-Edited by Bev Mortimer- Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s new Executive Mayor, Gary van Niekerk and the city’s Business Chamber CEO, Denise van Huyssteen, are working together to build a prosperous city.are working together to build a prosperous city.
The pair and officials conducted walkabouts today in wards 31 and 37 to identify and address service delivery concerns of the residents.
Gary van Niekerk, NMBM’s new Executive Mayor
The walkabouts, described as ‘exhausting’, were to re-assure this crucial stakeholder grouping that despite the change at the helm of City Hall, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) remains focused on working hand-in-glove with business to build a prosperous Nelson Mandela Bay.
“I am here to engage with you and to listen to your concerns as the devastating impact of load-shedding is evident in our city,” van Niekerk said. “Residents are working short time and must put in overtime, if possible, to equal their pay before the electricity crisis.
“We need to work with you to ensure we provide solutions for residents to work without too many disruptions due to electricity shortages. I spent the majority of the last two days out of City Hall to address community concerns in Motherwell, Missionvale, Bloemendal and resolved the non-payment of Libhongulethu Bus Service staff, for the last two months, as my commitment is to lead a pro-poor administration.
“This also includes contributing to a conducive environment for workers to earn their wages without disruptions. We must therefore improve your electricity availability to enable targets to be met and production to be as seamless as possible,” Mayor Van Niekerk said.
The meeting took place at the Business Chamber’s headquarters at KPMG House in Greenacres with a number of prominent regional business executives in attendance.
Chief Executive Officer of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber. Denise van Huyssteen. said: “We greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet with the Executive Mayor to discuss issues of concern to business, and more importantly. potential solutions to the various economic challenges facing the metro.
“We were all aligned on the need to continue to strengthen collaboration between local government and business in order to retain much needed investment and jobs in Nelson Mandela Bay.
“In particular it is absolutely vital that load-shedding mitigation measures such as the 24 hour stage 5+ schedule and load curtailment are supported and expanded upon to help businesses survive through the electricity crisis.”
Van Huysteen added that the Master Memorandum of Understanding between the Municipality and business provides an important framework to enable collaboration of shared resources and expertise to improve service delivery and embark upon innovative interventions, which will benefit the local economy and the communities.
A follow-up meeting to discuss proposals to improve availability of electricity supply to businesses will be held on 4 July.
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