The 2025/26 edition of Northern Cape Business is the 15th issue of this highly successful publication that has, since its launch in 2009, established itself as the premier business and investment guide for the Northern Cape Province.
Officially supported and used by the Northern Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDaT) at conferences and other events, Northern Cape Business is unique as a business and investment guide that focuses exclusively on the province.
Specific investment projects are outlined in detail by DEDaT in this journal, covering opportunities in energy and mining, together with reports on dedicated investment zones.
Renewable energy investments continue to be made into the province, both in terms of wind power and solar farms, and plans to promote the green hydrogen economy are in place. The Northern Cape is almost uniquely qualified to play a lead role in this enterprise, given its bountiful resources of land, wind and sun. The idea to develop a deepwater port at Boegoebaai has been linked to the notion of a Special Economic Zone devoted to green hydrogen production.
The scale and importance of the giant radio astronomy project is given good coverage in this edition, with its economic impact, value as an educational and scientific catalyst and its potential role in boosting tourism all receiving attention.
To complement the extensive local, national and international distribution of the print edition, the full content can also be viewed online at https://www.globalafricanetwork.com under e-books. Updated information on the Northern Cape is also available through our monthly e-newsletter, which you can subscribe to online at https://www.southafricanbusiness.co.za, in addition to our complementary business-to-business titles that cover all nine provinces as well our flagship South African Business title.
A REGIONAL OVERVIEW OF
A REGIONAL OVERVIEW OF THENORTHERN CAPEPROVINCEAstronomy is making an impact in the Northern Cape while investment in criticalminerals and plans to develop green hydrogen are giving the province a front seat inthe transition to clean energy. New ports have been proclaimed on the West Coast,potentially unlocking investment in the marine economy.By John YoungThe size and scope of the Square KilometreArray (SKA) radio astronomy project, alarge part of which is located in the areaaround Carnarvon in the Northern Cape,continues to astonish.In March 2025 the first image from an earlyworking version of the SKA-Low telescope wasshared with the world. With only 1 024 of theplanned 131 072 antennas deployed, the resultsoutshone expectations and served to heightenexcitement in the scientific community for whatlies ahead.The project that set the stage for SKA, the multitelescopeMeerKAT project, now forms part of theSKA and the dishes from the two projects havebeen synchronised.MeerKAT included the Karoo Array ProcessingBuilding (KAPB) which now serves the samepurpose as the SKA’s Central Processing Facility.The building, pictured, is shielded to avoid radiointerference generated inside by electronics fromleaking out and interfering with observations.Designed by Aurecon, the SKA-Low CPFaccommodates precision technology such as TileProcessing Modules, each of which converts anddigitises signals from multiple antennas and a clocksystem comprising three ultra-stable clocks calledhydrogen masers.The Northern Cape has already benefited fromSKA. Sponsored Maths and Science teachers at thehigh school in Carnarvon, the launch of a nationalAstro-Tourism Strategy, the demand for constructionworkers and, not least, the new expectation thatyoung people of the Northern Cape can now haveof working in an exciting scientific environmentclose to home. The Sol Plaatje University is signingup students in data processing as a result. Nationalgovernment will spend R4.5-billion over four yearson SKA construction work, including the R142-million Carnarvon Visitors’ Centre.InvestmentA wholly new sector could become an earner forthe province if the proclamation of three ports onNORTHERN CAPE BUSINESS 2025/268PHOTO: SARAO
SPECIAL FEATUREthe West Coast leads to investment. Port Nolloth(Tier 1) and Hondeklipbaai and Kleinzee (Tier 2)have officially been given status as a step towardspromoting their potential in terms of fishing,aquaculture and seafood processing.Renewable energy and mining are two sectorswhere the most significant investments continueto be made. These include the giant wind projectssuch as the Roggeveld Wind Farm (147MW) andthe Loeriesfontein Wind Farm (140MW). The CastleWind Farm, reported on in this journal, is an earlyexample for the Northern Cape of a wheelingproject, whereby Sibanye-Stillwater’s miningoperations in other provinces will benefit. A solarproject in the same De Aar area is notable for thefunding structure which includes financing fromNorfund, the Norwegian Investment Fund fordeveloping countries.The province’s vast iron-ore mines continue toproduce huge quantities of material, subject onlyto the capacity of the rail network run by Transnetto deliver what is produced to the country’s ports.Minerals Council South Africa estimates that theopportunity cost to the minerals sector of badtransport logistics in 2022 was about R50-billion.Existing mining enterprises such as the iron-oreand manganese operations of Kumba Iron Ore andAssmang have been joined by Indian and Australianminers looking for zinc and copper, vital ingredientsof the transition to a cleaner energy future. VedantaZinc International is investing heavily at Aggeneys(the Gamsberg project) while Copper 360 andOrion Minerals are mining between Springbok andPrieska. Afrimat has bought new Northern Capemines as part of its expansion policy.Another way of gauging economic conditionsis look at town-level activity. The revival of a precastconcrete factory in De Aar is important for theregion’s economic prospects, not just for the railwaysleepers that Colossal Concrete is making thereon contract, but for the potential that it holds forthe province’s builders and for renewable energycontractors and manufacturers.Similarly, the fact that home-grown hotelgroup Country Hotels has three properties in eachof the towns of Kuruman and Pofadder points toan economy where things are happening. With15 other hotels, inns and lodges in the provinceand with a focus on the corporate market, thehotel group’s growing footprint counts as agood bellweather for the state of business in theNorthern Cape.In the five-year term of the Sixth Administrationof the Provincial Government of the NorthernCape, R25-billion was spent on infrastructuresuch as clinics, schools, libraries, roads and houses(SOPA 2025). Another important type ofinfrastructure in the Northern Cape is SpecialEconomic Zones, each of which has its own focussectors and each of which is being developedby a combination of public and private investment.At various stages of implementation and planning,the various SEZs are the Kathu Industrial Park,the Upington Industrial Park, the Namakwa SEZin Aggeneys (intended as industrial cluster formining and agriculture services, beneficiation andmanufacturing with Vedanta Zinc Internationalas the core tenant) and the Boegoebaai Port andGreen Hydrogen Cluster.The Northern Cape, as a dry province that reliesheavily on agriculture, has adopted a Northern CapeClimate Change Adaptation Response Strategy.This allows for a framework to tackle climatechange issues. Floods, droughts and fires arebecoming more frequent and more severe;planning can at least mitigate the negativeoutcomes to some extent.Farmers in the Northern Cape have learnt tobe resilient over the years and there are certainniche products that thrive in the mostly drylandscape. One of these, rooibos, has not onlysecured an internationally recognised GeographicalIndication (GI), but is also enhancing itsinternational market share. Red espresso isnow a “thing” in some of the trendy capitals ofthe world. ■PHOTO: NCTA9NORTHERN CAPE BUSINESS 2025/26
