While a handful of companies have been able to recover from the devastating KwaZulu-Natal floods that ravaged the region in April of this year, the vast majority are still trying to pick up the pieces that were left behind.
The South African automotive manufacturing industry, much of which is based in KZN, in particular has been affected, but the launch of a new facility offers some semblance of hope that economic activity can return to where it once was.
To that end, President Cyril Ramaphosa was on hand for the launch of Hesto Harnesses (a Metair Investments subsidiary), where a new 35 000 square-metre manufacturing plant was unveiled in KwaDukuza in KZN.
The facility, which costs a reported R500 million, was brought to the fore in partnership with Yazaki Corporation. It will now see Hesto Harnesses manufacture wiring harnesses and instrument clusters to supply to local automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) – Toyota, Isuzu, Nissan and Ford.
“I’ve never been as impressed as I am this morning by just walking on the floor of this factory and seeing the great enthusiasm on the faces of the workers. I saw not only enthusiastic faces and people, 70% of them women,” noted Ramaphosa during the unveiling.
“The youthfulness of the people who work here and the cohesion. Just meeting the people here made my day. This has been a great exposure what Hesto does and exhibition of what we have achieved here,” he added.
Along with bringing back much-needed manufacturing capabilities to the region, the president also noted the impact that this new facility will have in terms of job creation in KZN, which has suffered in the wake of the floods.
“It is therefore significant and most welcome that this facility will create over 4,000 employment opportunities, which will translate into a R30 million monthly spend on salaries and wages being injected into the iLembe District,” he highlighted.
There is indeed a lot more work to be done in order to address the economic issues that plague the country currently, but hopefully the introduction of more facilities like this one can go some ways to tackling manufacturing and job creation in South Africa.
[Image – PresidencyZA on Twitter]
[Source – SAnews]
