Midcham Newsletters, Author at Business Directory

Fast-track UIF

Fast-track extensive social security coverage for workers

Employment and Labor Minister T.W. Nxesi said that government plans to accelerate broad social security coverage for workers in a press release. He called for a swift policy and legislative review to address the shortcomings of the Unemployment Insurance Fund and workers’ social safety net – as exposed by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Minister Nxesi also said that the pandemic “Taught us the value of social dialogue”, adding that Nedlac played a critical role in uniting social partners in a joint response to the pandemic – in designing income relief measures and health and safety guidelines for workplaces.

Lamati said the fight against Covid19 requires joint leadership with all social partners. To date, Covid-19 has resulted in 57,000 fellow South Africans citizens dying due to the pandemic. Minister Nxesi said as part of the interventions; the government has been working with the social partners.

“We have been able to mitigate some of the effects of the pandemic and the lockouts by using our social security institutions, especially the Unemployment Insurance Fund, and working with the business community and workers to create the Covid-19 Ters benefits and build a mass network to distribute the new benefits on an unprecedented scale,” he said.

The minister said that through social security interventions through the UIF with Ters, the ministry started paying Covid-19 benefits from April 2020. The ministry had deployed its health and safety inspectors to assist the social partners in Nedlac in drafting the Covid-19 health and safety instructions and inspecting and enforcing the new regulations alongside existing health and safety regulations. Their targets were achieved with reduced budgets as the pandemic and economic development negatively affected government revenue.

Nxesi said after the department appointed 500 additional health and safety inspectors, as announced during the 2019 budget vote, their addition would be very useful in the fight against Covid-19 and allow for a quadrupling of the number of inspections planned for 2021/22.

(A copy of the full press release is available at info@middelburginfo.com)

What can STLM learn from Clover

What Can STLM Learn From Clover

Shock waves went through the various towns around the country when they heard that Clover would be closing its cheese factory in Lichtenburg.
STLM is currently reviewing property tax rates and has already implemented price increases for waste, sewerage and electricity which will come into effect on 1 July. MCCI urges municipal decision-makers to remember that we need to fill all the empty commercial spaces in the city and not make more businesses implement work-at-home decisions or closure of branch offices due to service costs.

In Middelburg, we are fortunate that our Steve Tshwete Municipality works well and our services are up to standard. Other towns have lost manufacturing plants, such as the Nestle factories in Bethal and Standerton or other manufacturing facilities. In our region, the most significant blow to our manufacturing sector was the closure of Highveld Steel. The hardship of the plant closures has left a scar on our economy.

Commercial service providers need to keep in mind that if your services are too expensive and become too costly to run a business, they have two choices, stop using the service or cut costs. The service provider’s bill will be scrutinized, and they will look at where costs can be cut, costs in other areas or jobs will be cut. Alternatively, the business is relocated, sometimes to another country, and then we lose the jobs and all the other revenues that a business creates in the economy.

If the business remains the target for higher property taxes, refuge, electricity and sewerage costs, then the most negligible added cost could break the camel’s back. We in the Middelburg region are at risk from Eskom’s decisions on Komati and Hendrina Power Stations and the negative impact of the lockdowns since 2020. We need to attract businesses and investment and make our municipal services cost attractive to corporates to invest in the area.

Crime is like the black plague in our region

The price tag of crime cannot be measured in the immediate cost of losses or property damage, but businesses and the national economy bear the brunt of the costs associated with crime and crime prevention.

Whether at work or home, the consequences of the negative psychological impact of exposure to crime must also be considered.

Since the COVID Level 5 Lockdown, authorities have focused on areas not associated with traditional crime in our urban areas.

The idea of the new normal of working “remotely” seems to me to have opened the floodgates for criminal activity. When you try to have a

conversation with officials, you often get the same response, “I work from home and can’t take care of the problem right now,” or the Police Station is closed for COVID.

After a quick review of the most recent South African Police Crime statistics publication compiled from 1,154 Police Stations,

I noticed that Middelburg was mentioned. Further analysis of the data showed that Middelburg was mentioned 12 times as one of the

30 Police Stations most involved with the 17 serious crimes and categories reported by the community. In the past,

Middelburg Police Station has received awards for the best run Police Station.

The Highveld Region of Mpumalanga, Middelburg, Witbank and Vosman Police Stations were mentioned in fourteen of the seventeen categories.

As a business community, we do not live on an island and only do business with ourselves; we trade with our neighbouring towns, we use the N4 and N12 regularly,

and the criminal acts such as the spikes on the highway have a direct impact on the sustainability of our business, the safety of our employees and the cost of securing our trading activities.

A summary of where our regional Police Stations was mentioned and rated out of 30:

	Police Stations rated out of 30
Crime	Middelburg	Witbank	Vosman
All Theft Not Mentioned Elsewhere	23	10
Arson		14
Burglary At Non-Residential Premises	12	24
Burglary At Residential Premises 12 Witbank	12	26
Carjacking			15
Commercial Crime		20
Common Robbery	26
Community-Reported Serious Crimes		9
Driving Under The Influence Of Alcohol And or Drugs	20
Kidnapping	15
Other Serious Crimes		14
Property Related Crimes	12	10
Robbery With Aggravating Circumstances		22
Theft Out Of Or From Motor Vehicle	18	13

Middelburg’s business community wants to hear from the Station Commander what the problem is and what needs to be done. We want to work more closely with everyone involved,

and the relationship needs to be rebuilt. There are so many different factors that influence the success of a business, and businesses

cannot reach their full potential if funds have to be used for security purposes instead of capitalizing in areas that would grow their business.

MCCI has invited the Station Commander to attend our Business Middelburg meetings so that we as a collective can address issues that affect our city.

MCCI supports, hosts the Community Police Forum meetings, our members attend, but we as a city need to step forward and turn the

clock back to the early 2000s when our city was a much safer place to live.

Is a baseline Electrical Municipal Tariffs possible?

Middelburg Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) is a member of the Association of South African Chambers of Commerce (ASAC), and we met on 6 May 2021.

The Pietermaritzburg and Nelson Mandela Bay Chambers proposed that NERSA establish a national baseline for the industrial electricity users operating within municipalities.

The ASAC Electricity Sub-Committee has been kept very busy by NERSA in recent months. Earlier in the year, a proposal on Draft Notified Maximum Demand Rules were submitted.

After that, several presentations and submissions were made at the Public Hearing to consider the Application of the Vaal Triangle Forum for revocation or amendment of the electricity

distribution license of Emfuleni Local Municipality. The committee supported this critical matter of precedent. We also submitted a document in February 2021 on the Municipal Dysfunction

– A National Disaster. On 25 March 2021, at the NERSA’s Strategic Planning Workshop – A Customer’s View, we gave input on critical issues

regarding electricity supply and how we believe NERSA should respond.

On 9 April 2021 –2021/2022 Municipal Tariff Disaster – we tabled a submission regarding the municipal tariff guideline increase and benchmarks and proposed

timelines for the municipal tariff approval process for the 2021/2022 financial year. ASAC made an initial submission followed by a presentation at the Public Hearing,

and after that, submitted additional comments. We requested a follow-up meeting with the NERSA Chair, which was supposed to have happed at the 6 May 2021 ASAC meeting.

To give you an idea of the different electricity tariffs at the municipal level see the table below:

Tariff Comparison 24/5 3 shift scenario 2020 7MVA: 5800 KWh; 37,288 Mwh/annum	Admin	R/Kwh	NDM	Surcharges
Jhb MV inc 11KV TOU	74 093	1.86	N	Y
Ekhurhuleni Tariff D (11KV+)TOU	58 170	1.58	y	N
STLM Three-phase 1000v TOU	49 252	1.47	y	n
EThekwini 11KV TOU	57 359	1.29	Y	N

The above table is only a summary of the information used; three additional electricity tariff tables’ information is available. However, I used the above examples

to explain the difference in baseline charges at the municipal level throughout South Africa.

At the May ASAC meeting, the members proposed that we submit the EThekwini model as the NERSA baseline for municipal, industrial electricity tariffs.

MCCI supported the proposal. Members interested in further information should contact me at ceo@middelburginfo.com or 013 243 2253.

Middelburg Business Forum

The President, Vice-President and CEO of the Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) attended the Steve Tshwete(STLM) Mayoral Round Table on 5 May 2021.

MCCI tabled the proposal to establish a Middelburg Business Forum, similar to the Middelburg Forum in the eighties.

The town successes, awards and growth developed out of work done by the people representing the town at the Middelburg Forum. The efforts and relationships built

during that time set the tone of the debates and plans; we are currently the beneficiaries of their work. Our members requested a more effective way to discuss opportunities

and meet with the community structures instead of the current disruptive manner in which these opportunities are demanded.

Quote from STLM’s Final LED Strategy 2016/2021

“Communities have over the years mobilised resources and organised themselves into semi-formal groupings to make membership contributions or fees. This has, however,

not been explored at businesses levels. Partly to this problem is a lack of support from the government in the form of additional resources when community members have taken such initiatives.

Furthermore, there are restrictions imposed by the Financial Service Board when informal groups do financial transactions exceeding certain limits as will be prescribed by the banking sector.

Emerging businesses, especially in townships, has coordinated but fractured efforts to approach business and other stakeholders.

All the key stakeholders must be identified, and a schedule of responsibilities be drawn to align the government, sector departments, development agencies, and the private sector.

There is a fair amount of financial programs and incentive schemes available for cooperatives and emerging businesses; however, a collaborative platform for all

stakeholders must be established to address socio-economic issues ranging from job creation, education, housing, safety and security.”

At the Mayoral Round Table, STLM and MCCI agreed to meet to establish the Middelburg Business Forum;

we will keep our members updated with the status quo.

Crime is like the black plague in our region

The future of Botshabelo?

Is a baseline Electrical Municipal Tariffs possible?

A Golf Day Spectacular

Middelburg Business Forum

Highveld Business Guide Publication

Highveld Region Mine Map