Tech in Africa
Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront announced R63 million investment as part of a partnership between the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund to create job opportunities in the food industry. The initiative is called Makers Landing and opens to the public in December 2020.
V&A Waterfront is taking applications from small businesses, both entry-level to top-class chefs. The aim is to offer authentic South African dishes that provide diversity, quality, multi-flavor, locally sourced foods, affordability, and freshness.
As a community incubator, Makers Landing is the next phase of the V&A waterfront’s plan to develop the area around the Cape Town Cruise Terminal. Once complete, Makers Landing should have added 4,348 squared meters to the current cruise terminal.
Makers Landing will be a catalyst for job creation and skills transfer through the planned incubator programme that nurtures SMEs.
David Green, V&A Waterfront CEO released a statement saying,
“We are repurposing what was a cold storage facility into a food incubator that will generate in excess of 150 much-needed jobs and will build connections between ‘foodpreneurs’,”
“We came across this idea internationally, having seen the success of food incubators in providing food at accessible pricing and creating jobs,” he added.
The multi-purpose use of the Makers Landing development ensures will encourage year-round activity at the port. The new facility lies within walking distance of the Waterfront’s Silo District and can be accessed by a short ride taxi ride from the Convention Center.
Before the pandemic hit, it was estimated that a cruise ship of 200 passengers results in a R2 million-a-day spending at a target destination. This was according to a statement made last year in November by one of Cape Town’s Mayoral committee members, Alderman James Vos.
