‘More aggressive approach needed on governance’
Civic groups plan collaborative effort with NCR
The Komani Border Kei Chamber of Business plans to take a more aggressive approach in tackling service delivery issues in the coming year and has acknowledged the collaborative efforts with the National Cabinet Representative and the Civic Ratepayers Association of Enoch Mgijima (Craem).
This was revealed at the apolitical organisation’s year-end function held at the Queens Casino and Hotel on Wednesday.
Komani Border Kei Chamber of Business chair Lisle Clark said it was no secret that as a town and a business community there were extreme concerns, particularly with the lack of service delivery from the local municipality.
“Naturally, as the business chamber we support any decision that further enables the financial recovery of this town and in doing so we find ourselves partnering with the National Cabinet Representative (NCR) team and the ratepayers’ association to address issues that are affecting us all. So 2023 will see us working with a lot of organisation for the betterment of the town and while doing that we will continue to deliver on our value proposition for our members.”
Clark said he was positive and happy to know there were people advocating for change in Komani. “I am positive in the sense that we have a bigger brother like (NPO) Sakeliga that has had such situations before and could be in a position to assist us in bringing some progress to this town.”
With this, Clark said, the chamber played an important role in acting as a lobbyist for businesses in dealing with various stakeholders, including government, and facilitating good working relations between all parties involved.
“When I first took over as chair, my first unofficial mission was to capacitate the committee with a mixture of members that had experience and so that we could have succession.
“In addition to this we were privileged to have a good base of members within the committee. We wanted to ensure that we were able to clearly defined a value proposition for our members and we wanted to endeavour to serve our members on delivering that value proposition.”
Christo Bester of Sakeliga, a non-profit organisation that reforms and rebuilds failing business environments, sometimes through litigations, said: “We are there to challenge irrational decisions by government or any other institution that is not in favour of the communities.
“We have got a very unique strategic way to litigate. It is time for communities to stand up. We need to collaborate and take back what has been taken away from us as residents and communities. The answer is in the masses.”
It was stated that the Border Kei Chamber of Business and the Civic Ratepayers Association of Enoch Mgijima were affiliated with the Sakeliga group.