The Insider has to laugh at the temerity of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which is forever blowing hollow-sounding notes on its own trumpet. Its special economic zone (SEZ) programme to accelerate industrialisation is so far behind schedule, you can hear the ZZZZZs coming from it. The DTI says the programme has attracted billions of rand to SA, most recently a R11bn Chinese automotive project. But most of this is just part of the heavily subsidised automotive production and development programme, which has been running in various forms for decades. The Musina-Makhado zone in Limpopo has been designated the first SEZ under the new SEZ Act, which replaces industrial development zones. The DTI says it has attracted R57bn in "investment interest" from a Chinese consortium, but this is still theoretical, just like the hundreds of billions the Coega zone near Port Elizabeth always claims is in the pipeline — and which tends to stay in the pipeline. The investment that has dr...
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