President Cyril Ramaphosa was in town this week, as the countdown to the May national elections kicked off.
ALSO READ : Good Business Basics: SA faces skills shortage
In 2016, just before the local government elections, I was invited to an interaction with Pravin Gordhan and MEC Ravi Pillay at a prominent local businessman’s residence. What I urged Mr Gordhan to give attention to was the fixing of local government structures, because without a well- functioning local and district government, any initiative to improve the lives of residents was doomed to failure.
Poor performance
I must confess that since that interaction, I have been less than encouraged by the underwhelming performance in this sphere. The district municipality continues to stumble from crisis to crisis, and the local municipalities in the main, aside from Ray Nkonyeni Municipality, seem plagued by the same problems.
I certainly do not envy the position the president is in at present – finding the balance between electioneering and keeping the momentum of change he has initiated is a mammoth task!
So given the opportunity to escalate my concerns right to the top, this is what I would urge the
president to do:
Fix local government – delivery and execution of all government programmes happen at a local government level
Avoid a hiatus of decision making as we get into the electioneering period – the country just cannot afford it
Ensure a consistent narrative of where the government is heading – business has had enough of uncertainty
Be brave and take charge – the time for pussy footing around divisive voices must come to an end
Take the opportunity to weed out the last of the ‘bad apples’ by being ruthless in selecting incoming representatives at provincial and national level that represent the highest order of ethics and accountability.
After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, hejoined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.
He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.
Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.
More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
For news straight to your phone, add us on WhatsApp 082 421 6033
