Ocean’s economy could revive city growth

WITH the local economy currently stunted by the weak global demand for Richards Bay’s leading raw materials, City of uMhlathuze Mayor, Mduduzi Mhlongo now looks towards the sea to bring in a wave of bright prospects.

Following the announcement of two fish farms for Richards Bay and Amatikulu, the Mayor stated the area’s coastline is a wide and untapped market brimming with opportunities.

‘The city alone has 45kms of coastline, 85% of which is in natural state.

‘We need to explore this to unlock our ocean’s economy.

‘Over the past few years, we have discovered our economy mainly relies on commodities like our minerals, and those are very much dependent on international demand.

‘When prices around the world fall, it directly impacts this city.

‘We need to diversify our economy to be more sustainable in the future.

‘This places Operation Phakisa at the centre of what uMhlathuze needs.’

Mhlongo stated aside from the coastline, the Port of Richards Bay has ample land to develop for lucrative developments such as a ship repair facility.

While hope was lost for a dry dock two years ago when Transnet unexpectedly declared a signed memorandum for a R3.5-billion facility null and void, the Mayor hinted it is not the end of the road quite yet.

‘We have seen the fruits come out of the relationship we have developed with Transnet and the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone (RBIDZ) for the port not to be as internalised.

‘We also recently joined the Worldwide Network of Port Cities and have been in discussions with the organisation to bring potential investors to this area.

‘Our task is to create an enabling environment for businesses to flourish and we have and will continue to take this very seriously.’