Polokwane Chamber of Business to be relaunched soon
With no activities or events held during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Polokwane Chamber of Business (PCOB) is back on track and plans to host a relaunch event within the next month.
POLOKWANE – This was according to PCOB interim executive committee chairperson Percy Mongalo when he addressed guests at a breakfast and networking session at Fusion Boutique Hotel last Wednesday.
“We are grateful for the assistance of Polokwane Municipality represented by municipal manager Thuso Nemugumoni and her team for assisting with the resuscitation of the chamber and providing secretarial services,” Mongalo said.
According to Mongalo, the chamber will resume its activities in a new format as agreed with the municipality. “We will extend our membership to associations, townships and rural areas so that we represent all businesses and business formations in the municipal area as well as the area of Capricorn District Municipality. “We will endeavour to represent business where we are needed, be it through trade missions and accompanying our municipality and our provincial departments to places where the voice of business is needed. We will renew our relationships with the institutions of higher learning, the Provincial Skills Development Forum and the Limpopo Human Resource Development Council to ensure that entrepreneurial skills development happens in our province,” Mongalo explained.
Mongalo said that the PCOB will again host business evenings where businesses showcase their business offerings and revive the golf-day and the gala dinner where awards are given to those who add value and excellence in the advancement of the municipality and the province.
Mongalo announced that the interim Exco consists of Mable Motsifane who represents women and associations, Beef Nkoana representing young entrepreneurs, Phistus Mphahlele representing townships and rural areas, Moipone Segooa representing Polokwane Municipality and past president Matsobane Tleane representing corporate and individual members.
Polokwane municipal manager Thuso Nemugumoni rendered a message of support and said that the resuscitation of the PCOB is very important for the municipality as Section 152 of the Constitution mandates local municipalities to promote Local Economic Development. “This structure affords the municipality a platform to engage the business sector in a much more co-ordinated manner,” Nemugumoni said and explained that the municipality has a dedicated strategic business unit (SBU) that deals with economic development and that it is the municipality’s commitment to always engage business to establish the support that the economy requires in order to grow.
She added that the SBU is responsible for Investment Promotion and Tourism, Trade and Business Regulation, Enterprise Development and Economic Planning and Research and assured the PCOB that the municipality is there to support business and to ensure that its support in kind will be useful in ensuring that this important structure is functional and beneficial to the development of Polokwane becoming a Metro.
In closing, Mongalo thanked Vodacom for hosting the event.
