(Left to Right): Business Chamber President Loyiso Dotwana, NMBM Executive Mayor Nqaba Bhanga, Business Chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen and Jonathan Lawack, NMBM’s Speaker of Council
– (Left to Right) Business Chamber President Loyiso Dotwana and CEO, Denise van Huyssteen.
14 October 2021
Chamber and Municipality sign MOU to expedite Adopt a Substation initiative
Today, the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality which will enable the Adopt-a-Substation initiative to be implemented.
This follows the Chamber’s drive to assist the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality with the safeguarding of its critical electrical substations across the Metro against widespread vandalism that has cost the city millions of Rands for repairs and negatively impacted upon the continuity of business activities.
The signing of the MOU paves the way for businesses participating in the initiative to expedite the finalisation of plans to curb the continued vandalism on the city’s critical electrical infrastructure and ensure there are minimal interruptions to the power supply to business operations due to these criminal elements. The ongoing disruptions to the electrical supply have had a huge impact on businesses in the Metro some of which have incurred huge losses to their daily operations due to power outages.
In a bid to address this very serious issue, the Chamber, through its Electricity Task Team has been engaging with the Municipality on a collaborative initiative to protect the supply of electricity to impacted businesses in the city.
To this end, Chamber member companies stand ready to implement this key initiative, which will help ensure security of electricity supply to their operations, said Denise van Huyssteen, Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO.
“Over the past year, the vandalism of sub-stations and the stealing of electricity has escalated to the extent that there are now frequent disruptions to manufacturing operations due to power outages. Not only do these actions result in millions of Rands in damage, they also cause manufacturing operations to halt, with one company recently losing 12 days of production. As organised business, we appreciate the Municipality’s openness to our proposal and appreciate their partnership in enabling us to work together to implement the appropriate solutions to address this issue,” she said.
In terms of next steps, the Chamber will approach its member companies and encourage more to become part of the initiative by adopting a substation near their particular business precincts, entailing the provision of specific services to the identified substation to help safeguard it against vandalism or theft.
A needs analysis of each substation will be conducted to identify the kind of security support needed to ensure its safety. Where necessary, first-line security and surveillance services, including personnel for monitoring of the latter and or boundary/perimeter fencing will be deployed to reinforce security measures.
Executive Mayor Nqaba Bhanga said the MOU signing was a good step towards creating an economical viable City. “This partnership is a beginning of many that the City is forging with different stakeholders to make sure that Nelson Mandela Bay is a safe City of choice for economic growth. As the City we do accept that we cannot overcome all our challenges on our own, strategic partnership like this is a good foundation,” said Bhanga.