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South African President Jacob Zuma (L) waits with his wife MaKhumalo and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe before his State of the Nation address at Parliament in Cape Town. Picture: Reuters/Schalk van Zuydam

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• Province to benefit from projects

Not all the infrastructure projects announced by President Jacob Zuma during his State of the Nation Address on Thursday are new.

He invited South Africans to join the government in “a massive infrastructure development drive” which would hopefully “industrialise the country, generate skills and boost much-needed job creation”.

Zuma said there was a plan in place for infrastructure developments in five geographic centres. These were:

l Limpopo: integrate rail, road and water infrastructure in the Waterberg and Steelpoort regions to “unlock the enormous mineral belt of coal, platinum, palladium, chrome and other minerals” to boost mining and mineral beneficiation.

l Durban – Free State – Gauteng: a logistics and industrial corridor will connect the major economic centres of Gauteng and Durban/Pinetown and link these to ports via Durban and Richards Bay.

l Eastern Cape: a major new south-eastern development node “will improve the industrial and agricultural development and export capacity of the Eastern Cape region”. The project will also improve logistical and economic links with the Northern Cape and KZN and include the construction of a new dam on the Umzimvubu Rive.

l North West: 10 priority roads will be upgraded and improvements will be made to water, rail and electricity infrastructure.

l West Coast: the “enormous potential” of the West Coast will be unlocked through major infrastructure developments such as the expansion of the iron-ore rail line between Sishen in the Northern Cape and Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape to bring its transport capacity to 100 million tons a year.

Some of the infrastructure projects announced by Zuma are not new, with one – the Umzimvubu Dam – dating back to Accelerated Strategy for Growth and Investment in SA (Asgisa) announced by Thabo Mbeki in 2001.

Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa announced in May last year during her budget vote speech that her department was doing a feasibility study on the dam.

The expansion of the manganese rail line to the Port of Ngqura was also announced previously by Transnet.

The rail company said in September last year it planned to complete by February 2012 a feasibility study on the project.

Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet said on December 22 that Transnet would spend R11.2bn over seven years expanding the rail line to Ngqura as well as port facilities.

Plans to expand the rail line for transporting coal to Richards Bay were announced by Transnet last month. This is the 146km line from Lothair in Mpumalanga to Sidvokodvo in Swaziland.

Zuma’s announcement about a new South-Eastern node that will improve industrial and agricultural development and export capacity of the Eastern Cape as well as improve logistic links with the Northern Cape and KZN includes the N2 Wild Coast toll road, estimated to cost R9bn.