MAPUTO DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR

The Maputo Development Corridor is South Africa’s leading Spatial Development Initiative (SDI), linking Mpumalanga Province, Gauteng Province and the Nkomazi Special Economic Zone with the deepwater Port of Maputo in Mozambique. This efficient corridor provides investors and exporters with good access to the export markets of South East Africa, the Indian Ocean Rim and Far East Asia. The Maputo Development Corridor comprises road,

rail, Special Economic Zone, border posts, port and terminal facilities. The corridor runs through the most highly industrialised and productive regions of Southern Africa. The Corridor has been extensively upgraded to international standards and links the industrial heartland of South Africa to its nearest port in Maputo, Mozambique, which is one of the fastest-growing countries in South East Africa.

Agriculture in Mpumalanga is responsible for 3% of the province’s gross value added by region (GVA-R) and can be divided into the following categories (see map, right).

AGRICULTURE

SUMMER CEREALS & LEGUMES

MAIZE Maize meal

SOYA Meal, Edible oil

CANOLA Edible oil

SUNFLOWER Edible oil

TROPICAL & SUBTROPICAL FRUIT

CANE SUGAR Sugar / confectionery

CITRUS Juice & concentrate

MANGOES Dried, frozen, juice & concentrates

LITCHIS Dried, frozen, juice & concentrates

AVOCADOES Avocado oil

GUAVA Dried, frozen, juice & concentrates

MACADAMIA NUTS

Processed & confectionery

Mpumalanga Province 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. The province’s economic diversity extends into the agriculture sector where the natural topography of the province divides this sector between the Highveld and Lowveld Regions.

The Highveld Region in the west of the province is at an elevation of between 4 000 and 6 000 feet above sea level. This allows for the large-scale and commercial production of cereals and legumes like maize, soya, canola and sunflower.

The subtropical region of the Mpumalanga Lowveld plays a key role in the agricultural export profile of the province, primarily in fruit and nuts.

Mpumalanga Province is one of the world largest producers and exporters of citrus fruit. Duty-free exports of South African citrus to the USA under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) reached a peak of 91 000 tons in 2020 ($94.9-million) and are expected to continue their strong annual growth as the USA is still considered a premium market.

Lowveld Highveld

HIGHVELD: Summer cereals and legumes: maize, soya, canola, sunflower. Animal products: bovine meat, swine, sheep and poultry.

LOWVELD: Subtropical and citrus fruits, nuts and cane sugar.

Mpumalanga Province is the world’s largest producer and exporter of macadamia nuts. The province earned $207-million in exports in 2019, $76-million of this to the US. There have been major new investments in processing facilities in Mpumalanga.

Mpumalanga’s rich agricultural produce is utilised by companies such as McCain, Nestlé and PepsiCo.

9:1

Mpumalanga’s ratio of commercial farmers to small-scale farmers

Forestry is a key driver for the development of Mpumalanga’s rural economy and a major provider of job opportunities. About 40% of SA’s sustainable forests are located in Mpumalanga Province.

The industry comprises logging, saw-milling, wood products, wood board, pulp and paper as well as specialised cellulose. Specialised cellulose is a sought-after natural, renewable fibre with a wide range of uses in the textile, consumer goods, foodstuff and pharmaceutical industries and is produced in large quantities at Sappi Ngodwana.

R9.5 billion Amount invested in the foresty industry

39

Mpumalanga has processing plants out of 148 in South Africa

PG Bison has recently invested R560-million in a new front-end dryer for its particleboard plant in Mkhondo (Piet Retief). The company is also building a new medium-density fibreboard (MDF) plant at its Mpumalanga plant.

SAFCOL/Komatiland is the state forestry company with commercial and non-commercial operations covering a land area of 187 320ha.

Sonae Arauco is a Portuguese investment. A new entrant, local BEE company the FX Group, is commissioning a greenfield particle board plant in Lothair in the Gert Sibande District.

MAIN EXPORTS

PULP

PAPER

SPECIALISED CELLULOSE

SAWN LUMBER

WOOD CHIPS

WATTLE EXTRACT

MAJOR COMPANIES

SAPPI

SAFCOL

SONAE ARAUCO

PG BISON

Mining is the province’s largest single sector, providing employment to 5.2% of the province’s workforce and making up 20% of gross value added by region (GVA-R).

Coal: 83% of South Africa’s coal production, 50% of national coal reserves, third-largest coal-exporting region in the world. Coal is the lifeblood of provincial economy, fuelling 11 Eskom power plants, which produce 80% of South Africa’s electricity. Coal is Mpumalanga’s single largest export product, shipping mainly to India and Pakistan.

Other minerals: Gold mining takes place in Evander, Pilgrim’s Rest and Barberton. Gold is the second-largest export from the province. Platinum and chrome ore mining are located in the Steelpoort and Burgersfort areas in the north of the province and make up part of the Bushveld Igneous Complex.

The mining services and technology industry is an important subsector in Mpumalanga. With over a century of commercial mining operations in the province, homegrown technologies are now exported around the globe.

National utility Eskom will spend R3.3-billion on the revival of the Matla coal mine. Exxaro Resources will manage the project and do the mining while major companies such as DRA, Worley, Sandvik and WBHO will also be involved.

Other companies engaged in expansion of life-of-mine projects are Pan African Resources and Evander (Elikhulu tailings), Exxaro Resources (Leeuwpan) and South32, which is spending about R4.3-billion at Klipspruit.

Platinum is an important mineral for the modern economy. Two Rivers is a joint venture between Implats (46%) and African Rainbow Minerals which is located on the southern part of the eastern limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, 35km south-west of Burgersfort in Mpumalanga.

Lydenburg is home to the Lion ferrochrome smelter that is a joint venture between Glencore and Merafe Resources.

Mpumalanga has historically been at the heart of the South African energy and industrial complex and is still heavily reliant on the mining and burning of fossil fuels.

The Mpumalanga Provincial Government has been proactive in exploring opportunities in the Green Economy and pursuing a just transition to a low-carbon economy which secures the future and livelihoods of workers and their communities. Achieving such a just transition would require an integration of economic opportunities in sectors outside of energy and mining.

A Just Energy Transition (JET) to a Green Economy presents the following opportunities:

• Renewable energy: solar, biomass, natural products

• Gas and associated industries

• Sustainable smart agriculture: environmentally-friendly agriculture and agricultural processing

• Circular Green Economy: waste recycling, water reclamation, land rehabilitation

• Soft infrastructure: reskilling and institutional capacity-building for a carbon-neutral future

• Hard infrastructure: investment and expertise are needed in urban planning, water and waste management

• Building technologies: greener and more energy-efficient

• Transport and logistics: greener and more energy-efficient

MINERALS

COAL

GRANITE Building cladding & tombstone

CLAY

50% of South Africa’s national coal reserves

Specific opportunities include:

•There are plans for the decommissioning of 11 000MW of Eskom’s coal-fired capacity by 2030. Opportunities are presented by repurposing land.

• The vast new fields of natural gas found off the coast of Mozambique could have a big impact on the Mpumalanga economy.

• A Renewable Energy Development Zone (REDZ) is planned for eMalahleni / Witbank where coal jobs are at risk.

Three primary pillars of the manufacturing sector in Mpumalanga account for more than 60% of the output of the manufacturing sector, which overall makes up 15% of gross value added, regional (GVA-R).

MAIN EXPORTS

STAINLESS STEEL

Cutlery

Catering equipment

Surgical instruments

Automotive components

STEEL White & grey goods

Pipes & tubes

Wire

PETROCHEMICALS

Plastic products

Recycling plastics

Artificial rubber products

Paint & vanish

Inks & dyes

FOOD PROCESSING

Maize meal

Machinery

Frozen & dehydrated

VEGETABLES Preserves, pickles & condiments

Nuts

PAPER Recycling

SUGAR Confectionery

MINING Machinery and services

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Solar and biofuel

Biomass

Fuel, petroleum and chemical products are manufactured at the Sasol Secunda plant in Secunda, Gert Sibande District. It is one of the world’s largest synthetic fuels facilities, producing 60-million litres of liquid fuel a day. Products produced include petroleum, paraffin, jet fuel, creosote, bitumen and waxes.

The ferro-alloy and stainless-steel industries are based in the Nkangala District. Columbus Stainless in Middelburg is Africa’s only producer of stainless-steel flat products. Samancor Chrome (Ferrometals), the world’s second-largest ferrochrome producer, has two plants in Mpumalanga.

Agro-processing is mainly based in the Lowveld Region and consists of manufacturing forestry products (pulp, paper and cellulose), sugar at the Selati RCL Foods plants in Nkomazi and processing subtropical fruit and nuts.

The province’s flourishing macadamia nut industry has a number of large processing facilities based around the provincial capital Mbombela. Subtropical fruits like mango, banana, papaya and citrus are processed into juice concentrate or dried for export.

There is a geographical divide in the manufacturing sector. Fuel, petroleum and chemical production occurs in the southern Highveld Region clustered around Sasol’s plants.

The northern Highveld area, including Middelburg and eMalahleni (Witbank), is home to ferro-alloy, steel and stainless-steel concerns. Creative thinking kicked in when Highveld Steel’s troubles reached a tipping point. The 1 000ha property in Emalahleni has been re-purposed as a multi-purpose site for industry and commerce. Called the Highveld Industrial Park, the project promotes a wide range of manufacturing enterprises.

In the Lowveld, agricultural and forestry products are processed while Sappi’s giant mill is close to the company’s forests south-west of the provincial capital, Mbombela.

The importance of tourism to the economy of Mpumalanga cannot be overstated. The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has been strongly felt.

Mpumalanga received only 340 000 international visitors in 2020, down from 1.6-million international visitors in 2019. The key source countries were Mozambique, eSwatini, the USA, Germany, France and the UK. Domestic tourism has steadily increased. The total tourist foreign direct spend (TTFDS) in Mpumalanga for 2020 was R7.5-billion, down from over R21-billion in 2019. The sector accounts for 6% of gross value added by region (GVA-R).

The announcement in 2022 by Eurowings Discover, a new division of Lufthansa, that it would start flying three times a week to Mbombela from Frankfurt, via Windhoek, will give a certain boost to tourist numbers

1.6 MILLION

Number of visitors

ANNUALLY pre-COVID-19 billion

Rand value of tourist spend in Mpumalanga… before COVID-19 visiting Mpumalanga. The Kruger National Park is Mpumalanga’s most famous tourist asset and safaris and hunting are major tourist attractions. The Manyeleti Reserve, a 23 750-hectare game reserve sharing a fenceless border with the Kruger National Park, is operated and managed by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA). God’s Window and the Blyde River Canyon Reserve are other provincial treasures attracting investment. Business travel, including conferencing, adventure, heritage and cultural tourism, all hold huge growth potential in Mpumalanga, but require investment in infrastructure and product development.

A hotel and conference centre project in Middelburg is making progress and should be completed in 2023.