Economic growth needs partnerships that not only come to the table, but get the job done

Despite the many threats to economic growth, the iLembe district remains a strategic investment hub with robust strategies to overcome the challenges.

While still recovering from the Covid pandemic, unrest and floods, attendees at last Friday’s iLembe business breakfast at the Capital Hotel Zimbali still faced the reality of ongoing threats to economic growth caused by loadshedding, interest rate hikes and the rising cost of living.

iLembe district mayor, Thobani Shandu, said while poverty and unemployment were high, the region’s economic stakeholders remain resilient and focused on attracting investment.

iLembe Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism CEO, Cobus Oelofse, said setbacks such as the floods and unrest required social partners to work together in a social compact to restore investor confidence.

“There has been a lot of criticism lately, describing the country’s social compact as a pipedream in which social partners find it impossible to cooperate. We need to do more to ensure these partnerships are actually followed through on, instead of just being spoken of,” said Oelofse.

The meeting heard of several projects – some potential and some underway – for the province which will have beneficial economic spin-offs on a wide scale.

These include additional airlines connecting to King Shaka International Airport, the recent expansion of the Hesto Harness plant at KwaDukuza and a speed rail link from Durban to King Shaka Airport, with a later phase seeing a high-speed rail corridor linking Durban to Johannesburg.

A cableway project in the Drakensberg, further development of Durban Point Waterfront, a Chlor-Alkali plant and dialyzer manufacturing plant were also discussed.

With iLembe being recognised as one of the fastest growing regions in the country, it was noted that the district served as a popular location for developers and investors and the second successive positive business confidence index report boded well for the region.

It was said that iLembe had 271 357 visitors between January and June this year. This translated into tourist spending of R1.1-billion, R1.7-billion toward GDP, R425-million in household income and some 3 779 jobs created.

Going forward acting CEO for Tourism KZN, Phindile Makwakwa, said the Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the need for public-private partnerships.

“iLembe is one of the districts which comes to the party with destination marketing, but there are still more opportunities for growth,” she said.

Stressing the limited budget of Tourism KZN, Makwakwa said local municipalities could do more to market tourist destinations instead of solely relying on Tourism KZN to do the job.

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