Fixing one pothole or streetlight, putting a litterbin on a street corner, installing surveillance cameras in business precincts — in isolation these small actions might not seem like much against the enormity of the infrastructure and service delivery polycrisis, but taken together they add up to a growing momentum of positive change in the Bay.
While there remains a mountain to climb, the most important fundamental enabling requirement is strong leadership, accountability and action from local government.
This reinforces the critical importance of the November local elections, which will ultimately determine the metro’s future trajectory.
In the meantime, the active citizenship of local businesses holding the line gives us reason to have hope.
The 11 geographic clusters supported by the NMB Business Chamber, driven by businesspeople volunteering their time and expertise to tackle shared problems, have grown in impact since the pioneering cluster, the Perseverance Business Association, was established four years ago.
The clusters operate in diverse industrial, commercial, tourist and mixed-use areas across the metro, and now include the Baakens Valley, Beachfront, Deal Party, Fairview, Kariega, Neave/Korsten, Newton Park, North End, Perseverance, Struandale, and Walmer clusters.
The Beachfront Cluster, for example, has put a tremendous amount of effort and energy into improving safety and cleanliness in our prime tourism area through lighting of streets and public spaces, CCTV and licence plate recognition cameras, coordinated security initiatives, and working together to support major events.
Clusters are repainting road markings, restoring “street furniture” such as bollards, installing litter bins and cleaning public spaces.
They are driving cleaning of stormwater drains and clearing and preventing illegal dumping.
Collectively, the clusters and local businesses have adopted 23 substations, seven pump stations, and schools (76 in phase 1, 35 in phase 2), with new initiatives on securing traffic lights and fixing potholes now rolling out.
These initiatives restore services, protect infrastructure against vandalism and, in the case of schools where an estimated 10% of total water losses take place, assist in fixing leaks and ensuring sustainable water use.
The North End Cluster recently handed over security improvements at the Voyle pump station to the municipality, including cameras and perimeter fencing.
In Struandale, the cluster financed and installed fencing around the four substations and implemented monitored security cameras and 24-hour armed patrols, resulting in more than three years with no power outages caused by vandalism.
Several clusters, including Newton Park and Perseverance, have launched camera projects to improve security and track traffic and illegal dumping offenders.
The Baakens Valley Cluster is entering the second phase of its alien vegetation clearing project with Working on Fire.
The clearing project has numerous benefits — improving river flow and stormwater drainage capacity, restoring biodiversity by enabling indigenous flora and fauna to regenerate, improving safety and quality of life for users of one of the Bay’s most important ecological and economic assets.
Together with the chamber’s Risk Management Desk, clusters are installing the National Sea Rescue Institute’s pink buoys in local water bodies including the North End Lake and Swartkops River, to aid rescues of swimmers in distress.
Many of these initiatives are having a positive social impact too, with several clusters, including Neave/Korsten and North End, working with MES, a nonprofit organisation that empowers homeless and unemployed people to return to sustainable living.
The clustering approach has also led to the development of big visions that are beginning to bear fruit.
The Perseverance Cluster is advancing its plans for an eco-industrial park, with shared services and a circular economy approach to support low carbon, sustainable manufacturing and business operations.
This is one of five industrial areas in SA participating in an international programme by the UN Industrial Development Organisation focused on accelerating low-carbon, energy-positive industrial development.
These business-led interventions demonstrate not only the power of collaboration and shared vision, but the power of that collective voice in forging public-private partnerships, as most of these initiatives have been successful by combining business volunteerism with mobilising action and collaboration with the municipality and other levels of government.
At national level, we are seeing improvements on the electricity and logistics fronts through the government-business partnership in Operation Vulindlela, which is enabling policy reform and greater private sector participation.
There is also a national workstream on local government reforms, in which the chamber has provided inputs.
We might not yet be feeling the impact locally but we will in the longer-term, as long as the momentum is sustained.
However, there is no room for complacency.
Our metro and country still face many stumbling blocks to an enabling environment for investment and economic growth at levels that will meaningfully tackle unemployment and poverty.
The active citizenship of business proves that decline does not have to be an inevitability that we can only watch helplessly from the sidelines.
By getting involved and working together, rather than waiting for somebody else to act, businesses and individuals can make a real difference.
Equally important, we all need to exercise our democratic rights and vote in the local elections for ethical, competent and action-oriented leaders who can drive the turnaround of the metro.
Denise van Huyssteen is chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber
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