If potential investors were listening to Gauteng’s State of the Province speech on Monday evening, 19 February 2024, they would have much to encourage them to look closer at being based in the province.

Premier Panyaza Lesufi noted that if Gauteng was a country, it would have the third largest economy after Egypt and Nigeria, having introduced processes to transform, modernise and reindustrialise the economic sectors.

The premier described the five major economy corridors that are now ready to grow.  “We took a conscious decision that each corridor must have a powerful economic centre.” For example, one of the key economic sectors in the Tshwane region is that of the automotive industry, where the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone plays a critical role.

Moving away from being dependent on mining, the economic development of Gauteng has focused on four key aspects: the financial sector; telecommunications; pharmaceuticals; and ICT.

All the banks and insurance companies, as well as the telecommunication giants have their headquarters in Gauteng. “Companies like Google and Huawei chose our province to have their head offices,” the premier noted.

The premier went on to highlight the development of the various Gauteng regions and their specific economic focus. As pointed out, the motor vehicle industry is a key driver of the Tshwane economy.

Premier Lesufi noted that Phase 1 of TASEZ’s development had been completed. TASEZ “operations are in full swing, with the completion of Phase 1 of its development seeing the production of the first next-generation Ford Ranger and the VW Amarok getting into gear in November 2022.”

Lesufi explained that this was the result of a capital investment of R15.8-billion by the Ford Motor Company of South Africa, with the company looking to increase its capacity to produce 200 000 vehicles annually and export vehicles to more than 100 global markets.

In addition to the investment from Ford, Ford suppliers invested R5.6-billion into TASEZ, along with an initial government investment of R3.9-billion.

With the need to streamline the export of vehicles, the premier announced that “we are developing a new railway line between Tshwane and East London, led by the Minister of Public Enterprises, so that we can ship these cars from the East London port to the world”.

“We are indeed excited that these developments are pointing to one direction and one direction only, our economy is back on its feet.”