank.co.za

Phillip

Theledi

White River

013 750 9520 phillip.theledi@standardbank.co.za

Jacques

van der Schyff

Nelspruit

013 757 5686

jacques.vanderschyff@standardbank.co.za

Cedusizi

Mlambo

Bushbuckridge

013 799 5150

cedusizi.mlambo@standardbank.co.za

thipe.mashabela@standardbank.co zodwa.mokhare@standardbank.co.za mervin.peerbhaai@standardbank.co.za chanline.stander@standardbank.co.za

LOWVELD REGION

Isaac

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MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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Business Banking – adding value to every business Standard Bank has a range of products to suit businesses in every way.

• Commercial insurance • Financial planning and fiduciary advice Standard Bank has three Business Banking suites in Mpumalanga.

CONTACT INFO MPUMALANGA BUSINESS BANKING SUITES

Business Banking

Standard Bank understands what it means to do business in Africa and beyond. To provide this reliable service we have developed specialist product expertise in addition to strong local capacity and global distribution reach.

We offer a key sector focus in: • Agriculture • Public Sector • Manufacturing • Transport • Construction and • Wholesale and Retail Trade

Witbank Business Centre Name: Timothy Matlala Tel: +27 13 653 0254 Email: Timothy.Matlala@ standardbank.co.za

Business Banking solutions are designed to add real value to every business.

These solutions include: • Transactional accounts and lending facilities • Structured working capital finance • Commercial property finance • Merchant and cash transaction solutions • Vehicle and asset finance MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

Secunda Business Centre: Name: Cobus Storey Tel: +27 17 620 7502 Email: Jacobus.Storey@ standardbank.co.za

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Nelspruit Business Centre: Name: Sydney Hlatshwayo Tel: +27 13 757 5749 Email: Sydney.Hlatshwayo@ standardbank.co.za Website: www.standardbank.com

FOCUS

Confidential banking for wealth clients Standard Bank Private Banking offers discreet and proactive personalised solutions for the varying financial needs of successful and highly accomplished executives and self-employed individuals.

S

tandard Bank Private Banking is a discreet personal banking and wealth management service that recognises your unique financial needs. This exceptional offering integrates quality banking, lending and wealth advisory services seamlessly and unobtrusively with your lifestyle.

The comprehensive offering encompasses a full suite of products and services, access to your funds at your convenience, a credit portfolio designed to meet your needs and a balanced wealth creation and preservation portfolio.

Private Banking team

A dedicated private banker assisted by a transactional banker acts as your confidential interface with our wealth management advisers, both offshore and in South Africa, to provide you with direct access to our products. Backed by an experienced and highly qualified team, your private banker is your link to our vast resources. We therefore offer you one point of contact for all of your financial banking needs.

Service offering

Our offering integrates quality banking, lending and wealth advisory services seamlessly and unobtrusively with your lifestyle in the following ways: • Your dedicated private and transactional banker, as your single point of contact, reduces the complexity of your financial requirements • We are always on with 24/7 service from our virtual bankers on instant messaging, our Private Banking line and email unit • We offer award-winning online share trading at reduced brokerage fees on trades • Offshore banking is available to wealth clients

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CONTACT INFO Name: Zanaria Khan Tel: +27 13 757 5661 Email: Zanaria.Khan@ standardbank.co.za Website: www.standardbank.com

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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Customers benefit from new banking system Standard Bank has introduced a new core banking system to better serve its loyal customers.

S

tandard Bank has existed for over 154 years. This shows both customer loyalty and that the brand is considered trustworthy. Everything we do in Standard Bank is to build on this legacy, whether it is the service we provide through our digital channels or the day-to-day service delivery of our branch network.

Over the past year we understand that our customers could have been impacted or inconvenienced with either system issues or the introduction of new legislation.

To resolve these issues the bank needed to introduce a new core banking system. We are glad to report that this project is 99% complete.

We sincerely thank every customer for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience these changes may have caused. Standard Bank continues to put the customer at the centre of everything we do.

This year Standard Bank has introduced the following innovative products into the market: • Kidz Banking – an App that teaches children the basics of sound financial discipline and includes games, tasks and animation • New value-added services on the Standard Bank App, including a change to the “look and feel” of buying pre-paid airtime, SMS, data and electricity At the same time we continue to upgrade and ensure that our branch experience remains at the highest levels of service. The new Generation 7 branch design and layout was introduced at Riverside MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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Mall, Emalahleni Mall and Middelburg Branch.

Standard Bank values our customers’ time and recently launched the 24/7 Banking – Anywhere, Anytime service. The Standard Bank Everywhere You Are service is available to Prestige and Private Banking clients. We’re always on, because you’re always on. We’re mobile and social because that’s what you expect from us. So if you want to bank via email we’re there. WeChat? Facebook?

We’re there too.

No matter what the platform, no matter what the time of day, it’s all about banking on your terms.

From time to time we do make mistakes and we therefore appeal to you the customer, please don’t wait for answers but rather escalate to management levels as soon as a matter is not resolved timeously or to your liking. We assure you of our best service at all times.

CONTACT INFO Name: Ian Nunes Tel: +27 13 757 5611 Email: Ian.Nunes@ standardbank.co.za Website: www.standardbank.com

FOCUS

People are the key differentiator At Standard Bank we take pride in our people. We see our people as the key differentiator and our secret to creating our competitive advantage in the industry.

O

ur human capital strategy is focused on driving certain human capital priorities to deliver value to our shareholders, clients, employees and society. All our efforts must lead to contributing to the experience of our people in making them feel a sense of belonging, better empowering them to serve our clients, and ensuring that they have ample opportunities to fulfil their personal potential.

Similarly, as trusted advisors to the business, the Human Capital team partners with our business leaders to help them drive engagement and inclusivity, apply people practices that underpin client centricity and more.

In Standard Bank we have applied an integrated people strategy in order to establish organisational capability requirements. Elements of this strategy include: • Creating intrapreneurs (“inside organisational entrepreneurs”) within the business • Building and developing people’s skills to align to business objectives • Recruiting and buying of talent within the market • Creating a culture of high performance through structured performance management process

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• Recognising individual and team contributions in order for our people to continuously strive towards delivering above and beyond of what is expected of them • Finally, to develop and invest in our talented workforce in order to provide the best talent with the rights skills deployed in the right place at the right time to deliver business results now and into the future and ultimately to provide our people with endless opportunities in order to excel and to achieve personal aspirations Our people are driven to fulfil the aspirations of our customers by understanding what matters most to our customers and delivering when moments matter the most (Moment of truth).

CONTACT INFO Steven Dickinson, Provincial Human Capital Consultant Mpumalanga Tel: +27 13 757 5644 Cell: +27 74 353 6341 Email: steven.dickinson@ standardbank.co.za Website: www.standardbank.com

MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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Development finance and SMME support Public-private partnerships are supporting entrepreneurship in Mpumalanga.

I

n the context of what the Premier of Mpumalanga, David Mabuza, has referred to as “mass retrenchments” in the steel industry, it becomes even more important that small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) should prosper.

In his State of the Province address, the Premier called SMMEs “a significant lever for increasing employment”. The province’s growth agency, MEGA, will loan a total of R500-million to small businesses over a five-year period with the 2016/17 budget set at R80-million. In addition, small business parks are to be built or renovated at Mayflower, Siyabuswa, Elukwatini and Kabokweni.

Various partnerships with private companies are also in place: • The power plant being built at Kusile has benefited local communities, in particular companies owned by women and young people • A total of 82 businesses from Mpumalanga have graduated from Eskom’s Contractor Academy • Eskom will invest a further R30-million to support co-operatives • South African Breweries’ national KickStart Programme now has a regional component: 50 entrepreneurs from three Mpumalanga districts between the ages of 18 and 35 will be given intensive training (“boot camps”), support and capital to help them start and sustain their businesses. Participants in the Mpumalanga Youth MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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SECTOR INSIGHT The Mpumalanga Youth Entrepreneurship Programme will provide training, mentoring and start-up investments.

• Tomato growers have a direct line to Woolworths’ shelves.

Entrepreneurship Programme can qualify for the KickStart Programme.

• Sasol and Eskom are working with the provincial government on a fly-ash beneficiation scheme that will give business opportunities to SMEs. Private companies are also trying to support SMEs through

OVERVIEW their buying chain. Woolworths is funding TechnoServe to ensure that small tomato growers can grow produce that will meet the demanding standards of the retailer, and to help them expand production. A regular supplier to Woolworths, Qutom, assists with the project.

Using the supply chain to benefit small business is at the heart of Zimele, which runs four enterprise development and investment funds. The initiative experienced a growth spurt when a system of hubs was established, with managers assigned to each hub.

The Thermal Coal Hub has several Mpumalanga centres and the Platinum Hub has two centres located in the province.

The Mondi Zimele Hub in Piet Retief considers businesses in the supply chain and forestry. Zimele is supporting a bottled-water business that employs seven people at the eMalahleni waterreclamation plant.

National government has created a consolidated agency to spur the development of SMMEs, the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa).

Sef a f alls under the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) one of the biggest and most significant agencies in economic development in the country.

Seda (the Small Enterprise Development Agency, which is an agency of the DSBD) is actively supporting co-operatives. Seda assists new businesses in drawing up business plans and gaining access to finance, helps train

entrepreneurs in running a business and helps companies gain access to markets.

There are five branch offices of Seda in Mpumalanga and a further four sites that form part of the Seda Technology Programme (STP): • Mpumalanga AgriSkills Development and Training, Nelspruit • Sugar Cane Incubator, Malelane • Mpumalanga Stainless Initiative, Middelburg • Timbali, Nelspruit. This initiative coordinates the growing programmes of a number of small farmers and helps to get products to market.

One of the most experienced risk financers in the country is Business Partners, which started life as the Small Business Development Corporation. Apart from financial services, Business Partners offers premises for businesses and mentoring.

Mpumalanga entrepreneur Nomsa Mazibuko’s first loans came from the Small Business Development Corporation when she transformed her hair salon into a hairdressing college. More recently she wanted to upgrade her tourism accommodation (Visit Vakasha) to five guest houses, a conference facility and a catering service with a large staff complement. Business Partners came on board as financier.

Recent studies have shown that South Africa’s townships represent a market and an economy that is more substantial than was believed.

The CEO of Minanawe Marketing, GG Alcock, told the FMCG Insights conference in May 2016 that what he called the “invisible market” was worth R10-billion. Alcock was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying that a particular fast-food operator made R50 000 per day from three outlets in a Johannesburg township.

A survey by the Sustainable Livings Foundation showed that the number of informal businesses in a township grew from 879 in 2010 to 1 798 in 2015. The types of businesses ranged from tailors and spazas to meat, fish and poultry sales. Three people were employed on average by the small businesses.

The Mpumalanga Provincial Government intends for its citizens to gain access to that market by encouraging entrepreneurship and co-operatives.

ONLINE RESOURCES Business Partners: www.businesspartners.co.za Development Bank of Southern Africa: www.dbsa.org Industrial Development Corporation: www.idc.co.za Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency: www.mega.gov.za Middelburg Chamber of Commerce & Industry: www.middelburg info.com National Department of Trade and Industry: www.thedti.gov.za Small Enterprise Development Agency: www.seda.org.za Small Enterprise Finance Agency: www.sefa.org.za

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Education and training Teaching is under way at the new University of Mpumalanga.

T

he Deputy President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, was inaugurated in 2016 as the first Chancellor of the University of Mpumalanga.

Existing facilities of the former College of Agriculture in Mbombela have been re-purposed to suit the needs of the main campus of the university, whose Principal and Vice-Chancellor is Professor Thoko Mayekiso.

A further two satellite campuses have been created at Siyabuswa (the former Ndebele College of Education) and at KaNyamazane, where hospitality will be the focus.

In keeping with the history of the main site, a degree will be offered in Bachelor of Agriculture in Agricultural Extension and Rural Resource Development. The other two courses to be offered in the first phase of the university’s development were a Diploma in Hospitality Management and a Bachelor of Education in Foundation Phase Teaching. More qualifications will be rolled out in phases: in 2015 ICT and App Development were offered, together with an agricultural diploma in plant development.

National parliament has been told that in time mechanical and then civil engineering will be offered. The Department of Higher Education is in consultation with Sasol to provide chemical and electrical engineering studies. The Department of Higher Education expects a total 1 500 students to enrol at the university in 2017.

Construction News reports that amounts of R1.3-billion (2015/16), R1billion (2016/17) and R1.1-billion (2017/18) have been allocated to fund the third phase of new buildings and infrastructure at the university.

Priorities The priorities of the Mpumalanga Department of Education are to expand early childhood development programmes, to promote skills development, especially through further education and training (TVET) colleges, and to continue to invest in school infrastructure.

Expressions of interest have been called for from the private sector concerning a plan to build 500 new schools in the province over a six-year period. Investors are sought for financing, design, construction, equipping, and maintenance and property management. The provincial government is proposing a 10-year lease period in which time investors would be paid back.

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SECTOR INSIGHT Mpumalanga has called for investors for a plan to build 500 schools.

• Dial-a-tutor and radio lessons are helping matric pupils.

Many of the biggest investors in the province support education initiatives. These include Sappi’s donation of several classrooms to Khanyisile Primary School near Barberton and programmes for pupils and teachers at Entabamhlophe Combined School in Elandshoek near the company’s mill at Ngodwana.

More than 800 000 pupils in primary and secondary schools are beneficiaries of the provincial department of education’s school nutrition programme and 1 604

OVERVIEW schools in the province are in the “no fee school” category.

A number of small farm schools are being closed as part of a province-wide plan to introduce boarding facilities for rural children.

Steps have been taken to help school pupils achieve better matriculation marks. A DialA-Tutor programme allows for pupils to get in touch with subject specialists, at no charge to the pupil. Several radio stations (Ligwalagwala and Ikwekwezi FM and 13 community stations) have agreed to host interactive lessons live on air, which will give access to good-quality teaching for all students in the province.

Mpumalanga has 332 Adult Basic Education and Training (Abet) centres catering to approximately 25 000 adult students.

Technical and Vocational What for several years were known as Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges have now been re-branded as Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges.

UNISA, the Tshwane University of Technology and the Vaal University of Technology currently have satellite campuses in the province and there are a number of provincial TVET colleges.

Over 36 000 students are enrolled at the province’s three TVET colleges: Gert Sibande (four campuses and a skills academy), Nkangala and Ehlanzeni, which has six campuses, a skills centre and a satellite campus.

Ehlanzeni TVET College offers 10 National Certificate (Vocational) programmes including ICT, Finance, Economics and Accounting, Engineering and Related Design and Tourism. There are also a number of shorter skills courses on offer: automotive repairs and maintenance, computer practice, entrepreneurship, municipal administration and communications management.

Nkangala TVET College offers Civil Engineering and Building Construction at its CN Mahlangu campus and Electrical Infrastructure Construction at three of its five campuses, among its seven NCV academic programmes.

The Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust (MRTT) is a Section 21 company very active in skills training. It has several sites in the province, including a Hospitality and Tourism Academy at Karino just outside Nelspruit.

The MRTT’s construction-training facility is accredited as a Construction Centre of Excellence and offers courses in brick-laying, plumbing, carpentry and other construction-related skills.

The Fluor Training Centre in Secunda offers training in fields such as fitting, welding, pipefitting and other building trades. Over the years, more than 30 000 people have studied at the centre, which is accredited with the Metal and Engineering Industries Training Board (merSETA), the Construction Education & Training Authority (CETA), and the Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA).

The Southern African Wildlife College, offering diploma and short courses in conservation, is a joint World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA) and Peace Parks Foundation initiative. The college is located near the Orpen Gate on the edge of the Kruger National Park.

There is a National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) which is under pressure following a concentrated protest across South Africa against high university fees. Bursaries are also available under the National Skills Fund.

ONLINE RESOURCES Association for the Development of Education in Africa: www.adeanet.org Ehlanzeni TVET College: www.ehlanzenicollege.co.za Gert Sibande TVET College: www.gscollege.co.za Mpumalanga Department of Education: www.mpumalanga.gov.za/education Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust: www.rttrust.co.za National Department of Basic Education: www.education.gov.za National Department of Higher Education and Training: www.dhet.gov.za National Research Foundation: www.nrf.ac.za Nkangala TVET College: www.nkangalafet.edu.za Southern African Wildlife College: www.wildlifecollege.org.za

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South African National Government An overview of South Africa’s national government departments.

President

Dept of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Address: Union Buildings, Government Avenue, Arcadia, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X1000, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 300 5200 Fax: +27 12 323 8246 Website: www.thepresidency.gov.za Website: www.economic.gov.za

Address: No 20, Agriculture Place, Block DA, 1st Floor, cnr Beatrix Street and Soutpansberg Road, Arcadia, Pretoria Postal address: Private Bag X250, Pretoria Tel: +27 12 319 7319 Fax: +27 12 319 6681 Website: www.daff.gov.za

Deputy President

Department of Arts and Culture

Address: Union Buildings, Government Avenue, East Wing, 1st Floor, Arcadia, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X1000, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 300 5200 Fax: +27 12 323 8246 Website: www.thepresidency.gov.za

Address: 10th Floor, Kingsley Centre, 481 corner Steve Biko & Stanza Bopape streets, Arcadia, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X899, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 441 3000 Fax: +27 12 440 4485 Website: www.dac.gov.za

Minister in the Presidency

Department of Basic Education

Address: Union Buildings, Government Avenue, East Wing, 1st Floor, Arcadia, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X1000, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 300 5200 Fax: +27 12 300 5795 Website: www.thepresidency.gov.za

Address: Sol Plaatje House, 222 Struben Street, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X9034, 8000 Tel: +27 12 357 3000 Fax: +27 12 323 5989 Website: www.education.gov.za

Ministry in the Presidency responsible for Women (Minister of Women in the Presidency)

Address: Tshedimosetso House, 1035 Frances Baard (Cnr Festival Street), Hatfield, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X745, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 473 0000 Fax: +27 12 462 1646 Website: www.doc.gov.za

Department of Communications

Address: East Wing, Union Buildings, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X931, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 359 0011 / 0013 | Fax: +27 12 326 0473 Website: www.women.gov.za Minister for Public Service & Administration

Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

Address: 123 Poyntons Building, West Block, cnr Schubart and Church streets, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X136, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 307 2934/2884 | Fax: +27 12 323 4111 Website: www.dcs.gov.za

Address: 87 Hamilton Street, Arcadia, Pretoria 0083 Postal address: Private Bag X802, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 334 0705 Fax: +27 12 326 4478 Website: www.cogta.gov.za

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LISTING Department of Correctional Services

Department of Higher Education and Training

Address: 123 Poyntons Building, West Block, cnr Schubart and Church streets, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X136, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 307 2934/2884 | Fax: +27 12 323 4111 Website: www.dcs.gov.za

Address: 123 Francis Baard Street, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X893, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 312 5555 Fax: +27 12 323 5618 Website: www.dhet.gov.za

Department of Economic Development

Department of Home Affairs

Address: Block A, 3rd Floor, 77 the dti Campus, cnr Meintjies & Esselen streets, Sunnyside, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X149, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 394 1006 | Fax: +27 12 394 0255 Website: www.economic.gov.za

Address: 909 Arcadia Street, Hatfield 0083 Postal address: Private Bag X114, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 432 6648 Fax: +27 12 432 6675 Website: www.dha.gov.za

Department of Defence and Military Veterans

Department of Human Settlements

Address: cnr Delmas Avenue & Nossob St, Erasmuskloof, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X427, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 355 6101 | F ax: +27 12 347 0118 Website: www.dod.mil.za

Address: Govan Mbeki House, 240 Justice Mahomed, Sunnyside, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X644, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 421 1310 Fax: +27 12 341 8513 Website: www.dhs.gov.za

Department of Energy Address: 192 cnr Visagie and Paul Kruger St, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X96, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 406 8000 Fax: +27 12 319 6681 Website: www.energy.gov.za

Department of International Relations and Cooperation Address: OR Tambo Building, 460 Soutpansberg Road, Rietondale, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X152, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 351 1000 Fax: +27 12 329 1000 Website: www.dirco.gov.za

Department of Environmental Affairs Address: Environment House, 473 Steve Biko and Soutpansberg Road, Arcadia, 0083 Postal address: Private Bag X447, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 310 3537 | Fax: +27 086 593 6526 Website: www.environment.gov.za

Department of Justice and Correctional Services

Department of Finance Address: 40 WF Nkomo Street, Old Reserve Bank Building, 2nd Floor, Pretoria Postal address: Private Bag X115, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 323 8911 | Fax: +27 12 323 3262 Website: www.treasury.gov.za

Address: Salu Building, 316 cnr Thabo Sehume and Francis Baard Streets, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X276, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 406 4669 Fax: +27 12 406 4680 Website: www.doj.gov.za

Department of Health

Department of Labour

Address: 20th Floor, Civitas Building, cnr Struben and Andries Streets, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X399, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 395 8086/80 | Fax: +27 12 395 9165 Website: www.doh.gov.za

Address: 215 Laboria House, cnr Francis Baard and Paul Kruger Streets, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X499, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 392 9620 | Fax: +27 12 320 1942 Website: www.labour.gov.za

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LISTING Department of Mineral Resources

Department of Small Business Development

Address: 70 Meintje Street, Trevenna Campus, Sunnyside 0007 Postal address: Private Bag X59, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 444 3000 | Fax: +27 86 624 5509 Website: www.dmr.gov.za

Physical address: The dti, Block A, 3rd Floor, 77 Meintjies Street, Sunnyside, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X84, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 394 1006 | Fax: +27 12 394 1006 Website: www.dsbd.gov.za

Department of Police

Department of Social Development

Address: Wachthuis Building, 7th Floor, 231 Pretorius Street, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X463, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 393 2800 | Fax: +27 12 393 2812 Website: www.saps.gov.za

Physical address: HSRC Building, North Wing, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X904, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 312 7479 | Fax: +27 086 715 0829 Website: www.dsd.gov.za

Department of Public Enterprises Address: Infotech Building, 1090 Arcadia Street, Hatfield, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X15, Hatfield 0028 Tel: +27 12 431 1000 | Fax: +27 12 431 1039 Website: www.dpe.gov.za

Department of State Security Physical address: Bogare Building, 2 Atterbury Road, Menlyn, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: PO Box 1037, Menlyn 0077 Tel: +27 12 367 0700 | Fax: +27 12 367 0749 Website: www.ssa.gov.za

Department of Public Service and Administration

Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa

Address: Batho Pele House, 116 Johannes Ramakhoase Street, Pretoria Postal address: Private Bag X884, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 336 1700 | Fax: +27 12 336 1809 Website: www.dpsa.gov.za

Physical address: Regent Place, 66 cnr Madiba and Florence Ribeiro Street, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X896, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 304 5000 | Fax: +27 12 323 7196 / 086 644 9583 Website: www.srsa.gov.za

Department of Public Works Address: 7th Floor, CGO Building, cnr Bosman and Madiba Street Postal address: Private Bag X65, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 406 21978 | Fax: +27 086 276 8757 Website: www.publicworks.gov.za

Department of Tourism Physical address: 17 Trevena Street, Tourism House, Sunnyside, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X424, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 444 6780 | Fax: +27 12 444 7027 Website: www.tourism.gov.za

Department of Rural Development and Land Reform Address: 184 Old Building, cnr Jeff Masemola and Paul Kruger Streets, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X833, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 312 9300 Fax: +27 12 323 3306 Website: www.ruraldevelopment.gov.za

Department of Trade and Industry Physical address: The dti, 77 Meintjie Street, Block A, Floor 3, Sunnyside, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X274, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 394 1568 | Fax: +27 12 394 0337 Website: www.thedti.gov.za

Department of Science and Technology

Department of Transport

Physical address: DST Building, Building No 53, CSIR South Gate Entrance, Meiring Naude Road, Brummeria, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X727, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 843 6300 Fax: +27 12 349 1041/8 Website: www.dst.gov.za MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

Physical address: Forum Building, 159 Struben Street, Room 4111, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X193, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 309 3131 | Fax: +27 12 328 3194 Website: www.transport.gov.za

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LISTING Telecommunications and Postal Services Physical address: Iparioli Office Park, 399 Jan Shoba Street, Hatfield, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X860, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 427 8000 Fax: +27 12 427 8016 Website: www.dtps.gov.za Department of Water and Sanitation Physical address: Sedibang Building, 185 Frances Baard Street, Pretoria 0001 Postal address: Private Bag X313, Pretoria 0001 Tel: +27 12 336 8733 | Fax: +27 12 336 8850 Website: www.dwa.gov.za

National coat of arms

The national coat of arms was adopted on 27 April 2000. It is constructed in two circles, which are described as the circle of foundation and the circle of ascendance.

Circle of foundation Shield – The two Khoisan figures on the shield are taken from a Bushman rock painting known as the Linton stone, and represent the common humanity and heritage of South Africans. Depicted in an attitude of greeting, the figures symbolise unity. Spear and knobkierie – Together, these objects symbolise defence and authority, but the flat angle at which they lie symbolises peace.

Wheat – The ears of wheat, as emblems of fertility, represent germination, growth and the development of potential, as well as nourishment and agriculture. Elephant tusks – Elephants symbolise wisdom, strength, power, authority, moderation and eternity, and the use of tusks is a tribute to the world’s largest land mammal, Loxodonta Africana, which is found in South Africa. Motto – Taken from the language of the now extinct /Xam Bushmen, the motto translated means ‘people who are different come together’ or ‘diverse people unite’.

Circle of ascendance Protea – Protea cynaroides is the national flower of South Africa and is symbolic of the beauty of the country and flowering of the nation’s potential. Secretary bird – Characterised in flight, the secretary bird represents growth and speed, and is a symbol of divine majesty and protection.

Rising sun – The sun is an emblem of energy and rebirth, a source of light and life appropriate for a country characterised by sunshine and warmth.

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Mpumalanga Provincial Government A guide to Mpumalanga Province’s government departments.

Visit www.mpumalanga.gov.za

Office of the Premier

Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

Premier: David Dabede Mabuza Physical address: 2nd Floor, Building 2, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1200 Postal address: Private Bag X11291, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 0000 | Fax: +27 13 766 2494 Email: premier@prem.mpu.gov.za Website: www.mpumalanga.gov.za

MEC: Refilwe Mtshweni Physical address: Upper Ground Floor, Building 6, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1200 Postal address: Private Bag X11304, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 6607 / 6970 Fax: +27 13 766 8461 Website: http://cgta.mpg.gov.za

Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environmental Affairs

Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation

MEC: Vusumuzi Shongwe Physical address: 2nd Floor, Building 6, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1201 Postal address: Private Bag X11219, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 6072 | Fax: +27 13 766 8429 Website: http://dardla.mpg.gov.za/

MEC: Norah Mahlangu Physical address: 2nd Floor, Building 5, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1201 Postal address: Private Bag X11316, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 5078 | Fax: +27 13 766 5575 Website: www.mpumalanga.gov.za/dcsr/

Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison

Department of Economic Development and Tourism

MEC: Petrus Ngomana Physical address: 2nd Floor, Building 4, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1200 Postal address: Private Bag X11269, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 4082 | Fax: +27 13 766 4616 / 4600 Website: www.mpumalanga.gov.za/safety_and_ security/home.asp MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

MEC: Eric Kholwane Physical address: 1st Floor, Building 4, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1201 Postal address: Private Bag X11215, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 4004 Fax: +27 13 766 4613 Website: www.mpumalanga.gov.za/dedet/

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LISTING Department of Education

Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport

MEC: Reginah Mhaule Physical address: Building 5, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1201 Postal address: Private Bag X11341, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 5555 | Fax: +27 13 766 5577 Website: www.mpumalanga.gov.za/education/

MEC: Sasekani Manzini Physical address: 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Government Complex Building 7 Mbombela 1200 Postal address: Private Bag X 1302, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 6696 / 6979 Fax: +27 13 766 8453 / 8471 Website: http://dpwrt.mpg.gov.za

Department of Health MEC: Gillion Mashego Physical address: 2nd Floor, Building 3, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1201 Postal address: Private Bag X11285, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 3754 Fax: +27 13 766 3475 Website: www.mpuhealth.gov.za

Department of Social Development

Department of Human Settlements

Provincial Treasury

MEC: Speedy Mashilo Physical address: Building 7, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park, Mbombela 1200 Postal address: Private Bag X11328, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 6607 Fax: +27 13 766 8441 Website: http://dhs.mpg.gov.za/

MEC: Eric Kholwane Physical address: Upper Ground Floor, Building 4, 7 Government Boulevard, Riverside Park Extension 2, Mbombela 1200 Postal address: Private Bag X11205, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 3250 | Fax: +27 13 766 3459 Website: http://finance.mpu.gov.za/

MEC: Busi Shiba Physical address: Son Joy Building, Boulevard Street Riverside Park, Mbombela 1200 Postal address: Private Bag X11285, Mbombela 1200 Tel: +27 13 766 6811 | Fax: +27 13 766 8462 Website: http://dpwrt.mpg.gov.za/

ZIMBABWE

Limpopo NAMIBIA Gauteng North West

SWAZILAND

Free State Northern Cape

MPUMALANGA

MOZAMBIQUE

BOTSWANA

LESOTHO

KwaZuluKwaZuluNatal Natal

Eastern Cape Western Cape

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Mpumalanga Local Government A guide to district and local municipalities in Mpumalanga.

Local municipalities encompassed Chief Albert Luthuli Municipality Tel: +27 17 843 4000 | Fax: +27 17 843 4001 Website: www.albertluthuli.gov.za

Ehlanzeni District Municipality Physical address: 8 Van Niekerk Street, Nelspruit 1201 Postal address: PO Box 3333, Nelspruit 1200 Tel: +27 13 759 8500 Fax: +27 13 759 8539 Website: www.ehlanzeni.gov.za

Dipaleseng Municipality Tel: +27 17 773 0055 | Fax: +27 17 773 0169 Govan Mbeki Municipality Tel: +27 17 620 6000 | Fax: +27 17 634 8019 Website: www.govanmbeki.gov.za

Local municipalities encompassed Tel: +27 13 799 1851 | Fax: +27 13 799 1865 Website: www.bushbuckridge.gov.za

Lekwa Municipality Tel: +27 17 712 9600 | Fax: +27 17 712 6808 Website: www.lekwalm.gov.za

City of Mbombela Municipality Tel: +27 13 759 9111 Fax: +27 13 759 2070 Website: www.mbombela.gov.za

Mkhondo Municipality Tel: +27 17 826 8100 | Fax: +27 17 826 3129 Website: www.mkhondo.gov.za

Nkomazi Municipality Tel: +27 13 790 0245 Fax: +27 13 790 0886 Website: www.nkomazimun.gov.za

Msukaligwa Municipality Tel: 086 167 852 | Fax: +27 17 801 3851 Website: www.msukaligwa.gov.za

Thaba Chweu Municipality Tel: +27 13 235 7300 Fax: +27 13 235 1108 Website: www.tclm.co.za

Pixley Ka Seme Municipality Tel: +27 17 734 6100 Fax: 086 630 2209 Website: www.pixleykaseme.gov.za

Gert Sibande District Municipality

Nkangala District Municipality

Physical address: Cnr Joubert and Oosthuise streets, Ermelo 2350 Postal address: PO Box 1748, Ermelo 2350 Tel: +27 17 801 7000 Fax: +27 17 811 1207 Website: www.gsibande.gov.za

Physical address: 2A Walter Sisulu Street, Middleburg 1055 Postal address: PO Box 437, Middleburg 1050 Tel: +27 13 249 2000 Fax: +27 13 249 2056 Website: www.nkangaladm.org.za

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LISTING Local municipalities encompassed Victor Khanye Municipality Tel: +27 13 665 6000 Fax: +27 13 665 2913 Email: munadmin@delmasmuni.co.za Website: www.victorkhanyelm.gov.za

eMalahleni Municipality Tel: +27 13 690 6911 Fax: +27 13 690 6207 Website: www.emalahleni.gov.za Steve Tshwete Municipality Tel: +27 13 249 7000 Fax: +27 13 243 2550 Website: www.stlm.gov.za

Dr JS Moroka Municipality Tel: +27 13 973 1101 | Fax: +27 13 973 0974 Website: www.moroka.gov.za

Thembisile Hani Municipality Tel: +27 13 986 9100 Fax: +27 13 986 0995 Website: www.thembisilehanilm.gov.za

Emakhazeni Municipality Tel: +27 13 253 7600 | Fax: +27 13 253 2440 Website: www.emakhazeni.gov.za

MUNICIPALITIES IN MPUMALANGA Limpopo

Mozambique

Bushbuckridge

Dr JS Moroka

North West

Thaba Chweu

Ehlanzeni

Thembisile

Nkangala

Gauteng

eMalahleni

Emakhazeni

Mbombela

Nkomazi

Steve Tshwete

Victor Khanye

Chief Albert Luthuli

Govan Mbeki

Msukaligwa

Swaziland

Gert Sibande

Dipaleseng

N

Lekwa Mkhondo

Free State

Pixley Ka Seme

Metropolitan/District Municipality Boundary

Local Municipality Boundary

District Municipality Local Municipality

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INDEX

INDEX Buhle Farmers’ Academy ............................................................................................................35 Columbus Stainless .............................................................................................................. 59, 60 Cool Ideas Truck Stop ................................................................................................................ 63 HL Hall & Sons Properties .......................................................................................................... 66 Hydra Arc ..................................................................................................................................... 53 Inkomati-Usuthu Catchment Management Agency ................................................................. 56 Kuka Mining Logistics ................................................................................................................. 44 Mobile Agri Skills Development & Training (MASDT) ............................................................... 33 Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency .................................................................. 14, 16, OBC Nedbank ....................................................................................................................................... 28 Rand Water .................................................................................................................................. 54 Sasol ........................................................................................................................................... IFC Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) ........................................................................... 5 Southern Sun Emnotweni ........................................................................................................... 69 Standard Bank Mpumalanga ............................................................................... 18, 76 - 83, IBC Vodacom ........................................................................................................................................ 3 MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2017

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The bank of choice for Mpumalanga’s public sector Standard Bank has a number of high-profile public sector clients in the province.

S

tandard Bank Public Sector Banking in Mpumalanga Province is led by Lawrence Ntimane, who is based in the provincial office located at Riverside Park, Mbombela. This business is enabled by a team of highly qualified account executives and account analysts located in three business centres, distributed across several towns in the province.

The public sector market covers the three spheres of government (national, provincial and local) as well as any ancillary business linked to government. A typical customer would be those that are regulated by the PFMA, MFMA and broader regulatory environment that is constitutionally mandated.

Standard Bank holds a significant share of the public sector banking relationships in the province, with the Mpumalanga provincial government as our premium customer. This relationship is held at the Nelspruit Business Centre in a portfolio managed by highly qualified account executive Joshua Madonsela who is ably assisted by two experienced account analysts.

Our relationship with the Mpumalanga provincial government extends beyond banking activities; together, we are involved in various strategic partnerships ranging from corporate social investment, local economic development and employee financial well-being for the benefit of the people of the province.

Furthermore, our banking services are extended to, and enjoyed by, the University of Mpumalanga, various municipalities, the three technical and vocational education and training colleges and provincial entities with whom we have banking relationships.

Standard Bank Public Sector is not only involved in business but entrenched in civic welfare; to this effect we leverage our relationship with all spheres of government to support and help uplift the communities and economies in the environments in which we operate.

Our goal is to provide working solutions that help public sector institutions meet their strategic, technical, administrative, regulatory and constitutional obligations, which in turn will lead to economic growth and development.

CONTACT INFO Lawrence Ntimane, Provincial Public Sector – Mpumalanga Tel: +27 13 757 5618 Cell: +27 82 511 8851 Email: Lawrence.Ntimane@ standardbank.co.za Website: www.standardbank.com

MEGA is the Official Economic Development Agency for Mpumalanga Province - South Africa MBOMBELA OFFICES: T. +27 13 755 6328 | F. +27 13 755 6239 JOHANNESBURG REGIONAL OFFICE: T. +27 10 493 1725/6 | F. +27 10 493 1727 www.mega.gov.za • trade-invest@mega.gov.za