The City of Tshwane's new economic revitalisation strategy aims to boost the local economy by attracting between R17 billion and R26bn in investments by 2029, with a projected growth rate of 3.9%.
Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Nasiphi Moya, expressed optimism about the efforts to increase economic growth through the new economic strategy approved during a special council sitting on Thursday.
She said: “Tshwane’s strategy is our roadmap to revitalising our economy by enhancing resilient, inclusive and sustainable economic growth through the provision of economic infrastructure, economic diversification, creation of more job opportunities and increasing the ease of doing business in our city.”
Moya highlighted the city's economic decline, from a 6% growth rate in 2011 to a mere 0.3% in 2023, adding that the strategy will go a long way to putting economic growth back on an upward trajectory.
“According to our analyses undertaken, the strategy has the potential to attract between R17 billion and R26 billion in investment by 2029,” she said.
The city's new economic strategy also aims to create over 80,000 new jobs between 2025 and 2029, with an average annual employment growth rate of 3.4%.
Another key objective of the strategy is to achieve an average annual economic growth rate of 3.9% in the same period.
Moya said her administration will also leverage its strategic assets such as Wonderboom Airport, Bon Accord Asphalt Quarry, Pretoria Showgrounds, including Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations to ensure that this strategy is a success.
Additionally, she said, the City will engage extensively with all sectors of Tshwane "because it is only with collective buy-in that this can be made a success".
She said: “These growth rates are impressive when compared to the 2024 GDP growth rates of 0.8% nationally and 1.3% within the Gauteng Province.”
The strategy outlines a comprehensive plan to revitalise the economy, featuring a list of key projects and 11 key objectives.
The objectives include sustainable economic infrastructure, enterprise development support, township economy, public-private partnerships, inclusive economic growth, ease of doing business, workforce and talent development, inner city revitalisation, economic diversification and industrialisation, innovation and investment, rural development.
Moya said: “Many initiatives have already been implemented aligned to these 11 objectives during our first 175 days in office. One example of how our administration is supporting public-private partnerships , innovation and investment and economic diversification and industrialisation - and accelerated job creation overall – is our last week’s approval of the Tshwane Automotive City Master Plan, which seeks, together with our existing Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone, to support and expand the automotive sector in Tshwane.”