Atlantis, Western Cape

Atlantis
Atlantis Show map of Western Cape Atlantis Show map of South Africa Atlantis Show map of Africa  Atlantis shown within Western Cape
Location within Cape Town  Atlantis
Coordinates: 33°34′S 18°29′E / 33.567°S 18.483°E / -33.567; 18.483Coordinates: 33°34′S 18°29′E / 33.567°S 18.483°E / -33.567; 18.483
Country	South Africa
Province	Western Cape
Municipality	City of Cape Town
Area
• Total	28.84 km2 (11.14 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	67,491
• Density	2,300/km2 (6,100/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	12.9%
• Coloured	85.0%
• Indian/Asian	0.4%
• White	0.1%
• Other	1.6%
First languages (2011)
• Afrikaans	79.5%
• English	9.4%
• Xhosa	7.7%
• Other	3.4%
Postal code (street)	7349
Area code	021

Atlantis is a town in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality in the Western Cape, South Africa. Atlantis is 40 km (25 mi) north of the Cape Town Central Business District (CBD). As of 2011, it has 67,491 residents. Unemployment, lack of housing and crime are major challenges in the area.

The suburb of Atlantis was established during the 1970s by the Apartheid government as an industrial centre and a community for the coloured population of Cape Town under the infamous Group Areas Act. In order to attract industry and residents to Atlantis the government introduced various incentives to attract manufacturing firms via an elaborative system of relocation tax credit. In its heyday in the early to mid-1980s there were approximately 50 industrialists in Atlantis employing people drawn from nearly 8 000 households. These industries included large manufacturing concerns such as Teledex and Atlantis Diesel Engines.

Manufacturing activities in Atlantis declined with the termination of the incentive programmes and the defence manufacturing contracts from the mid-1980s. The withdrawal of incentives significantly reduced the attractiveness of the area and while Atlantis has since been through a series of mini economic booms and busts the trend declined in the economy of the area.

A new and green growth path for Atlantis

Currently, only about 3% of the original companies still have business in Atlantis but numerous new factories and businesses have started to operate in Atlantis. Over the past three years over R1bn has been invested into Atlantis by large multinationals. Hisense opened a factory in the town in June 2013[2] injecting ZAR 350 million into the first phase of the Atlantis plant, creating 300 production positions and accompanied by a skills-transfer programme led by Hisense technicians and engineers from China.

Over R600m has been invested by the green manufacturing industry, for the manufacture of wind towers, wind tower internals and solar panels and the like. The investment is the result of cooperation between the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Provincial Government, the South African Department of Trade and Industry (dti) and GreenCape, which have been positioning Atlantis to become a green technology manufacturing hub. In 2013, the City of Cape Town in cooperation with the Western Cape Provincial Government declared Atlantis as a priority area for economic development, establishing a Greentech hub for manufacturing of components for the renewable energy and other green industries. An application has also been submitted for the Atlantis Industrial Area to be declared a Special Economic Zone with the focus on green technology. The SEZ status will provide investors a range of incentives, including the benefits of co-loation, and access to established markets.