… With More Than 10 000 Jobs
BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE-The Government of Eswatini is dealing with unemployment head-on!
This is also shown in the post-COVID-19 economic recovery report issued yesterday, where the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo said a number of projects in all sectors were coming into the country which would bring in an investment worth E15 billion and over 10 000 jobs for the next two years.
Khumalo stated that one of the upcoming projects was the Manzini Arch by the African Alliance with a total sum of E4 billion in its completion.
“Interested developments we are expecting to start works in the next month or two and they are committing E2 billion,” he said.
He added that there was also E1 billion worth of Energy projects between bio-mass, solar and hydro energy in the pipeline that would soon be implemented.
“We are also building a few other factories in rural areas such as Mantambe factory, Ebulandzeni factory, Mhlambanyatsi factory and Ndzevane factory.”
The minister also said there were a few other private sector factories coming up, saying one of which was a company called Alliance Foods which is owned by Africa Alliance and is being built in Matsapha.
Khumalo further stated that there were a host of other projects coming up in the mining sector that were also coming into the economy.
“The Mhlume mine is about to get going, Maloma Colliery will be expanding to at least twice its current size, Mpaka mine will soon be operational and the Ngwenya mine which has started to operate would soon be expanding and start exporting the iron ore,” said Khumalo.
He also said that as government they were also expecting the retail sector to come on board strongly on this as they were made aware by the African Alliance that they would be starting phase two of Malkerns Square retail project in Malkerns.
“There is a big project in Siphofaneni that is going on at the moment and we expect a big mall in Fairview that Manzini municipal council has already approved,” he said.
The Minister explained that from where they stood as government they were confident that the economy would continue to be stronger as they were aware that the country was still suffering from a lack of jobs.
“However, the work that government is doing is in the right direction and over time people would be seeing the fruits of the economic growth translating into actual job opportunities as each of these sectors starts to thrive in the economy,” he said.
Khumalo further thanked His Majesty, government and the whole of the private sector for staying true to the course and basically fulfilling their commitment.
“We see many other private sector companies re-investing in the economy and new companies coming into the economy. That can only be a good sign,” said Khumalo.
He added that economic growth was a result of a concerted effort between the government, the private sector small, and medium enterprises.
“We hope that in the next two years, this level of performance would be sustained,” he said.
Meanwhile, an economist fully practicing in South Africa, Mavela Dlamini, said the report tabled by Khumalo stood a chance to benefit Eswatini in a very rich way. He said the investment set to take place in the country would resurrect the economy in a major way. “Already the recovery plan has seen a phenomenal turnaround in the GDP which was observed within a record of 12 months. As depicted by the projects, shared the economic recovery plan has begun delivering to every key objective,” he said.
