The Eastern Cape plans to create nearly 30,000 jobs and earn billions in a two-pronged project to put the province at the centre of SA’s climate-smart future.
The flagship green economy programme is backed by traditional leadership as well as the government.
While one arm of the programme involves a huge hemp-growing project, the other entails clearing vast areas of invasive alien wattle and turning the wood into a lucrative product: biochar.
Bambuhlanga Lonwabo Maka, a trustee of the Izigidimi Zophuhliso (development initiative) nonprofit company, said thousands of people would be employed in establishing industrial hemp farms.
The project would empower the local youth, women and smallholders with hands-on training in how to revitalise degraded land using climate-smart agriculture and green economy skills.
“This ground-breaking initiative of hemp cultivation and carbon removal is more than just a farming project,” communications and digital technologies deputy minister Mondli Gungubele said.
“It is a bold investment in the Eastern Cape’s people, land, and future.”
Standing in for deputy president Paul Mashatile, Gungubele was speaking at the launch of the project at AmaXhosa King Ahlangene Sigcawu’s Nqadu Great Place in Willowvale.
“Over the next three years, rural communities will lead the cultivation of 12,000ha of industrial hemp while unlocking new income streams through carbon credit markets, regenerative farming and biochar production.”
The programme was designed to create more than 27,600 direct jobs, stimulate more than R1bn in annual revenue and generate more than 90,000 carbon credits each year — all while restoring degraded land and empowering the youth with green economy skills, Gungubele said.
He said the programme was pioneered by the Eastern Cape House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders, in strategic partnership with the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC).
It involved the private sector, national government, Amathole district and Mbhashe local municipalities, Setas, local business and all seven kingdoms in the Eastern Cape.
“It is a path to land restoration and intergenerational wealth for traditional leaders,” Gungubele said.
“For investors and businesses, it is a rare chance to take a leadership role in a fast-growing sector.
“For rural citizens, it is a real opportunity to earn while they learn, and to grow with dignity — all the while building a climate-resilient future for us all.”
King Sigcawu said the project was close to his heart.
“We want the kingdom to participate actively in [equipping] youths and citizens with the skills they need for happy and successful lives.
“We are teaching our youth how to fish rather than fishing for them.
“A skilled person never waits for employment but makes a living instantly,” the king said.
“We need skills across the value chain of agriculture to transition from subsistence to commercial farming.”
Aqualibre Africa (Pty) Ltd head Benedict Weaver said their side of the programme — which processes the wattle wood into biochar — would be expanded to four provinces, the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, which all struggled with the invasive alien.
“We want to move it up to a national project. We start small with one branch and expand,” he said.
“The investment is in the region of $120m [R2.2bn], creating 8,500 jobs initially, and with a further 12,000 extra jobs coming when building the plants.
“For economic developments, the communities will earn a substantial amount of cash each month as well. So, we pay for the communities that will be harvesting the wattle.
“We put [the wattle] through pyrolysis reactors to create biochar. We sell the biochar, and we share the proceeds with the community.
“Wattle has been identified in SA as a strategic problem since 1995. Over 2% of SA’s land mass is covered in wattle.
“We partner with green projects in Africa to develop carbon credits that empower businesses to offset their carbon footprint and align with their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.
“We are turning this environmental liability into an economic and ecological opportunity.”
Representatives of the province’s seven kingdoms attended the launch and embraced the programme.
Agri Eastern Cape president Peter Cloete said it was the best news he had heard from the Transkei for many years.
“The talk is that this dynamic project will create nearly 30,000 jobs.
“While these jobs will be mostly labour intensive, which is typical in farming-type projects, as it grows, the need for management and supervisory positions will also escalate,” he said.
“As Agri EC, one of our biggest concerns is unemployment, which is not being eradicated at the speed the country needs. These projects will go a long way in solving the problem.”
Cloete was especially pleased with the commitment that 30% of the revenue from the sale of the charcoal sales and the revenue from the carbon offset schemes would go to the communities and workers, 30% to local government and the same to the company, , and 10% to other job-creating projects in the areas.
“It’s a brilliant idea and one that farmers should all support, especially the aspect of clearing the land of one of our most invasive species.
“This is going to change the face of one of the poorest areas in the country,” he said.
Border-Kei Chamber of Business head Lizelle Maurice was equally positive.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to put money back into the communities, and that is where it must go.
“All sorts of commercial activity will spring up, and impoverished people will have the cash to start up their projects.”
Daily Dispatch
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.