The award-winning Greater Alexandra Chamber of Commerce’s business administrative acumen is in high demand.
The Alex chamber’s expertise are being shared with a sister chamber operating under the same conditions of the historically black townships in the Durban areas of Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu in KwaZulu-Natal.
The managing director of the Alex chamber, Mamiki Matlawa, said soon after being bestowed with the Chamber of the Year Award for 2014 by the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the demand for their expertise immediately shot off the roof.
“We have been requested by the Ink Chamber (short for Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu Chamber of Commerce) to share our knowledge and expertise with them, mainly pertaining to the running of our chamber in Alexandra.
“Delegates at the award ceremony were so impressed with our administrative abilities and projects that we run within the community of Greater Alexandra that they asked us to share this knowledge with them,” she said.
Matalawa pointed out that although the Alex chamber was registered as an NGO, “it is run on strict business principles and the projects that we engage in are designed such that they make business sense to any investor and sponsoring partners”.
“We found it awkward to preach business principles to aspiring entrepreneurs, yet our own organisation does not live according to that sword. We then decided to practise what we preach and started running our chamber on strict business principles so that our budding business people can also learn from us,” Matlawa added.
“We often fly in and out of Durban to share this expertise with our counterparts at Ink and that relationship seems to be blossoming.”
