Maputo Development Corridor

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Maputo Development Corridor

Unlocking the landlocked regions of the Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and Limpopo Provinces, the Maputo Development Corridor is a true transportation corridor. Comprising road, rail, border posts, port and terminal facilities. The Corridor runs through the most highly industrialised and productive regions of Southern Africa.

Gauteng Province to Port Maputo

Gauteng, a seSotho word for “Place of Gold”, has traditionally been the largest gold producing region in the world. Nowadays Gauteng is the engine of the sub-continental economy and produces ca. 40% of South Africa’s GDP. As an industrial powerhouse, Gauteng is responsible for the highest concentration of manufacturing and industrial production in the country.

Via South Arica’s capital city of Pretoria, the Maputo Corridor connects South Africa’s industrial and commercial heartland of the Witwatersrand, comprising of the metropolitan areas of

Ekurhuleni on the East Rand,

Johannesburg (incl. the corporate headquarter cornubations at Sandton and Midrand)

Mogale City Municipality (incorporating Krugersdorp) on the West Rand,

with its nearest deep water port in Maputo, Mozambique.

Limpopo Province to Port Maputo

The Maputo Corridor links the landlocked and northern most of South Africa’s nine provinces, Limpopo, named after the vast river of the same name, with its nearest deep water port via the Phalaborwa Spatial Development Initiative. Phalaborwa is also the site of major petrochemical production.

22% of Limpopo’s GGP comes from the mining sector, where diamonds, gold and the platinum group of precious metals make up the major mineral deposits. Limpopo is South Africa’s third largest mining producer, generating 9% of the country’s income arising from mining activities.

Bordering on Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, Limpopo is also the transit point for most of the trans-South African freight headed to / from landlocked Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.

Mpumalanga Province to Port Maputo

The lion’s share of the Maputo Corridor runs through Mpumalanga, an isiTsonga word roughly meaning “the place where the sun rises”. Mpumalanga contains the bulk of South Africa’s electricity generating coal fired power stations. The province accounts for 76% of South Africa’s coal mining output and 50% of national coal reserves*, a lot of which is exported via the Matola Coal Terminal in Matola Port, Maputo.

With its close proximity to the gas fields of the Mozambican coast and the closest port to the South African northern hinterland, Mpumalanga’s importance in energy production has taken on an even greater role trough the completed gas pipeline running from the Temane and Pande gasfields near Moatize in Mozambique to Sasol’s plant in Secunda and the construction of liquid petrochemical pipelines along similar routes.