There are huge, untapped opportunities for small businesses in the oceans economy that are there for the taking.
This is according to Transnet National Ports Authority environmental manager Nozuko Litile, who said there were facilities that had to be built or refurbished at ports.
She was speaking at the local economic development enterprise and investment seminar at the Boardwalk ICC on Tuesday.
The seminar was hosted by the South African Local Government Association in partnership with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
The two bodies received funding from Global Affairs Canada (that country’s foreign affairs department) to implement the Building Inclusive Green Municipalities programme for 51 months.
The aim is to boost the capacity of SA municipalities to support effective service delivery, inclusive local green economic growth and enhanced climate change mitigation.
Litile said there was work for small businesses in the oceans economy.
“We have existing facilities that need refurbishing, new infrastructure facilities that need to be built, especially for the extraction of oil and gas.
“We’ll use small harbours to stimulate local economies.
“We’ve invested about R3bn to refurbish the dry dock in East London and for the labour we’ve appointed SMMEs.
“We’re also doing a feasibility study on a sleeping facility at the port in East London for ship dismantling and because we’re a people’s port, we are opening up recreational fishing spots,” she said.
Litile said Transnet was also looking at widening and opening up the port entrance in East London, which would potentially create many jobs.
Nozipho Booi of the National Ports Authority said Transnet was driving programmes to ensure SMMEs were supported.
“We have a Transnet development hub to inform our SMMEs what is expected from them once inside the market and it also informs them how to market themselves.
“We provide a service in collaboration with SEDA [the Small Enterprise Development Agency], where we provide business training services and human resources training, and this makes SMMEs more effective and more competitive in the business sector,” Booi said.
Jacques van Zyl, from the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said SA needed big, fast results and there was an urgency for the economy to grow, particularly as it continued to bleed jobs.
“There are plans to develop smaller harbours and refurbish existing smaller harbours because we have more than 3,000 small landing sites in the country but not all of them are conducive due to extreme weather conditions,” Van Zyl said.
Session moderator Sam Makhubu said Operation Phakisa spoke specifically about developing the oceans economy and paid particular attention to the marine transport and manufacturing sectors as well as offshore oil and gas exploration and marine protection and services.
“We underplay the role that coastal areas have in boosting tourism because there are serious economic activities that can be extracted from that.”
Makhubu said some municipalities did not take economic development plans seriously even though their role was to drive economic development in the local sector.
“The South African Systems Act makes it compulsory for all municipalities to draw up fiveyear development plans, which include economic plans.”
Salga provincial executive committee member Mxolisi Koyo said its focus was to support SMMEs and job creation, guided by the National Development Plan’s 2030 vision.