Expanding its presence into newer markets, U.S. retail giant, Amazon has revealed its plans to infuse real estate investments of over R4 billion for opening its first headquarters in South Africa. According to authorities in Cape Town, Amazon will be setting up a new development in River Club where it will create 5,239 jobs in the construction phase and about 19,000 indirect and induced jobs.
Spread around 15-hectare of land, the firm’s new headquarters will cost around R4 billion and include two precincts, with the first 60,000sqm to occupy different areas of development, while the second precinct of 70,000 to hold Amazon HQ in Africa.
Officials confirmed that the planned development is expected to take place in a phased manner, with construction likely to take place over three to five years. They said that the development will surely offer many social, economic, and environmental benefits for the area and are committed to driving investment to revitalize the economy, which is steadily recovering from the impacts of Covid-19.
Over the last decade, Amazon has boosted its customer service center capacity in South Africa. In 2020, the company announced that it would hire additional 3,000 people in South Africa to provide 24-hour support to customers in Europe and North America.
Reports indicate that Amazon’s local job listings in South Africa are also increasing. In 2019, AWS had 50 jobs listing in South Africa which later doubled to around 118 in the web service division and a further 38 jobs in human resources, customer service, kindle content, and corporate development.
Notably, Amazon also offers several internship programs for students currently enrolled in or have recently graduated with Bachelors’ or Masters’ Degrees in computer engineering, computer science, or related fields.
Source Credit: https://www.businessinsider.co.za/amazon-has-more-than-150-jobs-available-in-sa-as-plans-for-new-headquarters-are-approved-2021-4