The Nelson Mandela Bay Chamber of Commers’s Help Desk has recorded an 86% resolution rate for cases reported to it by Nelson Mandela Bay businesses for the first half of the year, compared to 70% achieved for the full year in 2022. This is a one stop channel for Chamber member enabling environment issues to be consolidated and elevated through the appropriate Municipal channels for action.
A total of 83 cases have been reported from January to July 2023, compared to 82 which were reported for the whole of 2022.
As a strategic resource sponsored by Atlas Security, the Help Desk is a highly responsive platform through which the Chamber assists its over 700 member companies by expediting their issues for resolution through the relevant municipal departments. These relate to challenges around the ease of doing business, mostly relating to municipal service delivery.
The partnership between the Chamber and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has created an efficient platform where both parties are able to collaborate in the resolution of identified challenge areas in order to create a conducive working environment for business.
The Help Desk was established five years ago when it became apparent that there was a need to better channel the resolution of “ease of business” issues to ensure that engagement takes place with the right people and that regular follow through of progress is tracked.
“The Help Desk plays a significant and integral part in highlighting some of the key areas that impact businesses in the Metro. It is for this reason that we have strengthened this area of our work to ensure that we create a seamless bridge between our members and the municipality in resolving their queries, says Chamber chief executive, Denise van Huyssteen.
As such, the Help Desk tracks all queries received and the resolution rate, this allows the team oversight of the nature of queries received and where pressure needs to be applied to ensure resolution.
Some of the leading queries in the period under review are electricity at 38.5% and followed by water related cases (19,2%) account queries 14,1%, general queries 12,8%, sanitation 7,7%, roads and stormwater 6,4%, and human settlements 1,3%.
Since the beginning of this year, 42 unplanned power outages have been recorded in six industrial areas in the Metro. This is as a result of aged electricity infrastructure, the impact of constant loadshedding on switchgear, damage to fibre links and sub-station vandalism and cable theft.
“We are grateful for the partnership we have with Atlas Security as the main sponsor of the Desk as this reaffirms the importance of collaboration and what can be achieved if we all work together to build a stronger business environment,” says Van Huyssteen.
Alan Straton
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