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Cape Town – Government projects that South Africa will receive private sector investment of R956m in the near future, said Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe on Thursday.
Addressing the media following a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Radebe said 1 053 jobs are expected to be established.
He also said gross funding for black industrialists amounted to about R4.6bn. To date, 27 black industrialists have received support from government since the inception of the programme in 2015.
In addition, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) attracted R4bn in private sector investment which will have the potential to save and create more than 3 600 jobs in the last quarter of 2017.
According to Radebe, South Africa remains a “preferred investment destination” through foreign direct investment (FDI). Government expects potential FDI to the value of R4.5bn – particularly in the energy and chemicals sector.
“This will bring the total potential FDI to R34.9bn,” Radebe said.
Energy initiatives
As far as infrastructure delivery is concerned, Radebe said more than 46 000 households are connected to the electricity grid, or micro scheme electricity.
“The Department of Energy also finalised the procurement of 31 100 solar home systems for installation, which will commence in the fourth quarter.”
The rollout of the independent power producer (IPP) programme is also continuing. Renewable energy is now providing 3 175MW of energy to the grid.
The request for proposal for the gas IPP will be issued before the end of the new financial year, Radebe said.
In addition, 900MW was procured from the coal IPP.
Rooting out public service corruption
Radebe also gave an update on government’s initiative to ensure that public service employees don’t do business with government departments and other organs of state.
“The transitional period for public servants to declare their activities ended on January 31 2017,” Radebe said, adding that by February 1 those who did indeed conduct business with government had either resigned from the business activities, or from public service employment.
He said the Department of Public Service and Administration is currently working on collating information on public service employees who failed to comply with the new regulations.
“Once this process is completed, disciplinary processes will be instituted against all who failed to comply,” Radebe said.
