KwaZulu-Natal’s efforts towards rebuilding after the devastating floods and the July riots have received a shot in the arm. The South African Breweries announced an injection of over R800 million to the province’s economy through its expansion program which is at its plant in Prospection, south of Durban.
In May this year, the provincial government announced that more than 30 000 people lost their jobs after the devastating floods. An estimated R50 billion was also wiped out of the country’s economy after the deadly riots in July.
SA Breweries announces an investment of over R800 million in KZN:
Many businesses in the province were forced to close due to the extensive damage to their infrastructure. There have been fears about the future of the province’s investment prospects after the riots.
The South African Breweries unveiled its investment of over R800 million through the expansion of its plant. This has the potential to create 25 000 jobs throughout the production value chain.
The company says the past two years have been tough on the business. South African Breweries CEO Richard Rivett-Carnac explains, “We do run a fairly automated process in our breweries so at the end of the day it won’t add a significant number of jobs here in the brewery but what’s important is that the expansions and work being done we have extensively used local contractors to help us with the building. Moving forward the additional capacity means long term there will be a significant number of jobs throughout the province.”
The provincial government says the province is beginning to make steady progress toward rebuilding its economy.
“We are hard at work in rebuilding but also in also in creating economies for small industries because we believe that if we can enable small businesses in the township and in the rural areas to grow, we would not see social unrest, we would not see what we have seen before,” says KZN premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube.
Government has also urged all stakeholders in the industry to work together in raising awareness about consuming alcohol responsibly.
SAIC 2022 | SAB CEO, Richard Rivett-Carnac outlines the company’s investments:
