 East London, 22 April marked 50 days until the kick-off of the first FIFA Soccer World Cup match. Celebrations were held across the country to mark this milestone in the countdown to the biggest sporting event in the world. Although Buffalo City will not be actively involved in the hosting of any World Cup matches or hosting any teams, leaders in the city are extremely excited to get Buffalo City involved in the hype and excitement surrounding the sporting spectacle. Oxford Street was the venue for celebrations in East London, where a partisan crowd was entertained by DJ’s and the Guild Theatre dancers. The event was attended by Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku, BCM Councillor T. Nondala, and our very own Terry Taylor, President of the Border Kei Chamber of Business. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Thursday, 06 May 2010 12:42 |
|
 The Annual General Meeting in March welcomed Terry Taylor as the new Chamber President, Gordon Thompson as 1st Vice and Simphiwe Kondlo as the 2nd Vice President. Gavin Le Roux remained as Treasurer and John Smith moved to Immediate Past President. New members to the Executive committee are Dr Adéle Moodly, Mike Francis, Tanya Coetzee and Jacqui Mauer. In all, the new executive comprises a wonderfully diverse mix of experienced, new and recent members. It also represents a good mix of our nation’s demographics but lastly and most importantly, represents the skills, experience and dedication needed to lead a voluntary non-profit association such as the Border-Kei Chamber of Business.
|
|
Read more...
|
Recently I was invited to speak at a tourism Imbizo, which I duly accepted with great humility. After all, what better subject than for Chamber to write about? It was therefore a great honour and gave me much to think about in preparing the presentation.
Bottom line with all relationships is the issue of trust and expectation. Can we trust each other and what are our expectations from the relationship? In life we see many examples and opportunities. The successful ones are those that use trust and expectations wisest. Most definitely there are more principles such as honesty, integrity, fairness, good faith, etc.
I recall once attending a labour law seminar on “negotiating an agreement.” The lecturer illustrated the two points by saying without the two principles, reaching an agreement that only works while a gun is held to the other head – is not lasting, especially when the gun is taken away. So, we must trust one another in a way that a gun is not necessary.
Similarly, expectation plays a critical role in the success of a relationship. A father once solemnly told his son that he would increase his allowance, so he could buy more of the things he wanted. The son expected double, the dad anticipated 10% - i.e. inflation plus 4%. Guess what happened!
This issue is discussed here simply because I believe that society does not encourage enough relationship building – and if we do, we don’t really want real relationships. So, to overcome meaningless and unproductive relationships let us ensure the correct and proper aspects are applied.
In my talk at the Imbizo, I referred to the need for business and government to forge closer relationships, because after all, if we have more meaningful relationships, everyone would benefit and prosper.
An example is this issue of Government either going overseas or inviting investors into the region. All too often the game plan is to decide on a country – collect a few public sector delegates, and take a trip. Sounds simple – but is it more than that? We don’t know because business is not invited? If and when business is invited, it’s a case of paying your own way.
It would be much more effective if business were part and parcel from the beginning. After all, who knows how to talk to business other than business itself! Who knows how to better answer questions affecting business, than business itself. Who knows how to anticipate their concerns and respond appropriately?
2010
The jury will be deliberating this issue for a long, long time. In last month’s Hi-lite, I wrote of the disappointment and the obvious impact of the City being virtually marginalised. Notwithstanding that unless we learn lessons from this exercise we will fail again and again – what is more important in the short term is what can be done about the sorry state. Chamber believes that a post mortem must be held and honest questions and answers given. Let’s not kid ourselves, work needs to be done.
In the short term let us turn the negative situation into an opportunity. Grey College in Port Elizabeth have been extremely creative and even though Port Elizabeth is hosting a number of games, they have seen the opportunities.
Let us do the same – not necessarily as the college is planning – but to be creative and be proactive.
Also be encouraged. Many Cities in Germany were only ready three days before the first kick-off during the last world cup in 2006.
Finally a cheerful moment, is that East London will be hosting the Springboks vs Italy on Saturday 26 June, and that you can take to the bank!
Warm regards
Les Holbrook |
|
|
Rhodes University Investec Business School presents Financial Modelling using Excel Workshop to be held in East London on 12 – 15 April 2010. For more information please contact Nicole Craig on 046 603 8852 or 046 603 8617 or email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Rhodes University Investec Business School presents Project Management Workshop to be held in Grahamstown on 19 – 24 April 2010. For more information please contact Nicole Craig on 046 603 8852 or 046 603 8617 or email A HYPERLINK “mailto:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
”
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Global Business Solutions presents: EE / SDF to be held at the East London Golf Club on 21 April 2010. For more information please call Zuki on 043 7211030 or e mail HYPERLINK “mailto:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
”
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Global Business Solutions presents: Disciplinary Enquiry to be held at the East London Golf Club on the 22-23 April 2010. For more information please contact Zuki on 043 7211030 or e mail HYPERLINK “mailto:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
”
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Rhodes University Investec Business School presents Environmental Law Workshop to be held in Grahamstown on 26 – 30 April 2010. For more information please contact Nicole Craig on 046 603 8852 or 046 603 8617 or email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
The Leadership Development Institute presents Supervisory Leadership Workshop to be held in East London on 11 – 13 May 2010. For more information please contact Unati Mtongana on 043 743 7053 or visit www.ldi.org.za
The Leadership Development Institute presents Moderator Award Workshop to be held in East London on 25 - 27 May 2010. For more information please contact Unati Mtongana on 043 743 7053 or visit HYPERLINK “http://www.ldi.org.za” www.ldi.org.za
|
|
What a catastrophe it would be for our CBD to be without water every night; the repercussions of this would be enormous for Queenstown!
As a result of the many concerns raised by our members regarding the drastic water cuts facing Queenstown, as well as a meeting the Border Kei Chamber of Business (Mark Wilson and Bongani Khatshwa) held with Piet Bezuidenhout, the CBD of Queenstown has not been facing the daily water cuts as previously indicated. Approximately 600 jobs would be on the line if we got to the point where the CBD had to face daily water cuts. WSSA worked around the clock to ensure that water would still be supplied to the business sector during this time. In addition, the daily water cuts which started on 8 February for the rest of Queenstown, have been running from around 21h30pm until 04h30am.
Queenstown is far from out of the woods yet and we remain in a precarious position regarding this water crisis, so the appeal continues for households / businesses and individuals to conserve water wherever possible!
Thanks to all those members who raised their concerns with the Chamber -Together we really can make a difference!
|
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 3 |
Chamber News
