COO recaps the year’s successes in her keynote speech at the PMR Awards Ceremony
Master of Ceremonies
Honoured Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning, and thank you for all of you who drove far to visit our beautiful city. Congratulations to all of you who are winners of these prestigious awards and who set an example of how to succeed under challenging circumstances.
Allow me to introduce the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism:
As the official representative body of business and tourism in the Kruger Lowveld (Ehlanzeni District), our main mandates are Number 1: to promote the region as a tourism and investment destination, Number 2: to provide a diverse suite of networking and marketing opportunities for our members, and Number 3: to represent and speak on behalf of the business and tourism community of our area. We do this by building and maintaining meaningful relationships with all spheres of government as well as likeminded organisations, and by acting as liaison between these entities and the business community. We operate without any government funding, but we do get support from MTPA and EDM as large advertisers in our publications.
In terms of promoting the region, we run 3 information centres at Crossing Centre in Mbombela, at Casterbridge Centre in White River and at Canal Walk in Cape Town; we produce two publications, the z-card type map of the Kruger Lowveld and the Official Guide to the Kruger Lowveld; our team exhibited at 7 tourism shows, locally and internationally.
KLCBT takes pride in creating networking and marketing platforms for our members. We have hosted 20 events during 2016 and we offer numerous marketing and advertising opportunities on an ongoing basis.
When it comes to representing our members, we are faced with an increasing demand on our advocacy role and for this reason we came to the conclusion that we need to join forces with other chambers in the region to create more effective and focused engagement with government and other stakeholders. During May of last year, all the chambers and major stakeholders within the Ehlanzeni district held their first conference and the Kruger Lowveld Ehlanzeni Business Alliance was formed. The alliance is focusing on practical ways of improving our local economy and also identify stumbling blocks which are hampering our growth.
We are currently focusing on 8 critical points, they are:
Improving our relationship with government
Regional water supply
Poor state of roads
Poor state of public tourism attractions
A permanent solution for Pilgrim’s Rest
Safety and security of tourists
Buy Local
Corruption and the promotion of integrity
Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to briefly mention some successes and progress on these endeavors:
We are really pleased to see real improvements following the implementation of the turnaround strategy of Mbombela local municipality, and are hopeful that the surrounding towns will follow their good example. KLCBT has pledged their ongoing support to ensure these goals are met, particularly the implementation of the IDP. I am excited about the formation of the Mbombela Economic Development Partnership where the City and the private sector stakeholders will identify and implement projects to develop the local economy. Meanwhile, the KLCBT is engaging at all possible forums to give input in future plans, including the IDP’s.
KLCBT together with various other stakeholders are in constant communication with the Minister of Water affairs regarding our bulk water supply, including the request for a dam South of Malelane, which will enable the farmers in the Onderberg to irrigate without the current restrictions. We recently received news that national surveys have been completed and we are awaiting news on the results.
We are pleased to say that many of the problems with the roads have been solved, although some are as a result of private sector involvement and funding. We are still trying to get more efficient grading methods implemented for gravel roads, to avoid the destruction of erosion. KLCBT is currently surveying all the roads and will compile a list of roads which need attention and will enquire about the repair and maintenance programmes for those roads at the relevant departments.
Repair work and improvements has commenced at some of the public attractions, but we are a long way off the mark if we want to compete against the rest of the world for tourists. We are excited about the possible privatization of reserves within our region and we sincerely hope to see more improvements at the attractions in the near future.
2015 Saw the formation of the Pilgrim’s Rest Integrated Development Engagement (or PRIDE in short) where 28 stakeholders started dialogue on a solution for Pilgrim’s Rest. Some progress have been made and the task team has been ready ready to present the solutions to the relevant HOD’s since December 2015. We are relieved to see renewed interest in this regard and look forward to the rebirth of this important tourism product.
One of the most successful interventions involve the safety and security of tourists. The Hazyview Chamber of Business and Tourism, with the assistance of the KLCBT, appointed a crime liaison officer who provide intelligence from the community and liaise with the Chamber and the police on a daily basis. Although the problem is not eradicated completely, it saw a vast reduction in robberies. With the collaboration of Ehlanzeni District Municipality, a team of Ehlanzeni tourism ambassadors were recently deployed. It will be used as a pilot project to be replicated in other areas.
During this fight against crime, we received an overwhelming amount of reports from tourists who fell victim to traffic officials soliciting bribes on the tourism routes, particularly in the Hayzview – Buschbuckridge area. Immediate engagements with SAPS and the Traffic Department were arranged. From our side, we printed business cards to be handed out to tourists, containing a statement that it is illegal to pay a cash fine on the side of the road, and also containing the telephone numbers of Brig Adolph and Brig De Beer who are instrumental in bringing the perpetrating officers to justice.
Through the Business Alliance, we are in the process of establishing a network of cameraed zones to be linked up with the number plate recognition system of business against crime. This concept is currently awaiting approval, but all systems are ready to be switched on and become a major part of crime prevention in the Malalane area, Mbombela city and hopefully later on also Hazyview and Kruger National Park.
The buy-local advocacy is the most recent addition to our task-list and holds great potential. We will design and implement various programmes and initiatives to promote local procurement by government and the private sector and will provide assistance to small businesses to become compliant as service providers.
When we mention the topics of corruption and ethics, we are by no means pointing fingers in any direction. We acknowledge that the crime of corruption is a double edged sword where one party pays the bribe and another takes the bribe, and our campaigns against corruption are directed at both government and the private sector. The promotion of ethics is crucial – you simply cannot run a successful business without good ethical practices… We have developed a code of ethics consisting of only five words which each business can tailor-make to their own environment. We invite you to take a look at it on www.integrity.org and sign the pledge of integrity. Come up with a unique idea on how to implement it in your own business environment with partners, management, staff, suppliers and clients.
Guests of honour, ladies and gentlemen, in short – we have to join hands to create a better business environment and to create a better province for us all to live and work in. It is not our mandate or in our interest to criticize government, but it is our explicit mandate to maintain a good relationship with government and other organisations – to share our abundant expertise with them and to ensure that their strategies and their vision which is also our vision for the future, is successfully carried out.
I am not going to elaborate too much on the work of the KLCBT, but I would like to encourage you to visit our website and find out about all the opportunities that comes about regularly. If you want to know more about member benefit and events, please visit us at the Crossing Centre office.
Let me conclude by something practical, first by recapping on my tips to grow your business. It remains very relevant and if you tried it out for a couple of weeks last year, I am sure you noticed the positive results and it is absolutely worth it to make it part of your discipline. Today I am adding to your homework with my tips for increased productivity.
(Slides and explanations followed)
Linda Grimbeek
COO
7 December 2016
