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Saldanha Bay Local Municipality at a glance


Municipal manager
Hendrik Snyders

Main Cities and Towns
Vredenburg, Saldanha,

Population
81 121


Email
tinym@saldanhabay.co.za

Telephone
+27 22 701 7000

Fax
+27 22 715 1518

Website
www.saldanhabay.co.za

Saldanha Bay Local Municipality is right on the west coast of the West Coast District Municipality (WCDM), 100km from Cape Town by sea and 185km by land. The municipality has an estimated population of around 81 121people with a population growth rate of 2.24%. The municipality is predominantly residential; although about 39% of local households can be classified in the middle income bracket, the majority of people in Saldanha Bay Municipality are relatively poor.

The municipal capital is Vredenburg, the business nerve centre of the district, but a lot of the activity in the municipality is driven to and/or by the harbour at Saldanha – the deepest and largest natural port in South Africa.

The port is primarily geared for iron-ore exporting but vertical integration is growing with steel processing plants and related down-stream activities that have been established. The hope is that this industrial base in future will broaden to host a large number of smaller scale downstream industries. This industrial development potential necessitates extremely sensitive planning to ensure that industrial development does not further degrade the marine and coastal systems. This plan should also address the urban sprawl that is enveloping the Cape Columbine / Britannia Bay Peninsula and Langebaan.

Saldanha Bay is the largest contributor to the district’s economic output, relying mainly on secondary activities such as processing and transport, rather than the mainly primary sector-driven economies of the other local municipalities in the district. The major sectors of the municipality include:
• Manufacturing
• Transport and communications
• Wholesale, retail and tourism
• Agriculture, forestry and fishing
• Finance and business services

The local economy is in the midst of a major diversification, from being dependent on fishing and agriculture, to including manufacturing and tourism as major economic sectors. This diversification holds the potential for major economic growth, but also leads to social displacement and the social cohesion of the municipality being threatened as a result of locals not being able to take opportunities in the new economic sectors due to a lack of skills and migrants to the area not having the social network or family and friends on whom to rely.

Oil and gas opportunities are prevalent up and down the west coast of Africa with the facilities and infrastructure at Saldanha Bay giving the region an opportunity to tap into that lucrative market. Similarly, entrepreneurs can benefit from downstream activities and services, driven by the oil and gas industry.

The manufacturing, and transport and communications sectors are, in the main, secondary sectors built around the various primary sectors in Saldanha and the surrounding regions. Oil and gas, mining and agriculture open up a world of processing demand that the good people of Saldanha are happy to explore. 

An exciting area of investment is the corridor between Saldanha and Vredenburg. Situated near the port, and at the mouth of a wetland and lagoon system, this corridor is expected to see immense growth as a result of the industrial developments at the port and in the oil and gas sector all the up Africa’s west coast.