Starting the Conversation
This is a report back on The Grahamstown Conversation held at Prime, 63 New Street, on Thursday 25 August. It is compiled by the Grahamstown Residents Association, one of the participating organisations. Congratulations to the Graenced this year have to be hamstown Business Forum solved so there is no repeat. (GBF) for staging this valuThe NAF has been growable and well attended event. ing steadily, so it is not a “bad Thank you to Acting Municithing” that it stayed near its pal Manager Riana Meiring highest level, but did not exwho attended along with her pand further this year. The Makana Directors. The excelartistic performances were as lent venue was provided by good, if not better than any Mynhardt van Dyk from The previous year with around Rat and Parrot. 2 500 performances. If Festi
There was a diverse crossval has “lost its vibe” that was section of about 160 Grahamsa reflection of activity in town. town people who came to hear NAF does not run the restauTony Lankester: CEO National rants and other services in Arts Festival; Nomhle Gaga: town. There is scope for invenExecutive Mayor of Makana tive business people to offer Municipality and Matthew more services to festival goers. Lester: Professor, Rhodes UniA lot of thought was given versity Business School. to the press article, and its
Proceedings were introtiming. The reality was that duced by Richard Gaybba, the word was already out Vice-Chairperson of GBF. He that Grahamstown as the NAF outlined how this event is a venue had a water crisis. It starting point, to bring “peowould have seemed strange if ple and ideas” together, for the NAF did not comment on this. wider benefit of Makana. It had the effect of drawing a
This point was taken up by line under the problem and Matthew Lester who pointed stopping further comment. out that Grahamstown has a Hopefully it will help inform wealth of brain power, far exthe necessary dialogue that ceeding the average for a city now needs to happen in Grathe size of Grahamstown. hamstown.
Gaybba explained that GBF Among the threats Lankis a voluntary organisation, ester identified is the inelastic representing the business incapacity to grow accommoterests within Grahamstown dation further. He also spoke and welcomes new members about the experiences of festo join. He also highlighted tival goers who used to praise the advantage of the various Grahamstown businesses for organisations in Grahamstown not unduly inflating their communicating and working prices for a captive audience, collaboratively to improve the but that was no longer true. running of the city. Threats were posed by inad
He then spoke about two equate infrastructure. current GBF projects, both It was interesting for the connected with cleaning up non-business community to the city centre. witness Lankester as CEO
The first is a partnership of NAF telling business peobetween GBF, Makana, Creaple about niche markets they tive City and Grahamstown were missing – for example Residents’ Association to clear reliable baby-sitting services, up the streets, with particular secure taxi services (including thanks to Mike Webber who to nearby towns) and a central is providing his Rentall Skips point to take care of all accomfree of charge. The second is modation bookings. He also a plan to replace all the brospoke about the possibility of ken dustbins in the city centre freeing up some of the more and reach an agreement about exclusive houses in town for servicing the bins so they are renting during Festival. emptied regularly.
National Arts Festival CEO Tony Lankester
Lankester covered a wide range of issues which he discussed under the headings: • Is the National Arts Festival going to move to Cape Town? • The Festival has lost its vibe • The press article: Grahamstown we have a problem The answer to the first question is no. The National Arts Festival’s home is Grahamstown and will remain so unless it became impossible to continue here. In this regard, the water problems experi-
Nomhle Gaga, Executive Mayor of Makana Municipality
– her full address is published on page 6, turning to this page.
Matthew Lester, Professor, Rhodes University Business School
Lester started by outlining some of the assets that Grahamstown enjoys such as its university, quality schools, certain businesses and more. He then outlined some of the deficits such as the sharp divisions and inequality, water and infrastructure challenges, the “fees must fall” protest and the wider economy.
This outline was then given more substance as graphs were presented showing the degrees of inequality, unemployment by age group.
He explicitly drew a distinction between successful businesses run by entrepreneurs and “survival businesses”.
Apart from giving a very clear account of the severity of the challenges facing Grahamstown, he also stated that some stakeholders do not have ownership: they do not own the problems, but they still want their slice.
Lester then outlined measures to alleviate the problems and help Grahamstown move forward. He advocated that the survivalist businesses should be assisted to move into the mainstream through upskilling, mentorship and guidance.
Finally, he showed graphs indicating profitability against ethical business and promoted the view that the most successful businesses work to a good ethical code as well as being profitable.
For his full presentation see: http:// criticalthought. co. za/ the- destructive- power- of- thenegative/
Questions and Answers
The evening was given a further professional touch by having Chrissie Boughey, Rhodes Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic and Student Affairs skilfully handling the question and answer session. 1 There was a complaint that NAF did not talk with businesses enough. 2 The main points raised were that the Mayor had failed to explain her vision for Makana. 3. The Muslim community, numbering about 500, needs approval to build a mosque. 4 Makana communications are deficient, and that there should be a “Makana Municipality page” every week in Grocott’s Mail. 5 In poorer schools, performance is hampered by poor parenting, and that social workers should be deployed to address this need.
1 Lankester answered stating that any businesses were welcome to come and talk with NAF, to share ideas and solve problems. 2 It was pointed out that the first presentation: Grahamstown we have a problem - was largely concerned with issues of maintenance and ageing infrastructure. The Mayor’s speech had addressed those concerns, and that fixing water, sanitation, illegal dumping and electricity infrastructure would be an excellent achievement, hardly lacking in vision. The Mayor repeated that she was determined to get the Municipality working more efficiently, attending to peoples’ needs and to produce a cleaner city. 3 Plans were in hand, with planning permission to be agreed, for the site to build a mosque. 4 This was accepted as a valu- able suggestion. It would be looked at after the meeting. 5 This was not directly something that Makana could action, as it falls under education.
The meeting concluded with an endorsement of the Mayor’s resolve to fix Grahamstown problems, the need for active citizens to get involved with Grahamstown Business Forum and Grahamstown Residents’ Association, and that The Grahamstown Conversation needs to continue.
Chairperson and organiser of this public gathering, Dr Trevor Davies, this week said he was happy with the overall outcome of the gathering. “It is time for the narrative in Grahamstown to change from a ‘woe is me’ mentality to a pragmatic, ‘what can I do to make the City better,’ and our speakers did extremely well in highlighting this,” he said.
Davies added that they would need to follow up with concrete plans in order to see the results of efforts made by the Municipality, such as debt recovery and increased staff productivity.
“The business forum will remain actively engaged with doing everything to create a clean,safe City and to also help Municipality achieve it’s goals.”
Anyone wishing to join GBF and to join in with this Conversation can email grahamstownbusiness@gmail.com
• Additional reporting by Sinesipho Goqwana