Naziziphiwo Buso
The Coega Special Economic Zone has recorded an uptick in its income, despite the harsh effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A census conducted by Stats SA to measure the socioeconomic impact of investments in the SEZ, indicated a 9% increase in annualised income between July 2020 and July 2021.
This equated to R14 billion in income, compared to 2018 when the Coega SEZ had an income of R11 billion.
In the same year, they also recorded R 1.1 billion profit before tax.
The census report was handed over by Stats SA to the management of Coega on Friday.
Stats SA's Director of Structural Industry Statistics, Tshepo Pekane, said this is a good story to tell.
He said the growth observed at SEZ was different from other industries and economic activities where there was a decline or a lack of growth due to the pandemic.
The SEZ has also recorded an increase of enterprises operating in their zone from 36 in 2021 to 56 currently.
The census also revealed that the zone had an annualised increase in employment of 1% for the 2021 financial year for both manufacturing and non-manufacturing activities.
The 2021 figure stood at 5890, which excludes the 8046 employees employed through labour brokers.
Employment by labour brokers recorded an annualised increase of 3.5%.
Coega's Acting Chief Knowledge and Digital Officer, Veronica Monyobo, says they are excited for the future considering the positive growth of the income in the zone.
She said the census was an important part of their work as an SEZ and to remain accountable to their tenants.
“Those results are a reflection of the worst time in the country, covid-19. You can imagine then out of covid, we have done post covid to keep our business moving,” Monyobo said.
She said the preparation work has been done in order to continue with an upward trajectory.
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