RUSTENBURG HERALD - RUSTENBURG - “The North West Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NWCoCI) has asked that the newly elected leaders in the North West province give the people of the province a government that puts their needs first,” the Chairman of the NWCoCI, Benedict Modise, recently commented.
“In the election on May 29, the people of South Africa gave clear instructions to the leaders of all political parties that they are tired of empty promises and that they want action now,” he said.
According to Modise, businesspeople of the North West have been engaging with government at all levels, but without any success. “On more than one occasion, national leaders promised that the government was eager to and would work together with business to solve problems which are mostly in North West Municipalities, but that never happened,” he said.
Modise also said that the president and the premier made promises about engaging with business on the District Development Model (DDM) to address service delivery challenges and promote collaborative planning amongst government departments. “We are still waiting for an invitation to one of these meetings.”
The CEO of the Chamber, André Coertzen, referred to a meeting with the press last year when the minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Silence Ntshavheni, said that the private sector has an interest in the fall of the government. She said that the private sector “...engineer and do machinations to ensure that the government collapses. That’s why they also self-feed into the narrative that there is a collapsing state and there’s a collapsing economy, because that’s what they wish for.”
Coertzen then stated that the outcome of the elections clearly shows that the people are not happy with the lack of service delivery, unemployment, crime, and corruption. “We are an apolitical organisation, and all we strive to do is create a conducive environment in which our members can do business.
This will lead to job creation, alleviation of poverty and contribute towards sustainable economic growth. People in any form of public office who are paid with taxpayer’s money should realise that they work for the people first. It sometimes seems like they forget that they are there to serve the community. We really hope that the ‘new’ government will agree to work with us as organised business and make use of the expertise that we have.”
