Denise van Huyssteen, CEO of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, says their biggest concern, above even the water, electricity and infrastructure crises that have kneecapped local businesses, is crime.
“It's critical that safety and security are prioritised. There are too many hijackings, too many kidnappings, too much vandalism, too many attacks on tourists. The levels now are completely unacceptable.”
The metro is experiencing an upsurge in kidnappings of business owners, with the police struggling to arrest perpetrators because of stolen and vandalised CCTV cameras.
The chamber has assembled a task team to help increase police cameras and monitoring and fix and maintain police vehicles so they can do more patrolling and respond quicker to attacks on businesses and tourists.
“We've written to the new police minister asking for a tourism safety unit to be established on the beachfront so tourists feel safe when they're on the beach.”
Tourism is an easy way to grow the economy and create jobs but tourists will only come if they feel safe, Van Huyssteen says.
“To attract multinational companies we need to demonstrate this is a safe environment for their employees to work in and operate from.”
The chamber's law and order barometer shows that crime is the top issue affecting investment decisions, a concern that outweighs all the others.
Van Huyssteen wants business to play a more proactive role in crime prevention. They've shown what they can do with their “Adopt a Substation” project, which they persuaded the municipality to allow them to implement when persistent cable theft and vandalism caused manufacturers to lose electricity for days at a time, costing them billions in lost exports to major markets.
We've been doing things that businesses don't normally have to do. We decided that if we still want to be here and operate here we had to roll up our sleeves and get cracking
Businesses are using their own security to protect the substations which their manufacturing operations depend on. Not a single substation that has been adopted has been vandalised, she says, showing what can be done with proper surveillance and monitoring.
“There's no reason why our model can't be replicated to improve safety and security.”
Substations that are not part of the project are still being vandalised, causing, along with lack of maintenance, frequent unplanned outages.
The fact that crime has been red-flagged as the top disincentive for investors is not only indicative of how off the scale crime is but how much business in the Eastern Cape's economic hub is doing to reduce the impact of other crises.
Eighteen months ago, with no electricity, no water and dysfunctional sanitation and other infrastructure, the metro was in “economic survival mode”, Van Huyssteen says.
“The situation is still very challenging but as a business community we've come together to be part of the solution. We've demonstrated it can be done through some of the successes we've achieved.”
They've organised themselves into 11 geographical “clusters” throughout the metro to deal with unplanned power outages and sanitation and other crises.
“We've got a technical team working with the municipality to fix these issues cluster by cluster. They do the actual work, we provide technical and resource support.”
They brought in technical expertise from businesses across Gqeberha, including engineers, who were almost non-existent in the municipality, to fix the dysfunctional sanitation system. Over the last 18 months the efficiency rate of pump stations has gone from 15% to more than 80%.
“We've been doing things that businesses don't normally have to do. We decided that if we still want to be here and operate here we had to roll up our sleeves and get cracking. It was a matter of survival.” Not just their own as business but the survival of the metro as the economic hub of the Eastern Cape.
“That's the mindset we've adopted. It takes time but the collaboration is there, the effort is there, and accountability is there.”
They meet with the local authorities every week; there are deadlines and commitments and report-backs on progress.
Load-shedding was the catalyst.
“When manufacturers get load-shedded the consequences are catastrophic. If you do smelting you can't just switch your operations off and on.”
The chamber got the municipality to adjust their load-shedding schedule so that at stage 5 and beyond 41 manufacturers most at risk would go off for 24 hours in a row and then they could operate for seven days in a row.
“For many companies that was critical in terms of enabling the viability of their operations. Since then we've been thinking solutions 24/7. What are the things we can do when there are challenges. Thinking out of the box.”
Political instability — seven different mayors and 15 different city managers since 2018 — has made dealing with the municipality extremely difficult, because agreements reached with one administration have been ignored by the next.
The current mayor has been in place for a record one year. His tiny National Alliance party rules the metro in coalition with the ANC and EFF.
The chamber has been able to maintain a good working relationship with the municipality, she says.
“Our stance has not been to go on the attack and point out where everything is wrong, but rather to be open about what the issues are and how can we work together to solve them. It hasn't been easy; there's been resistance, but it's happening.
“I think everybody realises we all need each other. Our track record helps. We've demonstrated that through action you can make things happen. The problem in South Africa is that we're very good at coming up with plans but the implementation hasn't been there. And we've been very good at implementation.”
They've had to overcome scepticism and resistance from businesses who feel they're paying rates and taxes and shouldn't be expected to do what they're paying for.
“Now that we're actually having an impact they're coming on board. We don't have to go out and create geographic clusters any more; businesses come to us for help in getting their clusters going, which is happening faster and faster.”
On the investment front they've launched a trade and investment desk. They don't intend playing second fiddle to the Western Cape forever, she says.
“The Western Cape has done well. We also need to get our act together, and we can become an alternative investment destination if we get the basics working here, which we're beginning to do.
“Now law enforcement needs to come to the party.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.