R O S S LY N H U B
ROSSLYN HUB
Progress Steps
Up A Gear at Rosslyn Hub PRODUCTION: William Denstone
A R4.5-billion mixed-use development, Rosslyn Hub is the crucial first step towards the creation of the enormous Tshwane Auto City (TAC). The Hub alone looks poised to create 160,000 jobs as well as many more opportunities for employment and skills development, as it sets out to become the central node for vehicle manufacture in South Africa and beyond. 2 / www.enterprise-africa.net
INDUSTRY FOCUS: AUTOMOTIVE
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The automotive industry consistently makes an enormously important contribution to the overall South African economy, and the most recent figures released do nothing to buck this trend. Total earnings from South African automotive exports reached R164.9-billion in 2017, which made up 13.9% of South Africa’s total export earnings and only just missed out on eclipsing the record R171.1-billion achieved in 2016, at 15.6% of total export earnings. Altogether, revenue in the South African automotive business sphere amounted to more than R500-billion
last year, and the broader industry’s contribution to the gross domestic product stood at 6.9%, combining to underscore another strong performance all-round for this evergrowing market sector. A CAR CAPITAL Gauteng’s Tshwane has always had a central role in this crucial, burgeoning industry in South Africa, with some of the biggest names in the world having selected Rosslyn as their home on the continent. Some 40% of all passenger vehicles manufactured in South Africa are produced in Tshwane, which further generates about a quarter of the
manufacturing sector’s value add and contributes in the region of 3.3% to the city’s total economy. The four motoring and engineering sites already established in the suburb of Pretoria belong to Tata, Nissan, Iveco and BMW, with the latter’s R6-billion investment into its Rosslyn plant welcomed by former-Tshwane Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa: “We see this investment as a step in the right direction for Africa as a future market for exports. We are certain it will increase our footprint in the manufacturing industry and automotive industry.” Other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such
// THERE IS A BIG VISION UNDERPINNING THIS PROJECT BASED ON OTHER AUTOMOTIVE CITIES THAT HAVE BEEN BUILT AROUND THE WORLD //
Rosslyn Hub directors, Brendan Falkson, Perfect Mbitshana and Doug Reed are joined by the Mayor of Tshwane, Mr. Solly Msimanga and officials from Nissan SA and the City of Tshwane for the official on site launch
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ROSSLYN HUB
as Daimler, Mahindra and Volkswagen are also represented in Tshwane. However, despite figures which clearly point to much success at Tshwane to date, it seems that the arrival of these huge motoring names and equally large investment was merely the beginning of the area’s bid for automotive renown. As business continues to swell, the forthcoming Tshwane Auto City development will now look to build an entire metropolis around the existing sites and create hundreds of thousands of jobs in so doing. A concept devised way back in 2008, this is the product of the twin visions of government and the automotive industry to transform Rosslyn into the leading automotive investment destination in Africa. ROSSLYN HUB LAUNCH At the centre of Tshwane Auto City will be Rosslyn Hub, whose launch earlier this year marks the vital first stage in bringing the unprecedented African development to life. Set to act as catalyst for Africa’s first Auto City in Rosslyn. Rosslyn Hub will be the beating heart of the colossal 50-year overall project, and will include 1,200 houses and 250 rental apartments, a hospital and clinic, schools and a university with student housing across its 7,000 hectares. It will join and bring together the automotive plants already founded and thriving in Rosslyn, and will also comprise a development logistics park and vehicle distribution centre, a truck staging area and an outdoor automotive pavilion. Bringing to fruition plans on this awesome scale has required a joint venture between the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, Tshwane Economic Development Agency (TEDA) and Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC), and seeks to result in a local automotive industry which is globally competitive, primarily by significantly increasing locally manufactured parts and components.
The eventual aim of the TAC is to emulate what has been accomplished at those already well-established automotive cities - the likes of Shanghai Automotive City in China, Autostad in Germany and Toyota Automotive City in Japan, a point underlined by Brendan Falkson, Director of Big Cedar Property Development, which is tasked with managing this project. “There is a big vision underpinning this project and this vision is based on other automotive cities that have been built around the world.” The overriding emphasis, right from the initial planning stages, has been on establishing a living, smart city that supports local growth and development, comprising public transport and providing adequate housing.
As the auto city is progressed through its stages, with Rosslyn Hub the all-important number one, production is scheduled to more than double in accordance with the terms laid out by the Automotive Sector Vision 2020, which aims to produce 1.2-million vehicles and deepen the manufacturing base by stimulating investment and increasing local content. With Rossyln Hub now very much underway, we can begin to envisage a finished Tshwane Auto City which aligns perfectly with realising such lofty goals. In short, the idea behind Rosslyn Hub, and the wider TAC, is to leverage the largest concentration of automotive original-equipment manufacturers and component manufacturers in Africa to establish a place where their employees can
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: AUTOMOTIVE
// THE FACT THAT ROSSLYN HAS THE HIGHEST CONCENTRATION OF OEMS IN AFRICA MEANS THAT THE WHOLE INDUSTRY IS REALISING AN AUTOMOTIVE CITY IN TSHWANE MAKES SENSE // live, work and entertain themselves within the same precinct. The groundbreaking hub will also benefit from its proximity to existing transport infrastructure, including access to the Capital Park Rail logistics hub. FINANCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY LUCRATIVE Collaboration between manufacturers will be another welcome benefit of the TAC’s creation; currently, South Africa produces more than half a million vehicles each year, but split between many different producers and models.
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Now, the arrival of a central hub will result in significant savings across the value chain and ramp up economies of scale for other players. “The fact that Rosslyn has such a huge amount of OEMs, the highest concentration of OEMs in Africa, means that the whole industry is realising that an automotive city in Tshwane makes sense,” explains Falkson. “It helps each role player to create critical mass in terms of their supplier base and logistics, while new shared facilities will help everyone make their pricing more efficient. The vision of the
auto city will help bring scale and will mean that manufacturers can make more cars.” The finished Auto City will, in addition, provide a significant boost to Gauteng’s economy, by attracting both foreign and local direct investment into a multi-billion Rand infrastructure programme. This will in turn transform Rosslyn and Klerksoord into the world’s largest centre for original equipment manufacturing in the automotive industry. Tshwane Auto City will be the first multi-OEM auto city in Africa, whose geographic location will enable accelerated trade into the SADC region in order to stimulate further regional economic growth. “Between 2008 and 2018 around R12-billion has been invested into the Rosslyn area. Following the launch of the hub, we anticipate a 400% increase
ROSSLYN HUB
// FOLLOWING THE LAUNCH OF THE HUB WE ANTICIPATE A 400% INCREASE IN INVESTMENT IN THE NEXT DECADE // in investment in the next decade,” highlighted CEO of the Automotive Industry Development Centre, project manager for the hub’s development and an implementing agency of government, Dr David Masondo. The 10-year first phase of the work alone, with Rosslyn Hub at its centre, is expected to create some 160,000 jobs, and many more opportunities for employment and skills development.
The on-site launch of Rosslyn Hub, for example, saw at least 800 young people queuing to register their names to benefit from the private sector investment in anticipation of the work ahead. “Anything that will benefit young people and give them a great future is good for our country, democracy and development,” commented David Maake, who was among the community leaders who mobilised the people from Soshanguve to bid to become beneficiaries. Progress at Rosslyn is gathering pace, and Falkson rounds off with the impact this is having on overall belief in the TAC behemoth. “[Rosslyn] is now at its most exciting stage as, after five years of paperwork and meetings, there is activity on site. It is very rewarding to see something that you’ve worked on for so long come to fruition, and as a
consequence the industry is starting to believe in it more. “At the beginning, when you have a master plan, people switch off. Now, important people are approaching us and asking exciting questions.” With phase 2 of Rosslyn Hub due for lunch in 2020, it was left to Tshwane Mayor, Solly Msimanga, to sum up the positivity which surrounds the direction in which this auto city is heading. “We are proud to become the local government administration where this, Africa’s first auto city, is situated,” he concluded.
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ENTERPRISE AFRICA
NOVEMBER 2018