“We must work together” – Premier tells Ilembe business people

Addressing the pressing concerns of the business community newly elected KZN premier, Sihle Zikalala delivered his first keynote speech at Ilembe Chamber’s annual gala dinner last Thursday hosted at Fairmont Zimbali.

While tackling youth unemployment has been a singular issue with President Ramaphosa’s administration, Zikalala underscored this point sharply when he appealed to the business community to lend its support behind youth development initiatives.

“What hinders youth business development is largely lack of entrepreneurial skills.

“We are committed to supporting the Ilembe Chamber’s entrepreneurial programme and seeing meaningful youth participation in the mainstream economy of the country.

“We must work together to implement youth empowerment initiatives such as mentorship for a minimum period of two years that will help build a robust and enduring productive capacity of young people,” said Zikalala.

A commitment from government to step up to industrial development was another key highlight in the evenings main address primarily centered around prioritising Isithebe to be part of the national development strategy.

The 414-hectare purpose-built industrial estate in Mandeni is the biggest in the country and is home to 224 businesses who have invested billions of rands in the region and contribute significantly to the economy of the area providing 22 000 jobs.

Through its economic arm, Ithala, there has been an aggressive decentralisation drive to attract major firms to set up shop in this special economic zone yet without government support the challenges of attracting and maintaining investment will continue to plague the region.

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Zikalala commended Ilembe Chambers CEO, Cobus Oelofse in his pursuits to getting government to take the region seriously as a key investment hub of KZN.

A commitment to Isithebe industrial development includes prioritising infrastructure and equipping the industrial area with training centres to provide relevant skills training and technology support for the hundreds of firms in the zones.

Another opportunity Zikalala touched on was government’s plan to look at leveraging sugarcane as a strategic economic resource with the potential to use it as a biofuel while aiming to reduce South Africa’s dependence on petrol.

The premiers observation of not confusing the present state of the sugar industry with the behaviour of individual businesses was particularly loaded given Tongaat Huletts current retrenchment of 5 000 of it workforce.

The final keypoint Zikalala detailed was government’s response to the disruptions of both state infrastructure and private-sector construction projects by groups claiming to be local community or business forums, demanding a stake, typically 30%, in projects.

“Government is aware of the disruptions to certain projects in this regions and we have committed to business to engage together, as the key is to have open and transparent dialogue. There is full commitment to bring people together to discuss how to transform at the same time we must protect our democratic institutions.”

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