Why mayor’s roadshow will be exercise in futility
YOUR front-page lead story “£s for the Promenade: Bid to lure investors for key Durban projects” (TIOS, May 5), refers.
I believe that mayor Zandile Gumede and her team who are planning a trip to London next month to lure wealthy UK investors to our city is an exercise in futility.
Parts of our country, especially in KwaZulu-Natal and Durban in particular, are plagued by violent protests and criminality.
In Durban we have a group of armed men, masquerading as businessmen, going around the city, carrying dangerous weapons intimidating and extorting money from construction company bosses.
They are causing mayhem with their reckless acts by delaying the completion of projects, which are meant to benefit ordinary people.
Recent events on the N3 in Mooi River, in which at least 35 trucks were set alight and looted, with the damage in the hundreds of millions, and the criminality that is taking place in Durban, show that our city and province are unsafe as an investment destination.
No investor will invest in our city where they are not sure that our city fathers, the police and other law enforcement agencies will protect their investments when under unlawful siege by scoundrels.
These protests and criminality capture the attention of international media and project an extremely negative image of our country and city.
It does not help when you are trying to make Durban an attractive and stable investment destination.
To attract investments into our city is to make those who seek to invest in our economy feel wanted and protected from undue and unlawful harm.
This is not happening and that is why our mayor’s international roadshow will be a waste of time, energy and money.