The Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ), a pet project of President Cyril Ramaphosa since 2018, arising from China-South Africa bilateral economic initiatives, was approved on 23 February. The Limpopo Economic Development Environment and Tourism Agency (Ledet) signed off on the environmental authorisation for the establishment of the zone to the MMSEZ state-owned entity, which oversees the Chinese operator, the South African Energy Metallurgical Base (SAEMB).
The complicated management structure is intended to obfuscate the fact that this is South Africa’s first special economic zone to be mainly funded and operated by a Chinese company. The company, previously known as Shzenzhen Hoi Mor, has at its helm Yat Hoi Ning, who has a history of alleged company fraud from mining operations in Zimbabwe.
Aside from Ning’s reputation, or perhaps because of it, Ledet officials have been cagey about the extent of Chinese investment
The shadowy presence of Chinese investment in the zone was evident at the purportedly hugely successful MMSEZ investor roadshow held on 1 September 2021, opened by Ramaphosa. Aside from a delegation from a “sister” Chinese province to Limpopo, neither the Chinese operator nor Chinese investors made an appearance. Instead, Anglo-American pledged investment in the zone, along with a good deal of government hype about how the MMSEZ could be the radical transformation catalyst to our ongoing lack-lustre industrial development.
The names of the Chinese companies operating in the zone are still not in the public domain, although the environmental authorisation finally reveals that “11 memorandums of understanding to the tune of $1.1-billion have been signed with China for investment in the development of the metallurgical cluster”.
It is obvious that the major impetus for the approval of the MMSEZ comes from China’s increasing investment presence in South Africa, with this zone being hailed as potentially having a “catalytic impact … on transformation goals to achieve radical economic transformation…”. This transformation is conceived not only in South Africa, but extending through Southern Africa into the rest of Africa.
