WORKING together to grow the country and economy is now more important than ever, according to Justice Malala, the political analyst, best-selling author and speaker who addressed Exporters Eastern Cape members at a business event on 6 March at Radisson Blu Hotel in Gqeberha.
The headline speaker at the business breakfast hosted by Exporters Eastern Cape in partnership with BLG Logistics of South Africa, Malala said while resilience was important in the difficult geopolitical climate we find ourselves in, moreover it will be important to collaborate.
He commended organisations like Exporters Eastern Cape and other businesses for working together with government and government entities.
“It shows us what can be achieved if we all work together, there are areas where you see a lot of changes that we should not take in vain with reforms taking place – Eskom is beginning to work …the more incentives, the more factories we can put up and partner to do better and get more work. We can do more to make it easier and attractive for people to come and establish businesses here,” said Malala.
Exporters Eastern Cape chairman Quintin Levey earlier mentioned to members that the strategic leadership team of Exporters Eastern Cape will be meeting with Transnet later this month to discuss exporter logistics challenges and cement a closer working relationship with Transnet.
“The most important thing we are going to have to do for ourselves and our businesses, is to make sure we are united and use organisations like Exporters Eastern Cape to get things done. Without being organised, we are all finished. If we want to fix the country and all the big issues we face, we all have to work in a way to say let’s work together,” continued Malala.
While the international geopolitical tensions will remain red flags of big concern for South African businesses for some time, Malala said there were also “green shoots” with the Government of National Unity (GNU) that came into power.
“We have succeeded in places where we thought we wouldn’t, three years ago loadshedding was a real crisis but now it is almost like another world and things have changed substantially. In 1994, leadership was what saved the country and we are back at the time where the geopolitics are so sensitive we are going to need leadership to navigate the unknowns…these things will happen, but leadership is the key thing we are going to need in the country.”
He predicted big changes for the local government elections later on this year, and said corruption on all levels needs to be exposed more and more to act as a deterrent.
Shane Gerber, managing director of BLG Logistics of South Africa, referred to these positive developments in the local economy as “glimmers of hope” as he opened the business breakfast and introduced Malala.
