The community of Alex stands to benefit immensely from the creation of the new Alex 100 Mall
ALEXANDRA – Chamber president Mpho Motsumi said he received 10 000 CVs.
The Greater Alexandra Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Galxcoc) said the Alex community would be the major beneficiaries of the establishment of the Alex 100 Mall, which is a centenary legacy project of the township.
Chamber president Mpho Motsumi said the Alex community would not just be beneficiaries in terms of jobs from the more than
10 000 CVs he received but will also be shop owners and service providers.
“It’s part of an agreement we had with shop owners that preference for employment prospects be given to Alex residents with exception to skills that may not reside within the community,” Motsumi said.
“The fact that we received an overwhelming number of CVs for jobs just shows the dire state of unemployment in our township and, hence, we tried to address it in reaching these preferential employment agreements with various shop owners.”
He said SMMEs would play a major role in the provision of auxiliary services to the mall in the form of maintenance plumbers, electricians, cleaning services, waste collection and so forth.
“We have already reached an agreement with a local cleaning company, Nectaparty, which is owned and run by a well-known Alex resident, Mbopha Mashigo and a roller-shutter doors company, Siyakhusela, which will take care of maintenance requirements in that sphere.”
He said most of these SMMEs had worked hand-in-hand with the main building contractor and had learnt valuable lessons which he said they would hopefully translate to the benefit of their own businesses.
The mall’s management and marketing will also be handed to a local person, who Motsumi said would be appointed soon after the opening. “We want to live up to the promises we made to the people at the conceptualisation of the mall.”
Read: Alex Mall hopes to draw affluent Sandton folk to its doors
Motsumi took the opportunity to thank the spade work done by property owners for their ‘resilience in the fight for property rights in the township and resistance to expropriation measures instituted by the apartheid regime’.
“Without them, this mall would not have been realised, and I applaud them for the selfless work they have done over many years.”
