EASTERN CAPE PROPERTY DEVELOPERS AND INVESTMENT CONFERENCE TO CRAFT STRATEGIES OF TRANSFORMING THE SECTOR.
Property Developers and Investors are expected to descend to the Province of the Eastern Cape as the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure MEC, Babalo Madikizela hosts the inaugural Property Development and Investment Conference on Thursday.
A statement released by the department said, the conference which will be held at the East London International Convention Centre will bring together experts in the property development sector, the banking sector, political heads of relevant departments, State-Owned Enterprises, business and property formations, as well as academics under one roof.
The statement said delegates at the Conference are expected to rigorously deliberate on the diverse investment opportunities in the sector; ways to cut the red tape in government and ways to access funding from the banking sector.
The conference will also deliberate on the contribution of the property sector in revenue generation for the Eastern Cape’s Provincial Fiscus.
According to the statement the conference is the brainchild of MEC Madikizela who, as far back as March 2019, announced while tabling his policy and budget speech, that the department would organise this inaugural event as part of helping to unlock bottlenecks which have caused delays in transforming the property sector post 1994.
MEC Madikizela said this conference is correctly being held in the Eastern Cape, a province which is hardest hit by the country’s triple challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment.
“Holding this conference in the Province, will place high on the agenda the importance of dealing with the province’s infrastructure backlog and creating sustainable jobs especially for women, people with disabilities and the youth”, he said
The Conference was first scheduled to be held in 2020, but had to be shelved due to the Covid-19 outbreak which resulted in a total shutdown since March 2020.
However, while under lockdown rules, the DPWI continued with its programme to transform the sector by putting some of its properties on the market.
The Head of Department, Thandolwethu Manda, said this was to ensure that the task to transform the Sector continues, as adopted by the 6th administration. Manda said so far the Department has advertised properties for long term leasing, an approach which will also help the state generate more revenue.
“Of the advertised properties 15 have been appointed and are in various stages of finalizing contracting.”
14 properties have been awarded to 100% black-owned companies for long-term leasing for development of various facilities. These properties have high commercial value for re-development and a source for potential revenue generation”, said Manda.
He said one such example is Erf 296, in Cala, Sakhisizwe Local Municipality, where a company which is 100% owned by a Black woman successfully proposed for the development of a shopping mall with Shoprite (U-Save) as an anchor tenant, and other services including banks, grocery and clothing stores. “The total revenue expected from the lease of the land for this project over a period of 30 years is R 9,4 million. In this project alone,70 jobs will be created.” added Manda.
In attendance will be institutions such as the First National Bank (FNB), Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank, established property developers such as the Billion group and Delta. New entrants in the Property development space especially those from the Eastern Cape Province have registered for attendance in numbers.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane, MEC Babalo Madikizela, Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko, Ipeleng Mkhari, the CEO of Motseng Investment Holdings, Vuyani Hako from PIC, Siya Mbanjwa ,CEO of Delta Property Fund are some of the speakers of the day.
