Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has started his day-long visit to the Eastern Cape to inspect local government performance and job creation.
Nelson Mandela Bay and Mthatha are the two municipalities in the spotlight.
Zuma will assess the Coega Business Centre and tour a General Motors factory today, in line with the declaration of the year 2011 as the year of job creation and economic transformation.
"The visit will underscore the support of the sector by government and will enable the President to gain a first-hand account of the successes and challenges from the manufacturers, to enable government to provide the needed support," the Presidency said on Tuesday.
The President will familiarise himself with issues facing the province's four original vehicle manufacturers - Volkswagen, Ford, GM and Mercedes-Benz - as well as the motor component suppliers.
He will also seek to identify the needs of the newly established Eastern Cape automotive cluster and find out how the province intends to support the sectors given the critical role of cluster support mechanisms globally.
There are three car manufacturers in the Eastern Cape namely Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) in Uitenhage, General Motors South Africa (GMSA) in Nelson Mandela Bay, and Mercedes Benz SA in East London.
In 2009, VWSA accounted for 52.8 percent of the total employment in the automotive industry, followed by Mercedes Benz and GMSA at 24.2 and 23 percent respectively. In terms of production, VWSA production is estimated at 112 000 cars per annum, while closer to 30 000 cars come off the GMSA assembly line.
Mercedes Benz manufactures about 50 000 units per annum of its C-Class model for the local market and for global export.
The second leg of the visit, to take place on the Thursday, will take the President to Umthatha to assess the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) that he established to assist in revitalising the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality (KSD).
The President established the IMC and amongst the tasks and priority areas he gave them, was to address these focus areas.
Residents of Umthatha, Libode and surroundings had complained to President Zuma about what they saw as a decline of the KSD area, in areas such as water, electricity, roads, sanitation, housing and the need to upgrade Umthatha airport.
The Mthatha visit will monitor the work of the IMC in relation to the delivery of efficient, competitive and responsive economic infrastructure network, sustainable human settlements and an improved quality of household life as well as responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government system.
Zuma is accompanied by cabinet ministers responsible for Performance, Monitoring, Evaluation and Administration, Rural Development, Cooperative Governance, Agriculture, Water and Environmental Affairs and Health as well as high level government officials. - BuaNews
