Limpopo Business 2016-17 edition

SPECIAL FEATURE
South Africa’s mangoes and tomatoes; papayas (65%);
tea (36%); citrus, bananas and litchis (25%) and 60% of
the country’s avocadoes.
The best-performing subsector of South African
exports over the last five years is fruit and nuts according
to worldstopexports.com. In 2015 South African
exports of these items were valued at $2.9-billion,
3.6% of the country’s total. This represents a 27%
increase since 2011, and here Limpopo has a great record:
avocadoes, mangoes and macadamia nuts from
the province’s eastern regions are hugely popular
in international markets and Limpopo’s commercial
farmers are extremely efficient.
Limpopo is also a water-scarce province, however,
and there are many subsistence farmers in the
province. Under the system of apartheid, so-called
homelands were created and three of these were located
within the boundaries of what is today Limpopo
Province: the legacy of poverty that was part of the
homeland plan still exists. The Premier of Limpopo,
Chupu Stanley Mathabatha, referred directly to one of
the indicators of poverty in his State of the Nation address
in 2015: “We have also reduced the dependency
index from eight in 2006 to six in 2014. This means
that in our province, for every one person employed,
there are, on average, six people who depend on the
income of that person.”
While welcoming the improvement, the Premier
pledged to work to reduce it still further.
Mining is the other big sector – with agriculture
– in Limpopo. Limpopo has huge reserves of coal,
platinum, chromium, uranium clay, nickel, cobalt,
vanadium, limestone and tin.
Within Limpopo, approximately 400 prospecting
and mining licences have been granted for a wide
range of minerals. These include the largest diamond
mine in South Africa, the biggest copper mine in
South Africa, the biggest open-pit platinum mine
in the country and the biggest vermiculite mine in
the world. The province has 41% of South Africa’s
platinum group metals (PGMs), 90% of South Africa’s
red-granite resources and approximately 50% of the
country’s coal reserves. Antimony, a highly strategic
mineral found in large quantities in China, is another
of Limpopo’s major assets.
The provincial government of Limpopo is determined
to leverage the mineral sector to create more
industry in the province. To this end, five interventions
are planned for the medium- and long-term:
• A provincial supplier development programme
• A mining community development programme
• A post-mining-era skills development programme
• A provincial industrialisation programme
• A procurement programme that ensures that
mines buy 20% of their supplies from local small,
medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and
co-operatives
Another aim is to develop the manufacturing capacity
of the province. The goal is to create value within
the borders of Limpopo, and in this way to create
employment. Manufacturing in the province is centred
around mining areas (smelters and refineries),
agricultural estates (juices and concentrates) and in
Polokwane it is strong on food and beverages).
Agri-processing is strong, with Pioneer Foods,
McCain, Granor Passi, Kanhym, Westfalia and
Enterprise Foods prominent, but this sector still has
enormous potential to grow.
Strategic location
The Great North Road passes through Limpopo
from the south to the border town of Musina and
on to Zimbabwe and its neighbours in the Southern
African Development Community. The province’s
location lends itself to logistical operations and
most of South Africa’s operators have a presence
in the provincial capital city of Polokwane. Freight
logistics hubs have been established at Polokwane
and Musina.
Large national logistics company Value Group has
only four major regional depots outside Gauteng:
the fact that one of these is in Polokwane shows
the importance of Limpopo in the logistics chain in
South Africa.
Logistics giant Imperial Logistics Southern Africa
has 70 companies in its group structure, including
Kobus Minaar Transport, a concern that began in
Tzaneen transporting fruit and vegetables. Much of
the agricultural produce of the province has to be
delivered to ports in a hurry because of the delicate
nature of the fruit. Avocadoes are particularly easy to
bruise and so companies such as Freezerlines, Fast ‘n
LIMPOPO BUSINESS 2016/17
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