By Ms. Nomathemba Mhlanga, Chief Sustainability Officer, Coega Development Corporation:
With over two decades of expertise in the sustainability sector, Ms. Nomathemba Mhlanga, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Coega Development Corporation (Coega), shares her perspective on the transformative power of the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Her commentary comes at the start of Africa’s Green Economy Summit 2026, taking place at the Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town, this week.
In recent years, the global discourse on sustainability and the green economy has made a notable shift from why it is necessary to how it can be successfully executed. Coega has made sustainability central to its mandate. Through blended finance restructuring, we channel capital toward low carbon, resource efficient, and socially inclusive industrialisation.
Restructured Finance
A primary challenge facing the green economy today is not a lack of global capital, but a shortage of investment-ready projects. Many green initiatives fail at the feasibility stage because they lack the rigorous financial structuring required by private investors. At Coega, we have addressed this through our Capital Raising Office.
While many SEZs simply market serviced land, we are able to market fully structured, finance-ready projects. By providing specialised planning, risk allocation, and commercially viable public-private partnership frameworks, we improve transaction certainty. This financial engineering allows us to host mega-projects in data infrastructure, energy, and green hydrogen, acting as an implementation platform for industrialisation.
Climate Change Response
In terms of our climate change response, Coega has established a comprehensive Climate Response Plan (CRP). The CRP is premised on a strategic vision to proactively address the impacts of climate change on Coega’s operations by embedding resilience, carbon emissions reduction, and fostering sustainable practices across our operations.
The Sustainability Business Unit is also working on alignment between climate finance mechanisms and Coega’s four strategic focus areas: SEZ investment, implementing agency services, strategic business initiatives, and central support services, by demonstrating that concessional funding, grants, blended finance, and technical assistance can serve as cross-cutting enablers of sustainable revenue generation and long term financial resilience for the organisation. Opportunities have been identified in disaster risk management, the regeneration of ecological infrastructure, renewable energy, water security, waste management, agro-processing, emissions reduction, digital innovation, and inclusive socio-economic development, with potential collaboration pathways involving United Nations agencies, multilateral organisations, and provincial stakeholders.
Resource Optimisation
Coega is rooted in the Eco-Industrial Park concept, which promotes collaboration among businesses located within a common industrial area. We enhance industrial symbiosis within the SEZ by identifying, enabling, and implementing opportunities for shared resource use, waste minimisation, energy and water efficiency, and circular economy practices among tenants and zone infrastructure.
In terms of water efficiency, we are working towards stabilising water consumption in the SEZ via reuse infrastructure from our Wastewater Treatment Plant and supporting circular economy practices among our tenants.
Closing the Green Skills Gap
Transitioning to a circular economy requires specialised talent. We recognised and began addressing this gap 13 years ago with our Maths and Science Programme. Our Maths and Science Programme has impacted over 1,000 young people, achieving a 100% pass rate in Physical Sciences for the 2025 cohort. By building this pipeline of future scientists and engineers, and providing artisanal training through our dedicated Skills Development Centre, we can contribute to the green transition through the development of local expertise.
Prosperity through Inclusion
For the green economy to be truly sustainable, it must be equitable. We must reintroduce sustainability as a foundational skill, shifting the narrative from “recycling” to “repairing, repurposing and upcycling” to foster an entrepreneurial mindset. We have begun work in this space through our partnership with Noziqhamo Recycling and Motherwell Envirohub, for example.
We must also recognise that “zero waste” is not a new trend. For many underserved communities, it has been a survival mechanism for generations. Our commitment to social equity is reflected in our numbers. In the last financial year, 48.77% of Coega’s procurement spend went to SMMEs, totalling R945.5 million for black-owned businesses.
In terms of inclusive growth, on Thursday, 26 February 2026, I will be speaking on the topic of Women in the Green Economy alongside highly skilled and dynamic panellists. At Coega, we recognise that women are not peripheral to Africa’s green and blue economy.
However, their impact is often fragmented, informal, and under-capitalised. SEZs, like Coega, represent a powerful, but underutilised lever to intentionally integrate women-led enterprises into industrial and climate value chains.
In conclusion, by demonstrating our environmental commitments through a structured response to international protocols, and providing the physical infrastructure, financial engineering, and local insight necessary to navigate this complex landscape, Coega is proving that SEZ’s can positively contribute to sustainability and the green economy
