The National Ports Authority has called for tenders for the construction of the port of Ngqura outside Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The tenders are for the construction of a sand bypass, “dredging works” and “maritime works”. This follows confirmation by public enterprises minister Jeff Radebe that R2,65-billion had been budgeted by the Ports Authority for the construction of the harbour, which will serve the Coega Industrial Development Zone and will also be used as a deep-water container hub. Speaking in Port Elizabeth at a news conference to announce the decision to award a provisional operator’s licence to the Coega Development Corporation, Radebe said the decision to have a deep-water port at the mouth of the Coega river would open up the existing port to tourism development. A wide range of investments were already being considered. Radebe also announced a R1,8-billion upgrade by Eskom of the electricity supply to the Nelson Mandela Metro and the Coega IDZ. This would, according to trade and industry minister Alec Erwin, open up the whole of the metro to further investment. “The upgrade creates exciting opportunities. At present, there is insufficient electricity for major expansion of the industrial base of the metro,” he told journalists at the news conference. Erwin confirmed that one of the potential investors in the IDZ was Billiton, which is looking for a site for a new aluminium plant. Asked about the position of P&O Nedlloyd, which is a partner to the Coega Development Corporation, Erwin said that P&O was “continuing negotiations with the Port Authority’. These negotiations are, he said, standard practice for “anyone who wants to be part of a port anywhere in the world.” According to Erwin, the award of the provisional operator’s licence to the Coega Development Corporation had removed the final legal obstacle to the marketing and development of the Coega project. The minister also announced a decision by the Critical Infrastructure Committee of the Department of Trade and Industry to provide a grant of R58,2-million for the construction of key infrastructure in the IDZ. The IDZ, he said, was unique in the Southern Hemisphere. “Nowhere else do you have the same combination of energy, rail, road, port and good lifestyle. There are plenty of other deep-water ports around the world, but who wants to live in most of those places?” Government, he said, had to “take the lead in industrial development of this type. Coega is vital to the province.”