The new President of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Zeph Ndlovu, is enthusiastic
about assuming his position to the oldest and biggest business chamber in Africa.Mr Ndlovu has had a long history of involvement in the Durban Chamber and said
that his motivation to participate in the organisation is in his, â€œdesire to perform a civic duty to serve business for the economic growth of the Durban Metro.”
Currently, the general manager of Transnet Port Terminals, Mr Zeph Ndlovu said that he is,“at the right
time and position to contribute to the Chamber.”Working within Transnet he has been privileged to play a role in the rich history of mercantile practice in Durban. His current goal is to be part
of Durban’s legacy by selflessly offering to add value through his service in the Chamber movement. He added, “This chamber has an impeccable track record, having been founded and sustained through visionary leadership of our forebears. The vibrant economic activity we see today, can only be sustained if we are available to take forth this legacy.” An active member of the Chamber for the past 12 years, Mr Ndlovu has served under five presidents.He says that he has learnt a lot from their collective experiences and wisdom. He intends to use this knowledge going forward on his own chamber journey, which he reports is informed by “discipline, humility and commitment”.
Mr Ndlovu has a vision to grow the Durban Chamber’s current membership base of 3000 to break into the 4000 mark, bringing in women and youth owned businesses. He said, “A strong member base consisting of both small and big business is essential in order to play an effective advocacy role to influence policy direction in as far as business development framework is concerned for Durban. The Chamber has developed good relationships with local, provincial and national government, which
are critical pillars for constructive engagement on business framework in the medium to long term plans.”
He believes that young budding entrepreneurs are the pipeline to growing the Chamber membership base. Further to this, it is essential to foster an environment conducive to embrace previously marginalised talent to provide space for unrestricted growth in order to
ensure that employment in all avenues is created. The Chamber offers much in terms of support to entrepreneurs and would want to enhance this through networking and linkages with other businesses in the city and further afield.
Such support will also assist in combating the social ills of poverty, unemployment and inequality that still hamper many communities’ growth. The role of skills development is paramount in this process, says Mr Ndlovu. By and large many captains of industries participate in nurturing the young as part of their career guidance and succession plan imperative. The crop of budding talent is not coming through as fast as expected. He asserts that there seems to be a disparity between what industry needs and what
academic institutions are producing.
Judging by the number of unemployed and unemployable skills in abundance, there certainly needs to be an urgent meeting of minds between business, institutions of higher learning, local government and civic society. We need to restore confidence to broader society that education is indeed key to success. Once again, the atest competitiveness report by the World Economic Forum rates SA at 56 among 144 countries. One of the areas we are lacking in is in the pillar of efficiency enhancers, including quality of education. We are trailing Mauritius. As the Durban Chamber, we will take this
challenge to get Durban on track. Durban has much to offer investors and the Chamber is active in ensuring that the City is a robust and safe place to do business. Through sector based forums, including but not limited to Safety and Justice, we play our part working with the municipality to collaborate in making Durban the preferred investment destination. The blue economy holds a special place in his vision for Durban. Mr Ndlovu believes that the development of new harbour facilities will play a big part in the promotion of maritime tourism in Durban. He also emphasizes the importance of the manufacturing sector as being key to economic growth and the need to drive beneficiation of primary products
for the export market. He added, â€œWe need to create hope for the current generation and build a foundation for sustainable prosperity for our children”. Zeph concluded by asking, â€œCan any business person afford to be outside the Chamber?” He added, “We are the ultimate Business Network. Your network should determine your business net worth.”