KZN facing ‘existential economic crisis’
The president of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry says the province is facing an existential economic crisis.
Prasheen Maharaj made the remarks in a joint press conference with eThekwini Municipality at the Durban City Hall this week.
"We need to avert that crisis. So what we as the chamber have decided to do is throw the might of business, of capital behind, not only the city but all the stakeholders that are economic role players to ensure that we economic the economic crisis," Maharaj said.
At the briefing, eThekwini Mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda outlined his plan of action for the state of the city’s beaches, crime, water and sanitation infrastructure repairs since the April Floods.
When asked about the impact of these on businesses, Maharaj said there are various challenged.
"Obviously service delivery challenges, the inefficiency in the port severely impact our business and as a result we find low economic growth and we find the cost of doing business increasing. It is as situation we face. We can complain, we have complained in the past, it has not solved the problem."
Maharaj said they plan on being part of the solution.
"So one will look at for example the Transnet issue, last week. You know there's a strike today, perhaps on Monday, we engaged with Transnet as the DCCI together with our relevant logistics role players to say what can we do."
