President Cyril Ramaphosa officiated the opening of the Corobrick Kwastina brick manufacturing factory at Drienfontein in Gauteng on yesterday.
The company pledged an R800-million investment four years ago at the SA Investment Conference into the state-of-the-art factory. They further made a commitment to invest an additional R200 million to expand its operations in KwaZulu-Natal for its concrete facilities.
President Ramaphosa highlighted the manufacturing sector playing an essential role in job creation and commended the construction of Kwastina for “living up to the commitments they made… making sure that our economy moves forward”.
The detriment of the South African economy during Covid-19 pandemic resulted in 2 million jobs being lost over a period of 12 months as reported by StatsSA. “This investment is an example of the productive partnerships that have been forged between business and government to grow our economy and create jobs,” he said.
The President also reported during a media brief that the factory has employed “almost 200 people”. This acts as a catalyst for the government’s efforts in supporting and empowering local enterprises. The president expressed the intention of materials that predominantly sourced locally.
“[Kwastina] has made a significant contribution to our efforts to extract greater value from our natural resources, by making its bricks from raw materials extracted from South African soil. This is an important part of government’s efforts to support localisation, supplier and enterprise development, as well as empowerment.”
