Unlikely to affect Alcan negotiations
ED RICHARDSON
TWO SENIOR members of the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) marketing and communications team are due to leave the corporation.
CDC spokesperson Vuyelwa Vika has confirmed that business development manager Eugene Heeger tendered his resignation, while the executive manager of communications, Raymond Hartle, has “indicated to management his intention to leave the CDC and pursue personal interests.”
Heeger is due to leave in May, but Hartle has not yet resigned, according to Vika. Both Hartle and Heeger are part of the initial management team which steered the project from conception stage through to implementation.
Their departure comes at a time of restructuring of the CDC. The main infrastructure for first phase of the Industrial Development Zone and port of Ngqura is now sufficiently advanced for the focus of the CDC to turn from development and project management to more active marketing of the zone.
The departure of the business development and communications managers is not expected to affect a pending decision by Canadian aluminium company Alcan on building an aluminium smelter in the Coega IDZ. Negotiations on the smelter have been held at a high level with a range of organisations and individuals, including trade and industry minister Alec Erwin.