Minister Blade Nzimande: Visit to East London Industrial Development Zone and Science and Technology Park
Programme Director;
MEC for Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism; Ms Nonkqubela Pieters;
MMC for Finance, Mr Yomelela Tyali.
My Advisors, Dr Nhlanhla Msomi, and Mr. Nqaba Nqandela;
Our Science Advisor, Dr Derrick Swartz;
Deputy- Director General, Dr Mmboneni Moufhe;
Executive Mayor of BMC; Councillor Princess Faku;
Chairperson of the Board of the East London Industrial Development Zone; Mr. Ayanda Kanana;
Chairperson of the CSIR Board, Mr. Vuyani Jarana;
Chairperson of the TIA Board, Mr. Loyiso Tyira;
Chief Executive Officer of the East London Industrial Development Zone, Mr. Thembela Zweni;
Representatives of Universities, Science Councils and Development Finance institutions;
Leaders of Industry, Innovators and Entrepreneurs:
Members of the media:
I am deeply honoured to address you today at one of South Africa’s important industrial development hubs: the East London Industrial Development Zone (ELIDZ). It is also a great privilege for me to visit and support the work of the Science and Technology Park of the ELIDZ.
Our visit to your wonderful facility comes shortly after my recent visits to the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg, SASOL in Sasolburg and the COEGA SEZ in Gqeberha.
All these visits are connected and form part of our Ministry’s programme to strengthen the Department’s relationships with Special Economic Zones and industry, while building stronger local and regional innovation ecosystems to support innovation-led industrialisation in South Africa.
Our approach is informed by the realisation that South Africa cannot achieve meaningful industrialisation without a robust, diversified, and resilient innovation system. Equally, innovation must be connected to production, industry and the everyday development challenges facing our communities. Against this background, I wish to reflect on five strategic issues.
The first is the new context of innovation in South Africa. Our country has a long but distorted history of social and technological innovation. Under apartheid, innovation in mining, agriculture, manufacturing, and finance largely served an extractive, racially exclusive and spatially fragmented economic model rather than the needs of the majority.
Democracy introduced a policy framework centred on inclusivity, equality, and social transformation. The White Paper on Science, Technology, and Innovation and the 2022 Decadal Plan call for the rapid expansion and transformation of the National System of Innovation as a catalyst for the goals of the National Development Plan.
The Decadal Plan sets out a number of strategic priorities, of which the most important are:
- Modernising core economic sectors: agriculture, mining, and manufacturing through technology innovation;
- Unlocking new growth opportunities: Investing in the digital and circular economies, artificial intelligence (AI), space science, and technologies to support South Africa’s national sovereignty;
- Promoting innovations in the health economy: supporting local production of new vaccines, therapeutics, medical devices, and other health care goods and services;
- Supporting innovation in the energy economy: using technology innovation to clean up existing coal power production, and support for nuclear energy and renewable energy (including green hydrogen) sectors;
- Building innovation capabilities within the State: using technology to improve public service delivery and governance; and
- Socio-economic development and poverty reduction: deploying targeted technology innovations for water, sanitation, human settlements, and grassroots innovation.
Our innovation system remains too small for the size and potential of our economy. We must produce more STEM graduates, improve their absorption into the labour market, expand technical and vocational skills, and build stronger links between post-school education and the real economy.
Historically concentrated in the formal urban economy, the NSI must become genuinely national, reaching townships, rural communities, and the informal economy. Innovation cannot solve poverty, inequality, and unemployment on its own, but it can help create the conditions for inclusive development.
Inclusive innovation can widen access to finance, clean energy, water, food, and healthcare. It can improve market access for small-scale farmers and create new industries in renewable energy, green hydrogen, additive manufacturing, and advanced materials.
The second issue is the role of Special Economic Zones as platforms for innovation. SEZs are not merely providers of land, infrastructure, and incentives. At their best, they concentrate firms, coordinate investment, and build the productive and technological capabilities required for a modern industrial economy.
The policy goals set by Government for the national SEZ programme include the broadening of South Africa’s industrial base, supporting regional development, attracting new sources of capital investment, promoting exports, and creating employment.
It must now also accelerate technology adoption, localisation, and the conversion of research into economic value. Key to all of the above is the need to include marginalised communities, especially from the township and rural economies into the industrial economy.
Science, technology, and innovation are critical tools for the strategic goals set for the SEZ’s.
This is so because we see the role of SEZ’s to be pioneers or pathfinders for new economic growth paths, new industries, new sectors, new enterprises, and new forms of capital accumulation meeting the needs of our people. Transformative and inclusive economic growth in this context cannot take place without dedicated investment in technological innovation.
Success therefore should be measured not only by infrastructure and investment, but also by higher productivity, supplier upgrading, patents, prototypes, new goods and services, new types of skills formation, and higher levels of competitiveness.
SEZs must become dynamic ecosystems in which laboratories, incubators, training platforms, investors, and manufacturers work around shared industrial missions, spreading learning and innovation across the regional economy.
The third issue is strengthening the National System of Innovation at sub-national level. Local firms, municipalities, and innovators need access to research support, testing facilities, intellectual property advice, technology stations, digital tools, incubation, and patient finance. Universities and TVET colleges must contribute directly to skills development, applied research, prototyping, and enterprise support.
The Eastern Cape has four universities, eight public TVET colleges, three ports, major manufacturing assets, agricultural potential, renewable-energy opportunities, coastal resources, and a youthful population. These strengths must be connected into an innovation ecosystem that supports industrialisation, entrepreneurship, and inclusive growth.
This requires coordination among national and provincial government, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, educational institutions, science councils, industry, investors, and communities, guided by shared priorities and measurable outcomes.
I therefore wish to reiterate the proposal I made in Gauteng and, more recently, in Gqeberha: that the existing regional innovation forum be consolidated into a dynamic science, technology and innovation forum for Buffalo City.
Such a forum could coordinate institutions, identify problems requiring innovative solutions, match them with expertise, and support science and technology parks linked to Eastern Cape SEZs.
The fourth issue is our Department’s support for the ELIDZ. Through our Entities such as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), our Department has supported the East London Industrial Development Zone in several ways:
•We provided funding for the feasibility study that led to the establishment of the ELIDZ Science and Technology Park, launched in 2014;
•Through the Regional Innovation Support Programme, we provided R2.4 million between 2018 and 2023 to the East London Regional Innovation Networking Platform, which reached 120 beneficiaries, including 17 technology-focused SMMEs, and helped catalyse the TIA-funded Agro-processing Innovation Cluster;
•Elements of that platform have now been incorporated into the TIA–ELIDZ Science and Technology Park partnership after funding was discontinued because of performance and accountability concerns; and
•We are also piloting a bio-entrepreneurship programme that will help emerging enterprises convert locally available hemp and cannabis biomass into higher-value biomaterials and biochemicals.
The fifth and final issue is the role of the ELIDZ as a catalyst for innovation-led industrialisation. As you are aware, the ELIDZ is both an industrial and an innovation platform, supporting globally competitive manufacturers while its Science and Technology Park provides laboratories, training, incubation, and technical problem-solving.
Using these unique capabilities East London can become a place where ideas move into production, prototypes reach markets, and entrepreneurs connect with opportunities in automotive components, agro-processing, aquaculture, renewable energy, ICT, electronics, logistics and advanced manufacturing.
The ELIDZ provides us with the unique opportunity to connect the province’s industrial and knowledge bases: investors with local suppliers, researchers with manufacturers, innovators with prototyping facilities, TVET colleges with workplace learning, and public investment with productive outcomes.
To realise this potential, we must strengthen technology transfer, incubation, supplier development, access to research infrastructure, and incentives for innovation and localisation. The benefits must extend beyond the zone into Buffalo City, Mdantsane, surrounding towns and the wider provincial economy.
Innovation-led industrialisation must open opportunities for small enterprises, township and rural innovators, women-owned businesses, and young people. A modern SEZ must work with universities and TVET colleges to align apprenticeships, internships, and workplace learning with industry needs.
One of the most important opportunities before us is to build on East London's established automotive manufacturing base. The presence of Mercedes-Benz South Africa, the ELIDZ Automotive Supplier Park, component manufacturers and the Port of East London gives this region a substantial foundation on which to build a more technologically advanced and locally integrated automotive industry.
Our task must be to move beyond assembling vehicles and supplying components towards deepening the technological capabilities that underpin modern automotive manufacturing.
This means supporting local suppliers adopting advanced manufacturing technologies, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital production systems; strengthening local research and engineering capabilities; and preparing our workforce for the changing skills demands of the industry.
The transition towards electric and other new-energy vehicles, more sustainable materials and circular manufacturing also presents opportunities for new products, services, and enterprises.
Through closer collaboration between the automotive industry, the ELIDZ Science and Technology Park, our universities, TVET colleges, science councils, and the Technology Innovation Agency, we must create pathways for local innovators and emerging enterprises to participate in these evolving value chains.
In this way, the automotive industry can serve not only as an anchor for investment and exports, but also as a platform for technological learning, supplier development, skills formation, and industrial diversification.
Our ambition must be to ensure that more of the knowledge, capabilities, value, and employment generated by this industry are retained and expanded within the Eastern Cape.
In conclusion, the East London Industrial Development Zone is a strategic resource for local economic development and innovation. We must strengthen its capacity to bring together infrastructure, investment, skills, and technology in a coordinated way across Buffalo City.
The ELIDZ can show how industrialisation can be inclusive, green, innovative, and globally competitive by connecting knowledge to production and creating opportunities for firms, workers, students, and communities.
Let us therefore strengthen the East London Industrial Development Zone as a platform for investment, innovation, supplier development, and skills. Let us use its Science and Technology Park to move ideas into factories, prototypes into products, and local solutions into markets.
Thank you.
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