Mayor must act against intruders
DURBAN’S a winning city and has the potential to become one of the most sought-after destinations in the world – if it can get its ducks in a row. For instance, a report published late last year entitled “Driving Investment: Are Durban and KwaZulu-Natal ready?” painted a fairly positive and promising picture of our metro.
Durban scored top marks when it came to attractive infrastructure and social environment and performed strongly in the areas of office rentals, industrial electricity rates and transport costs.
And, as we all know, Durban has the best beaches and tourist attractions in the country, glorious weather and a culturally diverse community that is proud of its history and welcoming to its visitors. But, the report showed that despite these many positives, Durban and the province still lagged behind Cape Town and Joburg as an investment destination.
An interesting fact to emerge from this report was that over 70% of those surveyed believed that to enhance the city’s attractiveness and competitiveness, Durban needed to perform better on service delivery and management.
A significant majority of respondents also talked about the need to improve safety and security – and importantly, keeping the city clean.
All of these are useful pointers for eThekwini mayor, Zandile Gumede who will accompany provincial MEC Sihle Zikalala to London next month on a campaign to attract investment.
It all looks very promising, but the critical question remains: are we doing enough as a city to make Durban an attractive proposition for potential investors? Which investor would want to put their money into a city in which so-called “construction mafia”, masquerading as business forums, invade the construction sites of multimillion-rand developments, demanding a percentage of the work involved.
The latest such incident of intimidation involved development at the Kindlewood Estate in Mount Edgecombe. Last month, intruders were also responsible for halting construction at the Oceans Umhlanga project.
It is only right that emerging companies be allowed opportunities to participate meaningfully in the economy of the city and province, but this must be done through formal and legal means. In fact, the city and businesses in the private sector should do more to partner such emerging companies in major projects.
Mayor Gumede has publicly criticised these disruptions, warning that they serve only to chase away investors. If she and her council hope to lure potential investors on her forthcoming tour, they will need to act more decisively against such threats and acts of intimidation in our city.