Durban bosses celebrate
Despite South Africa’s unfolding political and economic crisis, Durban’s business elite last night donned their party best to celebrate.
|||Durban - Despite South Africa’s unfolding political and economic crisis, Durban’s business elite last night donned their party best to celebrate another year of doing trade in the city.
While the Department of Economic Development and Tourism sent notices this week to all the business chambers in the province asking for the names of companies in distress due to the stalled economy, more than 900 guests turned up at the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 160th annual gala dinner last night in glittering evening gear determined to celebrate - if only for one night.
The chief executive of the chamber, Dumile Cele, used the event to launch the #durbanmustrise campaign, which she said was a call to everyone in Durban to question daily how they could make the city great.
According to Cele, celebrating the “significant” milestone demanded reflection of the past and a clear plan for the next century. It’s about us looking forward and saying to ourselves, what will it be like doing business in Durban 160 years from now?”
She said the call to industry to sponsor more than 100 guests at about R1 600-a-seat who were either owners of start-up businesses or university students, was also a direct drive to ensure a legacy beyond the dinner itself.
Guest speaker Peter Staude, Tongaat Hulett’s chief executive, said the “serious” mistrust between business and South African society was a warning to business to reflect seriously on the social implications of their operations.
Fault line
“If we keep ignoring (our responsibility) to our employees and what happens to them outside the workspace, we have a serious fault line in our businesses.”
He said companies had to think beyond corporate social investment, to starting a conversation and devising innovative solutions to co-opt and inspire employees at all levels.
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“We need a mind flip. Often it does not actually need too much money to make that effort,” he said.
He said in a fast-changing and interconnected world faced with serious societal and development issues, businesses were being seen more often as part of the problem and distinctly apart from the solution.
“It is no longer enough to adhere to legal and accepted business practices. It’s not enough to do some corporate social investment. Each one of us has the possibility to develop innovative, practical approaches that will have an enormous [and] positive impact on our developmental challenges,” he said.
Muhammad Seedat, the vice-president in charge of finance at the chamber, said while wasteful and fruitless expenditure was at the forefront of most people’s minds, proceeds from the annual gala event, which has come in for criticism in the media due to the cost of the tickets, were being used to promote business activities in the city and to market the “best of Durban”.
“We get to display Durban’s finest. Events such as these also encourage new entrepreneurs, because they see that it can be done here in Durban and not only in Johannesburg or Cape Town,” he said.
MERCURY