The Chamber of Commerce and Industry is an organisation steeped in the history of Springs.
Last year, it celebrated its 100th birthday.
For the chamber to continue surviving into the future, it has to show relevance to the business community and the community in general.
To plan for this we need, as a chamber, to examine the main issues affecting the environment that we operate in.
South Africa’s biggest problems relate to jobs, education, housing and crime.
None of these problems can be solved without economic growth and as long as our growth in gross national products is lower than our growth in population, we are going backwards.
The EGCCI cannot solve the country’s problems but we have to do our share by encouraging growth in our region and making our voice heard on the issues of jobs, education, housing and crime in our region.
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In order to do this, the chamber’s most basic responsibility is to facilitate communication and build trust between business, local government, the law and order maintenance system, educational institutions and other entities.
High trust societies are characterised by a healthy and dynamic civil society made up of many non-government institutions such as police forums, neighbourhood watches,
unions, educational institutions, charities, service organisations, churches, and of course what we are concerned with, voluntary business associations.
In this context, it is not enough for businesses to ask “What does the Chamber of Commerce and Industry do for me?”
We should be asking: “What can we do as a business, in general, to develop our local economy and create a better environment and standard of living for our employees and surrounding communities?”
In terms of building trust, it is the responsibility of the chamber to act as a model point building networks, not only between businesses but between businesses in general, local government, government departments, security organisations and other non-governmental and community organisations.
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When the Springs Chamber was founded in 1917, it was a mere 16 years after what most historians today regard as a civil war between Boer and Brit, that like the American Civil War, was a clash between a rural agricultural culture and a city-based industrialising culture.
The challenge at that time was to merge the two belligerent cultures peacefully.
Over many years and many crises, this was generally achieved.
Today, we have recently come through what was basically also a civil war and are facing a similar challenge involving white culture and African culture, presenting similar challenges for community leaders.
I see the EGCCI as having an important role to play in building bridges between these cultures.
We want to encourage black-owned businesses to join the chamber and participate in the communication and development as detailed above.
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