Trust

Andrew Layman:  PCB CEO

If mutual trust is the key to any constructive relationship, I must concede that this is at a very low point in the relationship between the Msunduzi Municipality and the city’s business community.    I am not referring to the Chamber which has a greatly improved relationship with the current administration, but to many individual business enterprises which have long-felt that their presence in, and their contribution to, the city have been unrecognised.   It should never be forgotten that the private sector and its various component entities provide the bulk of employment in the city.   

The break-down in trust is attributable to both parties, in my view.  On one hand, there is a municipality which has done very little to improve its hospitability to business.   Undertakings given years ago about inner city rejuvenation have not been fulfilled.  In this regard, the Chamber has suffered some embarrassment because this was a project eventually entrusted to us, but it had to be aborted when it became clear that the policies that guided the City Improvement District processes had to be changed to bring them into line with the Municipal Property Rates Act.    For all that this was intended to be a benign piece of legislation, its implementation was extremely badly handled by municipalities.   Here, although the local government didn’t exploit the new law by introducing unreasonable rates increases, the valuation process was fraught with inconsistencies and far too many errors.    Its implementation had to be delayed and this necessitated more wasteful expenditure on a contract that was shoddily carried out.     There were few complaints from businesses about the new roll, but business people are also private property owners and many of them were comprehensively alienated by what appeared to be high-handed treatment.    To this dissatisfaction must be added the apparent indifference of the municipality to the business environments.    Informal traders were allowed free rein, the streets grew filthier and no-one seemed to care about the appearance of business precincts.    In its attitude to concerns about electricity tariffs, the municipality was dismissive and even despite many meetings, never seemed to grasp the points that were being made.    At one meeting, when we warned that companies might relocate to places where their electricity costs would be lower, the Mayor at the time retorted: “let them go”.    The new administration quickly grasped the issues at stake and the tariffs were revised, but unfortunately, the new ones were introduced with so many errors, and such poor communication, that many companies have been left with the feeling that their successful progress is of no value to the city.

At the same time, the number of instances where businesses have been found to have been stealing electricity through illicit connections and other devious means has hardened the attitudes of the administrators.    It is their belief that the city has been ripped off for years by unscrupulous business operators.   Many have bribed officials; some have paid fines and having done so, have again reconnected illegally; others more honest, perhaps, have kept the municipality waiting for payment.   It is not surprising, therefore, that the sympathetic ear that the Chamber hopes for, was not forthcoming.  With some reason, there is a feeling that the financial woes of the city have been exacerbated by people in business.   We can point to totally ineffective enforcement, of course, but we have a sorry state of affairs if behaviour is determined not by what is right or wrong, but what one can, or cannot, get away with.

There is no doubt that if we want to live in a prosperous city that is hospitable to business and believes in the value of economic development, we have to restore trust.   Perhaps it has never been there, if the truth be told.    Prior to 1994, the so-called white business community was advantaged by the fact that municipal and business leaders enjoyed a ‘honeymoon’ relationship.    Even then, the Church Street Mall warranted greater attention than ‘downtown’.     Now, one wonders whether any sector of business warrants attention.   

We are hopeful that there is appreciation of the need for the city to have a vibrant economy with a lot of happy and contented business activity.   In due course, we might even have an economic development strategy and a clear commitment on the part of the city to promote the welfare of business and its people.     I hope that business will respect the requirement for it to play its part in promoting the welfare of the city.    We must build trust.                      

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