



South Africans now have the opportunity to purchase locally manufactured cellphones.

President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Mara phone plant in Durban on Thursday, making it the second smartphone manufacturing plant on the continent, owned by the Mara Group.

The first plant was opened in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, just over a week ago.

The manufacturer has already made two android phones.

Eyewitness News reporter Nkosikhona Duma has more on the story.

The smartphones are your android phones. Nkosikhona Duma, Reporter - EWN

Duma says founder and CEO of the Mara Group Ashish Thakkar maintains that these are high-quality phones.

Speaking on the issue of quality, he spoke about high-definition cameras and said that this smartphone would be light and its components will all be made in Africa. Nkosikhona Duma, Reporter - EWN

These phones will range from between R2,000 to R4,000, he said, based on their market studies that it is affordable for South Africans. Nkosikhona Duma, Reporter - EWN

Thakkar says he has already hired 200 employees. Of these employees, about 67% of them are women who are in positions like engineering and over 90% of the people that are being hired here are young people. He hopes that in the long term just over 1,500 jobs are created. Nkosikhona Duma, Reporter - EWN

Click on the link below to hear more...