Presidents Report for 2010 to 2011

Kenton/Bushmans Chamber of Business and Tourism
President’s Report for 2010/11

A number of external factors influenced our business environment this last year:

The world economy continued its erratic attempts to improve. A result was a stronger Rand, with less Rand in the pocket and high airfares for the tourist;
The property market also behaved erratically, and generally weakly;
Local political elections produced some changes in voters’ attitudes – mainly in the preparedness of communities to insist on better service delivery;
Ndlambe Municipality signed a Service Level Agreement with the new Sunshine Coast Tourism and Events Authority (“SCT”) after a puzzling delay of some fourteen months, enabling us to commence with the restructuring of tourism in the area and to begin re-branding our tourism products on a co-ordinated basis for the East Cape Sunshine Coast.

Your Executive Committee regularly receives reports from other bodies, and in this way tries to act by taking the overall context of a matter into account. This is important, because with the portfolios of Tourism and Business, our interests often cover the reach of more than one of bodies such as Kenton Ratepayers, Bushmans Ratepayers, Estuary Care and the individual Ward Committees. There is also common ground. We receive reports about the activities of such organisations, though it is probable that we should see if we can mutually find even better means of co-operation. In general we have taken the view that where we think it necessary the Chamber will initiate an action and, as appropriate, hand it on to a suitable body for long term implementation. Examples of this are the Blue Flag Beach, Street Signage, the Camera Surveillance project, and the One-village concept. The first three are self-descriptive: a One-village concept was discovered by Justin Wilmot to be operating in the Parish of Cropwell Bishop in the United Kingdom. They have formulated a model of co-operation based on extensive consultation and ‘buy-in’ across the whole community which appears to work very well. We are delighted that the Kenton Ratepayers’ Association is planning to introduce this model into Kenton/Ekuphumleni and sincerely trust that they will encourage the other parts of our Bushmans/ Kenton community to participate. Tourists love to come to this part of the world for its natural beauty and game parks. They are just as charmed by the people – the warm hospitality and friendliness they experience from all sectors of the population; sometimes to their surprise, having come into South Africa with preconceptions of some negativity. If we ourselves can feel we are a united community, our friendliness and hospitality will be communicated all the better.

Indeed the model of co-operation rather than confrontation provides a sound basis for good and prosperous business relationships, particularly in our political and economic circumstances. We come into the arena of business and tourism from a large range of cultural, educational and political differences. Business itself must decide on how to marry the ideological divides of capitalistic free enterprise and socialistic perceptions of enterprise based on collective ownership and bargaining. Neither raw socialism nor capitalism has worked in Africa, from Julius Nyerere’s failed ‘Ujamaa’ plan for Tanzania and the disasters of Zimbabwe, to many examples of cold and self-serving capitalism that occurred during the apartheid years and even now. The former failed to harness the energy of entrepreneurship; the latter exploited the unskilled and poorly educated. Logic would indicate that we have to find some middle way. The new political regime has not yet worked out which way it wants to move, and this uncertainty exacerbates what we in the private sector perceive to be incompetence and inability to take the initiative. The Youth, along with young people in all countries, see a golden goose, whether it be land or mineral resources, and bay to acquire it through a process of one party and one ownership: more experienced and balanced minds know that another approach must be found. We have seen some positive results when the principles of sincere co-operation have been applied. An essential feature of such an approach is trust which, unfortunately, cannot be built up overnight and which requires hard and consistent effort. A good local example has been the recent signing of the Service Level Agreement between the new SCT body and Ndlambe Municipality, which was essential for tourism to move forward. I have reported previously on the delay of more than a year before it was signed. There was nothing technical in the agreement to prevent it from being signed: but once the new Tourism office-bearers had persuaded their municipal partners of their integrity and goodwill, signing became a formality!

We have worked over a number of years to develop a combined business/tourism model. In these parts tourism, including when tourists and visitors return to build or buy permanent homes, is the main driver of business. Accordingly our efforts as a Chamber have been strengthened by the motivation to develop tourism in an acceptable and sustainable way. That will remain our aim; and our experiences with and within the SCT are steps to secure the future of tourism. However, we have also been aware of the need to provide better business support to our members and have recently introduced a new portfolio on our Committee – focussing on the members of the Chamber. Our efforts in the Ward System will continue. Recently we have had a change of staff, and we are pleased to announce that Erica McNulty, who continues to do sterling work in the field of tourism, has been joined by Jeremy Turner in the office. Jeremy comes to us with a wealth of big corporation experience, as well as having run his own two businesses in Kenton. He has also been your Treasurer this last year, so already has intimate knowledge about how we operate. He will concentrate on the ‘business’ component of our task, and will increase our visibility and we trust our usefulness in this respect. He will also drive the new Membership portfolio.

I should like, on your behalf as well as mine, to thank the various members of your Executive Committee for the sterling work they have done over this past year. Their efforts are without financial reward, often entailing a great deal of time, effort and money, and sometimes they have to endure criticism from even our own members. Here are some of their achievements:
Jeremy Turner drove the camera surveillance project to the point where it is nearly self-generating; he took care of our interests concerning safety and security, and part way through the year took on the responsibility of the Treasurership. He has performed this function with zeal and flair. You will receive his report in this meeting.
Justin Wilmot and Wally Kitcat have been our representatives on Ward Councils 3 and 4 respectively. They have kept us informed about decisions and have made inputs as appropriate. The Ward Council system is still imperfect, and there have been times when meetings did not take place for one or other reason. Their patience and persistence is noted and appreciated.
Nic Poole has had a great deal of overseas travelling to do, which has made regular attendance of meetings impossible. Nevertheless we have appreciated his inputs – in particular with regard to the web-site. The revamped web-site came into operation in November 2010. Towards the holiday season at the end of last year Hits exceeded 250 000 in some months. It has settled down since then, though Total Visits has crept up to around 7 500 per month (roughly double that of 2009) from 55 countries.
Anton Masters has had the responsibility of Corporate Social Responsibility and our participation in festivals. As a retired businessperson with vast experience in similar Chambers, his wise insights have guided many of our decisions.
Mike Wilmot has had the responsibility for Tourism. He has led our approaches to the Blue Flag Beach project and has been the leading figure in the KentonXtreme event and the year-end music festival . Together with me he has represented our interests in the development and coming to fruition of the SCT. We are both on its Executive Board and are positive about the shape it is taking in the future of tourism on the Sunshine Coast, as well as how we as a Chamber can contribute to its success.
Lottie Brink has faithfully and helpfully represented the interests of Kenton Ratepayers on the Committee, as well as keeping us informed about the state of water supplies.
Wendy Grove was Bushmans Ratepayers’ representative in the first part of the year, and latterly Ian Smith has been co-opted onto the Executive Committee to represent not only the Ratepayers of Bushmans but to add a useful business dimension from Bushmans.
I have had the brief of representing the B&B Association, which meets formally from time to time, and whose members enjoy cordial and co-operative relations with one another.

I would like to close by proposing a vote of thanks to the outgoing Committee. It’s been fun to work with them all. I also propose that this report be accepted and adopted.

Mike Kirby (Rev.)
President

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