Pretoria - Three huge long-term industrial projects in South Africa each worth at least 25 million euros (R193.33 million) were being considered by Man Ferrostaal, the commercial partner of the German Submarine Consortium, and its partners in the proposed ventures.

Horst Weretecki, the senior vice-president of Man Ferrostaal responsible for southern Africa, said yesterday the projects would create several thousand jobs and would more than cover its industrial participation offset obligations in terms of the South African government's multibillion defence procurement programme.

Weretecki said other major projects in the pipeline included a call centre, with the potential for creating almost 2 000 jobs, as well as plans to save and rejuvenate the South African tea industry, including plantations in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

Details of the ventures would be announced in coming months once final agreement had been reached with the trade and industry department.

Man Ferrostaal is responsible for industrial participation obligations amounting to about 3 billion euros worth of economic benefit to the country in return for the South African navy's acquisition of three type U-209 submarines from it.

Weretecki did admit that Man Ferrostaal had been "a little slow out of the starting blocks" in meeting its industrial offset obligations but he was adamant that it would meet these by the target date and would not have to pay any penalties.

"We have investigated a lot of projects that we can realise with the group's technical expertise and worldwide network that were not part of the original plan," he explained, adding:

"We have faced offset obligations of 6.8 billion euros worldwide and never missed the target date."

Weretecki said details of the three long-term projects, including their location, could not be disclosed at this stage because they were dependent on "the status of feasibility studies".

The feasibility study of the first of the ventures would be completed this week and an announcement was likely to be made within the next four weeks. Feasibility studies into the other two projects would be completed this year.

The projects under consideration would create completely new industries in South Africa, Weretecki added.

The expansion of Man Ferrostaal's operations in southern Africa had led to the appointment of Morley Nkosi as executive chairman with overall responsibility for the company's Johannesburg operations, with the exception of the printing division.

And former Eastern Cape Development Corporation executive manager Mpumelelo Nobanda had taken over the responsibility for new business development, Weretecki added.

Nkosi has been non-executive chairman of the local subsidiary of Man Ferrostaal since 2002 and is a member of the boards of Harmony Gold Mining, Investec Bank and the South Africa-German Chamber of Commerce.

He said Nkosi's revamped and expanded executive team would be responsible for identifying and developing new industrial and service projects, as well as the fulfilment of the German Submarine Consortium's industrial participation obligations.

"The Man Ferrostaal executive board has in recent months agreed to a long-term commitment and strategy within South and southern Africa.

"The appointments announced [yesterday] give concrete expression to our determination to become a force for economic growth, job creation and the alleviation of poverty in the region.

"We recognise the enormous potential value to our shareholders of an expanded involvement in the impressively performing South African economy and in the region, which is entering a phase of growth and expansion.

"At the same time, we are approaching our industrial participation tasks with renewed vigour," said Weretecki.

With acknowledgements to Roy Cokane and the Business Report.