Ilembe Chamber champions business success
Despite business unrest and economic challenges, the Ilembe Chamber continues to grow, maintaining relationships between businesses, investors and government.
Thirteen residential estates are currently under development or being planned in the wider Ballito area, adding about 10 000 residential units to the market, creating a significant number of jobs and bringing billions into the region’s economy.
This was one of the highlights of the Ilembe Chamber’s annual review presented by Chamber president Xolani Gumede two weeks ago, which covered the highs and lows in the world of business for 2018.
“This environment serves as a reminder that the Chamber’s role as an impactful advocate in leading efforts to shape conditions for businesses to succeed, has never been more relevant,” said Gumede.
Despite business unrest and economic challenges, the Ilembe Chamber continues to grow, maintaining relationships between businesses, investors and government.
Gumede said the Ilembe business district, however, did not escape unharmed, with investor confidence in the region published during 2018 for the 2017 year-end and the 2018 mid-year, recording the lowest levels of business confidence since the introduction of the index survey in 2015.
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Manufacturing, property and agricultural sectors showed a decline with factors like load shedding adding fuel to the fire.
“Ongoing spates of industrial unrest, community protests and disruption to business in the region’s main industrial zones underpinned the negative sentiment. Fears around the reliability of energy supply and the unworkable load-shedding schedules prompted engagement with Eskom locally.”
Despite challenges like bad debt from some of its members, the chamber’s overall membership revenue increased by nine percent last year.
“The Chamber posted retained earnings of R206 470 for the 2018 financial year. This performance was achieved on the back of a further increase in revenue of 8.7 percent year-on-year, with a turnover of R2.6 million for 2018.
The financial performance of the Chamber was made possible through the growth in revenue as mentioned above but was also aided through control over expenses, which grew a moderate 6.4 percent year-on-year.”
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