Ibhayi

Port Elizabeth—renamed Gqeberha in 2021 but still known by both names—was South Africa's original 1820 British Settlers landing point, and that colonial origin story set the city's economic trajectory for two centuries. The port gave the Eastern Cape access to global shipping routes, and the city became South Africa's automobile manufacturing capital. Volkswagen South Africa, headquartered here since 1946, produces the Polo for both domestic and export markets. Ford, General Motors (before its exit), and dozens of component manufacturers created an automotive cluster that employs tens of thousands.

The city's automotive specialization creates a familiar dependency pattern: when global demand for vehicles falls, the Eastern Cape economy convulses. South Africa's automotive industry contributes roughly 4.3% of national GDP and 27.6% of manufacturing output, and a disproportionate share of that production runs through Gqeberha's factories. The Coega Special Economic Zone, built adjacent to the port, attracts additional industrial investment but hasn't yet diversified the city beyond auto-adjacent manufacturing.

Post-apartheid Gqeberha faces stark inequality. The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (which includes the city) has unemployment rates exceeding 40%, among the highest of South Africa's major metros. Water crises in 2018 and 2022 brought the city to the edge of Day Zero—reservoirs dropping below 15% capacity—exposing infrastructure that colonial and apartheid-era planning designed to serve a fraction of the current population.

Gqeberha's dual identity—automotive export hub and infrastructure-stressed metro—captures the South African development paradox: globally competitive industrial sectors coexisting with developing-world service delivery failures, sometimes in the same city block.