Coega has secured its first investment – R200-million from a high-niche Belgian textile company whose operation will eventually create up to 1 200 jobs.

And this, says the Coega Development Corporation, is just the beginning. Another 75 deals are under negotiation and a number are close to being signed.

Several more announcements are expected later this year.

Confirming speculation in yesterday’s edition of The Herald that the long wait for investment in the industrial development zone was finally over, the CDC said Sander International RSA had taken up a 10-hectare site in the 40-hectare textile cluster in the zone.

Some 130 people will be employed in the first phase of Sirsa’s operation, some 525 on completion of the plant, and up to 1 200 after the second year of full production.

The company, which has an empowerment partner in the I-Can Foundation led by David Molapo, says total financial investment could double in the future.

Some 200 temporary construction-related jobs on site will be created at peak during the building phase. The announcement was made at a media briefing in Johannesburg yesterday.

Work on clearing of the site for Sirsa is already under way.

The staff of the CDC in Port Elizabeth watched the announcement on a close-circuit television link-up – an emotional affair for CDC CEO Pepi Silinga as it signalled the end of five years of hard slog at attracting investment.

The project’s first phase, which will cover the weaving mill and finish operations, will be completed in November.

Phase two will come on stream in the middle of 2006 and phase three, which involves a dyeing facility and yarn production, by the end of next year.

Sander International Textiles co-owner Alex Liessens told the briefing that raw materials would be imported from the Sander International Mill in Belgium for between 12 and 18 months, after which they would be manufactured locally.

The company will produce a high-end niche product, fire retardant fabrics, for the automotive and transport industry, such as ocean liners and aircraft, and interior decoration for the hospitality industry.

Sirsa’s investment comes at a time when the textile industry in South Africa, Europe and elsewhere is under massive pressure from cheap Chinese exports.

But Liessens said he was not “scared” of the threat from China with regard to textiles because the company operated in a niche market, while the whole production plant was based on flexibility.

Some 52 new state-of-the-art machines that Sirsa will use at its Coega operation will be imported from Germany and Belgium, with the first 36 due to arrive in August for the first phase of the operation.

Next month, he said, 15 people would be sent to Belgium and Germany for training in the operation of these machines.

Sirsa has supply orders in place for the fabric that will be produced at Coega.

Liessens said it was the company’s first investment outside Europe and Coega had been selected because it was “well-placed” for the company to be able to export to the United States, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East.

In addition, he said, the Coega IDZ had been chosen because of high labour, import, export and trade costs associated with operating in Belgium, “as well as the need to cope with international demand for the products”.

Domestically, he said, the company would be looking at the hospitality industry especially in the light of the 2010 World Soccer Cup, although he acknowledged that this “might require a change in thinking”.

Already more than 250 000 metres of the fabrics have been ordered by domestic and foreign customers.

Liessens said the company would make use of the potential employee database established by the CDC.

At least 30 per cent of those employed would be people with disabilities.

The CDC said that four years after “ditching the strategy of seeking to attract an anchor tenant”, the corporation had been “vindicated in opting to secure a basket of investments in various sectors of industries with different financial values”.

Asked whether the investment was signed and sealed, CDC chairman Moss Ngoasheng said that this was the first announcement that had been made.

What had been said before amounted to plans and possibilities.

He stressed that work on construction had already begun.

Speaking about the investment generally, Liessens said that he had “felt comfortable from the first day in South Africa with the culture and the people.

“I believe this might be the chance to expand and bring prosperity to a lot of people.”

He said he believed South Africa “deserves better”– especially the young people.

Liessens said he was excited about the project, saying it would provide him with an opportunity to teach young people “what I have learned in 15 years”.