The president of the Eastern Cape Chamber of Business, Vuyisile Ntlabathi, confirmed that crime is a serious challenge which discourages investment in Mthatha and in the surrounding areas.
He confirmed that they had asked the MEC for Finance and Economic Development, Mlungisi Mvoko, to join them in the meeting they were supposed to host at Dan’s Country Lodge in Mthatha, with the aim of discussing commercial properties that are available in Mthatha.
The aim was to give youth a chance to be trained and be capacitated so that they could use these properties to create job opportunities.
He said that the meeting was postponed to an unknown date because Mvoko had other commitments.
He added that they were getting older; they wanted their children to take the baton.
“If they [youth] could be engaged in businesses, surely, we would be able to mentor them, and they could also employ others. It’s our intention to see them owning these commercial properties because they are our future generation. We want these properties to be audited; those that are commercial must be given to our youth so that they could run them,” said Ntlabathi.
He added that in the meeting they were also going to discuss the evictions that took place in some of these properties, where some of the people who were living in them were chased out during the night.
“Whether the evictions were right or wrong, the way that it was done was not supposed to be inhumane,” said Ntlabathi.
He added that if the government is taking the properties, it should be done in a right way and proper consultation should be followed.
