Speaker, the hon member refers to section 12(1) of the Income Tax Act, announced in the 2011 Budget. As of 31 October 2011, the Minister of Trade and Industry has approved eight major industrial projects in terms of this particular scheme.
These projects will create 21 112 direct and indirect jobs and result in a total investment of about R9 billion by the private sector. The projects cover a broad range of industrial sectors, including agroprocessing, biofuels, pulp and paper, and chemical and plastic industries.
As you know, this particular tax-based incentive scheme caters for large industrial projects with a minimum greenfield investment value of R200 million in manufacturing assets. These projects have been selected on the basis of their strong backward and forward linkages and their potential to create jobs along the entire value chain.
We do not have information on the number of people who have since been rehired. We are, however, very reassured by the strong improvement in employment creation over the past year. After the substantial job losses from the time the global economic downturn started in late 2008, through to the end of last year, employment creation has recovered very satisfactorily.
The latest Statistics SA survey shows that total employment grew by 340 000 from the third quarter of 2010 to the third quarter of 2011, or by 2,7%. Formal employment increased by 390 000 or 4,3% in the same period. This reflects a faster rate of growth than the GDP. Thank you.