Pretoria- “I’m proud to show the world that there are success stories where government is investing.”
So says Cecile Kleyn, financial executive of Coega Dairy, which won the Quality Award at the inaugural SA Premier Business Awards, hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry.
The recent inaugural SA Premier Business Awards paid tribute to hard work while also showing that business is passionate and stands ready to contribute to the growth of the economy. The glittering awards ceremony was held at the Sandton Convention Centre last week.
The Coega Dairy company, based in the Eastern Cape, supplies milk to supermarket giant Shoprite.
Speaking to SANews, Kleyn said they were very proud to have won the award. “We are very proud. We’ve been funded by the dti, we are one of their babies,” said an ecstatic Klein.
The dairy operates an efficient-design ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) processing plant.
The company ownership includes the Coega Milk Producers' Organisation, with white and black commercial farmers as shareholders, and the Coega Empowerment Trust (CET).
The dairy employs 120 people in its plant and has also created 600 jobs on farms of which 38% of the farms are owned by black farmers.
Kleyn said a lot more is to come from Coega Dairy.
“This shows that we are not going away. If we can achieve this in a year and half, there’s far more to come,” she said.
Coega dairy forms part of the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ). Development Zones are cited as a means by which the country will attain increased levels of foreign direct investment in the first economy.
The Coega IDZ is located in the Eastern Cape in the Nelson Mandel Bay Municipality and covers a land area of approximately 11 500 hectares.
This IDZ is divided into 14 zones each specializing in a manufacturing different sector ranging from logistics, agro-processing to automotive.
The IDZ was designed to attract private sector investment in export orientated industries. Its aims are to create jobs in the industrial development zone, to promote the growth of domestic industries outside Coega, as well as to boost growth through increased exports, technology transfer and increased employment.
To date an estimated R3.9 billion has been allocated to Coega IDZ from the dti.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the awards provided a platform for the recognition of achievement in business.
“These awards are of value in particular because they give companies recognition, we hope it passes on in some kind of tangible commercial reputational benefit of significance for companies in enhancing their position in the market,” he said.
Another winner of the evening was the Social Change Assistance Trust (Scat) - a veteran independent fund-raising and grant-making development agency based in Cape Town.
Scat was established to channel funds to rural communities with limited access to resources and experience of marginalisation of their human rights. The trust took home the Rural Development Award, which recognises and promotes community projects that are part of government’s strategic interventions in poverty alleviation.
“The feeling is really euphoria. There’s a perception that business is the only industry that can contribute to the economy, when u think about it as an NGO that we can contribute to the economy and the acknowledgement for that is a really , really gratifying feeling,” said Executive Director of the trust Anthea Davids-Thomas.
This week the dti said it was pleased with its hosting of the awards.
“We are also pleased that some of the companies that are beneficiaries of the dti incentives emerged as winners in various categories. This demonstrates the positive contribution that our government programmes have in terms of developing and growing the economy,” said the department. - SAnews.gov.za
