The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber’s Board of Directors wishes to announce that Nomkhita Mona has stepped down as its Chief Executive Officer as of, 31st March 2021. In the interim, Prince Matonsi, who is currently the Operations Manager, has been appointed as Acting CEO, a role he has previously occupied.
The Chamber Board wishes to express its gratitude to Mona for her contribution to the organisation during her tenure.
She joined the Business Chamber in 2017 and during her stewardship, she forged valuable relationships with members, other Chambers, and various strategic partners, under the auspices of the Quadruple Helix Model of collaboration and partnership between academia, business, civil society and government. These initiatives have laid a solid foundation for the Business Chamber to play a key role in driving for an enabling environment in which local business can operate and grow.
During this past year, in conjunction with Board Members and other key stakeholders, she led the formation of the Ubuntu Covid-19 Fund through which over R130 million worth of donations and equipment was raised towards saving human lives in the Metro - which included major renovations by Business Chamber members to some of the City’s public health facilities that needed urgent revamping and the development of a field hospital.
During her tenure, she also initiated much needed discussions through the How to Build a City Series of talks where business, government, academia, and civil society discussed issues affecting the city and how best to resolve them. The purpose of the series was essentially to get the local community talking about the challenges that are stifling development in the region, and work towards strategic projects that unlock development. More recently the Business Chamber has hosted several embassies and ambassadors who visited Nelson Mandela Bay as part of strengthening business relations in the region. The engagements involved countries such as Flanders Belgium, Australia, Mauritius, Vietnam, United States and France. Part of these engagements even culminated in the Business Chamber hosting a seminar for local businesses with a key focus on logistics and product distribution opportunities into and out of Europe.
In 2018, the Business Chamber in partnership with Ezethu Development Trust, launched the BayGrow Development Hub, an initiative geared towards conducting cluster-based research which would aid effective promotion of trade and investment in the Metro. This is anchored on several identified sectors such as automotive, light manufacturing, business process outsourcing, agro-processing, tourism, maritime, oil and gas, and the creative industries, among others. The Hub also houses the Business Help Desk which has assisted in resolving a significant number of queries on the ease of doing business in the Metro.
Credible strategic relations have also been cultivated with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, often shortened to simply GIZ to collaborate on activities that create sustainable economic development in the region and support of COVID-19 initiatives.
The Board wishes to extend its sincere thanks and appreciation to Mona for her dedication during the last four 4 years and wish her well in her future endeavours.
In terms of the Chamber’s priorities for the balance of this year, these will be orientated around ensuring that as organised business our structures and strategies are optimally positioned to initiate and support changes which will drive the sustainability and growth of our local economy Also high on the Business Chamber agenda in 2021 is economic recovery for the region considering the impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated national lockdown. Efforts to access interventions to support businesses to get back to a viable growth path will continue unabated. Our work in influencing the ease of doing business in the region will be pursued with greater vigour.
The Business Chamber has noted with great concern that critical infrastructural challenges in the Metro have worsened since last year - which includes the lack of reliable and quality electricity and water supply. This has been unacceptably disruptive to business operations. We have raised these matters during our recent meeting with the Executive Mayor and his team. We remain confident that constructive engagement with all relevant stakeholders will ensure ease of doing business challenges are resolve leading to a better transition in the second half of this year.
Issued by:
Dr Andrew Muir
President, Nelson Mandela Business Chamber