Committed to saving lives and jobs
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber is please to announce that all of its Board Members have been vaccinated, confirming the overwhelming support of the local business community to saving lives and reviving the economy.
Reinforcing this commitment, Chamber President Loyiso Dotwana said that it was important that organised business showed courageous leadership during these times of uncertainty and indecisiveness, based on the need to do what’s in the best interests of our city and its people. “The Chamber therefore actively encourages and promotes high levels of vaccination to ensure that the economy can be opened up as soon as possible. Moreover we want to avoid the pending 4th wave from having a devastating impact on lives and jobs.”
“We are very concerned about the impact covid-19 has had on the unnecessary loss of lives and the detrimental impact it has had on our local economy, with some sectors like tourism, travel and hospitality being particularly hard it. Nelson Mandela Bay’s unemployment rate currently stands at unacceptable levels of over 40%,” emphasised Dotwana. “It is therefore absolutely vital that everything possible is done to get economic activity going again and as organised business we need to demonstrate strong leadership in helping to promote economic activity. Vaccines are the current only tool available to achieve this, and to avoid additional waves restricting economic activity and resulting in further loss of life, at least 67% of our population needs to be vaccinated.”
Chamber CEO Denise van Huyssteen said that the Board knew that the debate around vaccinations was both controversial and divisive, and that there was lack of belief in the integrity of the information being provided. “Given this, we believe that it is important that the Chamber plays a key role in providing platforms for members to access factual information from the correct sources to make informed decisions.
“There is sufficient evidence which shows that vaccinations protect those who are vaccinated from severe illness, needing hospitalisation and from death. There is a lower the risk for those who have been vaccinated, from having breakthrough Covid-19 infections from those who are unvaccinated,” she said. “Workers should have a right to be less fearful of contracting Covid-19 in their workplace by knowing that their fellow colleagues are vaccinated and have thus been given the best possible chance of fighting the virus. We therefore all have a social responsibility to ensure that our employees are safe at work, that their health is not endangered by unnecessary and avoidable risks.”
Van Huyssteen commended Chamber members who have taken proactive steps to make on-site vaccinations available to their employees. “In the absence of other solutions, more broadly we are encouraging as many people as possible to get vaccinated.”