The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber (NMBBC) is the new name of the former Port Elizabeth Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PERCCI), which traces its origins back more than 145 years.
Business leaders and political stakeholders gathered at the NMB Stadium last night to witness the unveiling of the new brand name – Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.
“We are proud to announce our new name, which has been more than a year in the making,” Chamber President Alfred da Costa said. “We have taken time to consult with our members, and key stakeholders, including the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, and have received approval from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“The Port Elizabeth-Uitenhage-Despatch region has already been honoured by being named after democratic South Africa’s first president and worldwide human rights icon Nelson Mandela. It is appropriate now that the chamber of commerce serving the region use that same identity.”
The agreement with the Foundation included guidelines about the use of the name and that it would be “carefully protected and honoured” by the Chamber and its members, Da Costa said.
Chamber chief executive Kevin Hustler said: “The Chamber represents close to 800 members. Among these are founding and long-standing members, like Standard Bank, Alexander Forbes, SA Breweries and Birch’s outfitters (Happy 150th birthday Birch’s).
“International corporations who are members include Volkswagen Group South Africa, General Motors SA, Ford Motor Company of SA, and Coca-Cola Fortune.
“The Chamber also represents small and medium enterprises, which today account for 75% of total membership. “We are confident all will feel at home with the new name.”
Hustler said the new name, a comprehensive new corporate identity programme, and associated promotional activities would increase the visibility of the Chamber in South Africa and internationally. “The name change is part of the Chamber’s ongoing transformation to serve the needs of the broader business community of the region.
“As a vital part of that we will continue to work hand in hand with the municipality and its various constituencies – including Uitenhage, Despatch and Port Elizabeth – to support the economic growth of the entire metro.”
Hustler said priority projects would be:
- The relocation of the tank farm and manganese ore dump in the Port Elizabeth harbour and development of the water front: While this was a complex process involving a number of role players, including various divisions of Transnet and major companies in the fuel and mining industries, regular meetings were being held and “progress is being made”. Linked to this, the development of the water front was essential, particularly to the future of the tourism industry.
- Industrial development strategy: The Chamber remains focused on the need to widen the foundations of the local economy by making every effort to add other industries to the automotive sector. While continuing to do everything in its power to encourage and further enlarge this vital sector, the Chamber believes the future of the region lies also in fields such as tourism, renewable energy, petro-chemicals, the maritime industry, pharmaceuticals, and agro-processing. With the metro already known internationally as the “World Capital of the Mohair Industry” similar recognition must be sought for the region to be a centre of agriculture and agro-processing of its other natural resources and crops.
- Coega refinery: It is vital to the economy of the Eastern Cape that PetroSA’s Project Mthombo, a $10-billion, 400 000 barrel/day, oil refinery set to come on stream in the Coega industrial development zone (IDZ) in approximately 2017, goes ahead. Not only is the refinery key to the country’s energy security and ability to meet international clean fuel standards, it has the potential for significant long-term socio-economic transformation in the province. The Chamber will continue its role as a prime motivator of the project and is pressing for the go-ahead of the front-end engineering and design studies.
- Unlimited potential of Coega IDZ and Ngqura deep-water port: These adjacent facilities offer world-class infrastructure and are unique in the country and on the continent of Africa. The chamber –a prime mover in the establishment and funding of the IDZ – believes further development will play a major role in industrial and economic growth.
Summing up the challenges facing the region, Hustler said: “It has to be recognised that Nelson Mandela Bay and South Africa as a whole are now part of the ‘global village’ and that being internationally competitive is an essential component of this. That means best practices must be implemented in both small to medium enterprises, and multinational corporations in our region.
“As part of that need to be recognised and to grow our reputation and successes, the new name and the inspiration and recognition it will provide will propel us forward to an even more successful future.”
Editors Notes: I did notice one or two ‘nervous’ glances towards me last night when the name change was announced as my feelings on the performance of brand ‘Nelson Mandela Brand’ in comparison to the performance of brand ‘Port Elizabeth’ and in an online context are well known – brand ‘Nelson Mandela Bay’ needs a lot more work.
Be that as it may, I am a big boy and accept that people may, can and will change and the reasons given seem sound enough to me.
What did sit a little uncomfortably with me was the emphasis given in the speeches on how the chamber has and continues to transform.
In an organizational context transformation (noun) is defined as, a process of profound and radical change that orientates an organization in a new direction and takes it to an entirely different level of effectiveness. In a South African context trans-for-ma-tion (verb) is the act of making entities containing a majority of white people now contain a majority of black people. This is all done in the name of a non racist, non sexist country. The jury is still out on how transformation contributes to the notion on non racism, though.
May I make a suggestion NMBBC? No? Too Late?
Stick to making sure that business becomes prosperous in our region. Prosperity brings change and people will naturally flock towards excellence. Concentrate on your mandate to serve business in an ethical manner as now demanded by your use of the name of Nelson Mandela and the transformation into a ‘normal’ society that we all so desire will occur in a natural and long lasting manner.
But, back to the performance of brand NMBBC – it is too early to tell as, when doing a search for NMBBC, Google serves up “NMBBC – New Mexico Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists” as the first result and also asks if maybe I was looking for ‘BBC’.
Early days yet as the new NMBBC web site was launched at 5:30 last night.
As always I shall do my tiny bit to help.
Alan Straton
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