EDTEA MEC’s message of support and congratulations on Brookside Mall’s reopening
As MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA), it gives me great pleasure to witness the reopening of the Brookside Mall.
Malls are hubs of economic activity as they provide a market where business trades and consumers get their basic economic necessities.
Brookside Mall is one of the
161 malls that suffered a devastating blow during the July unrest of 2021, which destroyed businesses and jobs. The department is proud to see this establishment being rebuilt.
The reopening of the mall tells us that investors remain confident in the economy of KwaZulu-Natal as an investment destination. Further, it signals that local businesses and communities around the area will once again have a reliable market to exchange goods and economic services.
The reopening of this establishment augers well with our Township and Rural Economy Revitalisation Strategy. In developing the strategy, we first analysed the township economies and discovered that 95% of businesses within our townships are micro and informal. Most of the participants are young adults who are unemployed with about half of them having post matric qualifications.
And so this means that most of our interventions should be focused on how to capacitate the businesses, how to support informal businesses with infrastructure and how we will capacitate the entrepreneurs running these. We must ensure that those who need accreditation, training and access to other services do get that.
In KZN, more than 200 shopping centres in different parts of the province were looted or burnt, while at least 1 400 ATMs were damaged. About 300 banks and post offices vandalised in the province during the unrest. The negative impact on both business and jobs goes hand-in-hand, as businesses are the main drivers of jobs creation, and a working population drives demand within the economic cycle.
The reopening of trade outlets such as Brookside Mall is therefore a huge indication of the resilience of the economy and a sign of investor confidence in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. In my capacity as the MEC for EDTEA and Leader of Government Business in KwaZulu-Natal, we wish to see businesses thrive and more job opportunities being created in KwaZulu-Natal. We also wish that
surrounding communities around Pietermaritzburg will benefit from this new hope emerging at the Brookside Mall.