Investors

Economic Profile

Agriculture

The largest contributor to the GDP of the municipality, agricultural activities are by far the most productive and link in the economic chain in the region. The key agricultural crops are maize and groundnuts with developmental activities and emerging farmers being encouraged through various government programmes. Livestock accounts for a number of emerging and developed farming activities as well.The agricultural sector provides immediate downstream support to various other sectors as well.

Mining

Coal mining is the primary mining activity and this spurred the growth of various other industries such as the petro-chemical sector headquartered in the Sasolburg area. Maize farming recently became a major contributor to the petro-chemical industry as a source for synthetic bio fossil fuels.

Petrochemicals

Sasol South Africa, the largest producer of synthetic fuels on the sub-continent is well positioned and provides countless jobs to the local communities and was also instrumental in the development of key entrepreneurial initiatives in conjunction with the local authorities. This includes various products such as fuels, synthetic fuels, fertilizers and downstream chemical industry development. Providing much support especially in the cosmetics industry, Sasol’s Chem City division provides much needed support to emerging entrepreneurs in the start-up and facilitation processes of the chemical industries around the area.

Tourism

With agriculture forging closer ties with the leisure tourism industries, there has been significant initiatives which potentially positions the tourism market to be one of the major forerunners in economic activity in the future. Many emerging and existing farms have been converted to game farms where all or most of the big five have become tourism attractions. This, coupled with excellent new golfing developments and construction of golf courses on the banks of the Vaal River, public-private partnerships have been implemented to boost the growth for tourism in the region. The Vaal River itself, a playground for the nearby Johannesburg, has boosted the economic potential in the region and the Metsimaholo area has become the “Weekend Playground” for the affluent Gauteng population.