An inland dry dock could be on the cards for Mooi River as the KwaZulu Natal Midlands town struggles for economic survival.
As the first step, the town yesterday, in collaboration with the KwaZulu Natal Economic Council, launched the Midlands Investment Initiative, a section 21 company.
The company will investigate a range of business possibilities to assist the local economy and create much needed jobs. This comes after the closure earlier this year of Mooitex, the textile mill in the Da Gama group, and the resultant loss of 800 jobs.
For the town of 135 000 people with an estimated annual gross domestic product of R150 million, this was the biggest challenge yet to its survival.
The new non-profit company has the support of neighbouring local councils, farmers and business associations, the local religious community, the Bruntville Development Forum and Committee and the people of the area.
The inland dock would see Mooi River set up a customs check point where containers from Gauteng would be cleared, sealed, loaded onto rail and then taken through to Durban Port and loaded directly onto ships. The rail link between Durban and Mooi River, which is under- used, might be privatised. It would also cut out a difficult section of road between there and Pietermaritzburg, where road maintenance costs and road accidents are high.
The Midlands Investment Initiative will be given an initial grant by the provincial department of economic development and tourism to start its project work.
Other sources of funding are likely to be from the Local Economic Development Fund, managed by the department of constitutional development.
The company`s work will focus on investigating and planning new projects and negotiate with investors for funds for these.
A clear line have been drawn on the type of work the Midlands Investment Initiative will be doing. It is a forum where key leaders of the area discuss how to grow the economy and create jobs. It will make sure that where possible government helps in supporting job-creating projects and will not get involved in the provision of services or jobs or the lending of money to business or people. - Durban