The Cape Chamber believes that broadband should be one of our top national priorities as it is critical for education and socio-economic growth. Free, high-speed internet access is particularly important in poor communities to improve education, create jobs and opportunities for citizens and particularly for small businesses.

“Broadband has the potential to transform the country and should be a national initiative that unifies the various stakeholders of society. It requires strong public and private partnerships. Transparency and strong governance – rather than political interference – are vital to stimulate support from the private sector,” says Roderick Lim Banda, Chairman of the Digital Portfolio Committee at the Cape Chamber of Commerce.

Paul Esselaar, Vice-Chairman of the Digital Committee and ICT Attorney comments: “If we could map the broadband infrastructure rollout this will go some way to creating the transparency we need to get public support and trust. In addition to allowing businesses to incorporate broadband within their business strategy, this will also stimulate foreign interest.”

Recent allegations of maladministration and corruption in USAASA and funds allocated to the broadband infrastructure must be investigated. The country cannot afford any setbacks or abuse of state funds that are intended to ensure universal access into poor communities where technology adoption can have an impact on education, skills development and economic growth.

Executive Director of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, Viola Manuel comments: “When we called for an intervention by the President into the Department of Communication (DOC) and the allegations against the Minister of Communications, it was in the interest of ensuring that broadband and other national ICT objectives would be met. We are disappointed at the lack of action taken by the President given that the Minister’s public office is under investigation for serious allegations of corruption. It undermines the promises made to fight corruption which has a ripple effect on the confidence to govern important initiatives such as broadband.

We re-iterate our call for an intervention by the President and would recommend that, at the very least, the Minister be suspended while she is under investigation and that the Deputy Minister take the lead in strategic initiatives such as the rollout of broadband.

The Chamber will continue to advocate for the independence of the public institutions that serve the ICT industry and will oppose polices and legislation that give powers of appointment to the Minister for key positions in regulatory bodies and state owned enterprises. The integrity of the Communications Ministry is critical to the economic well-being of the country and must be fiercely protected against corruption,  profiteering and undue influence.

The procurement portal is possible through a partner engagement with Supply Chain Network in association with Absa Bank Enterprise Development, and this will also provide Cape Chamber members with the opportunity to capitalise on procurement opportunities from a national network of over 15,000 companies and growing fast.

Being part of this procurement portal will also assist the Cape Chamber of Commerce in easily promoting its members to a broader community of business chambers in Africa and Europe.

The functionality and benefits provided by the portal to users may be summarised as follows:

Procurement – An online Procurement Portal that provides powerful technology to connect small business and big business with one another.

The benefits to your business include:

• Access to Markets – exposure to multiple corporates and public sector procurement professionals as well as other SMMEs
• Verified Profile with priority search
• One-to-one relationship for document management – refer numerous corporate requests for updated documentation to the online profile
• Easy to maintain online company profile
• Small Business Tool Tips
• BBBEE Self-Assessment Tool
• Access to a National Tender Bulletin
• Access to all the procurement tools for SMME to SMME procurement

The procurement portal is scheduled to go live by mid June 2013. Your current company details held by the Cape Chamber of Commerce will be automatically migrated to the procurement portal to create your online company profile on your behalf. Once this profile creation process is complete, you will receive an email confirming registration of your company profile, your user name and password. You will be able to login and update your contact details. We request that you then please upload all your supporting documents where required (B-BBEE and Tax Clearance Certificates). You will be automatically registered with a basic membership which is free, but we encourage you to consider upgrading your membership to a premium membership as there are significant benefits attached to this.

To view the benefits please click on this link for the attached annexure. We thank you for your continued support and look forward to providing meaningful assistance in the growth and development of your business.

For further information please e-mail joy@capechamber.co.za

The assurance failed to reassure investors and the value of the rand dropped as a result.

“The statement was necessary because there have been instances where the government has condoned illegal acts,” said Mr Michael Bagraim, chairman of the Chamber’s Human Resources Portfolio Committee. “The most recent example was the promise by the Minister of Agriculture that striking farm workers in the Western Cape would not lose their jobs despite their illegal actions.”

The Minister had effectively said that farm workers could continue breaking the law and that there would be no consequences.

“This is just not acceptable. It is contrary to all the principles of ‘the rule of law’ and the Minister should have been taken to task at the time. President Zuma’s statement last week of zero tolerance for illegal activities has come very late in the day. Perhaps that is why he failed to influence the markets. Nevertheless it was a welcome statement.”

Mr Bagraim said no country or its ministers could pick and choose which laws they would obey or enforce. It was this arbitrary attitude towards the law that undermined confidence and contributed to the rand’s slide.

“Business is particularly pleased that the ‘zero tolerance’ statement has come before this year’s strike season. We will now have an opportunity to see that business, the unions and the law enforcement authorities observe all the labour laws, as instructed by the President,” Mr Bagraim said.

The introduction by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development of a rule that will promote the use of mediation before litigation in our courts again puts in sharp focus the benefits of mediation as a mechanism to resolve business disputes expeditiously and cost effectively.  It also throws down the gauntlet to business to be pro-active in putting in place dispute management strategies that will prevent their disputes going to court as a matter of course.

Not many companies have introduced mediation programmes as a way to reduce the cost of litigation. This is despite the provisions of the King III report on good corporate governance, which inter alia placed the duty on boards of companies to consider the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. It is hoped that the rule will provide the necessary impetus for doing so.

Although many global countries are far more forward thinking, there are still vestiges of reluctance to change, which is commonly referred to as the mediation paradox.

Speaking at the International Chamber of Commerce’s 4^th International Commercial Mediation Week, Michael Leathes, former Head of Intellectual Property at British American Tobacco, stated that while mediation offers an 80 percent success rate, a depressingly small number of companies seem to have a dispute management system in place. “Mediation is not a branch of law but a branch of business negotiation.” he said. Statistics have shown that legal costs for companies had been cut by up to 30 percent due to the increasing use of mediation as a first strategy to settle disputes.

Leathes’ understanding of the business benefits of medation over litigation are validated by a 2008 study conducted by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR, UK). The study reveals that 80 percent of disputes have a significant impact on the smooth running of business. The same study estimated that conflicts cost British business an estimated £33bn per year, of which just £6bn was spent on legal fees. CEDR further estimated that a dispute worth just £1m typically burnt up 3 years of a line manager’s productive time.

Mediation is geared towards the early settlement of disputes, placing the focus on the interests of the parties as opposed to the parties’ legal rights.

Due to the confidential nature of the process, it allows the parties to explore innovative settlement solutions without relinquishing any rights that they may have which can still be pursued in a court of law if the a settlement is not reached.

What was said during mediation may not be used as evidence in court allowing for creativity in the search for a suitable solution. The mediation is chaired by an independent, trained and accredited mediator who will manage the process in a professional and efficient manner, helping the parties to build mutually satisfactory outcomes. Businesses with high volumes of disputes can rely on independent and accredited mediation service providers who, with the help of technology and a skilled panel of mediators, provide an efficient environment for the resolution of all their business and commercial disputes.

Time is money for business executives who have to deliver on stringent KPIs to satisfy ever increasing shareholder activism  - demanding more efficiencies and less routine spending in order to increase the company’s price to earnings ratio.

Mediation also provides executives and business owners with an opportunity to implement strategies which will be in line with good corporate governance and in line with shareholder expectations. The speed with which disputes are settled through mediation saves direct legal costs associated with the litigation process.

Mediation also provides a greater degree of control and predictability of outcomes which enhance business executives’ ability to plan and execute their strategic plans.  Less executive or business owners’ time and energy will be spent in long, drawn out and sometimes acrimonious litigation and more time can be spent on preserving and building business relationships – to the benefit of the company and the bottom line.

Although the mediation rule will be implemented on a pilot basis in certain courts it is also encouraging to note that the Government, as the biggest single user of the legal system, will expect all Government Departments, SOEs and Parastatals to implement their own dispute management strategies, promoting the wide use of mediation as a means to save substantial costs to the fiscus.

The Minister of Justice has been clear in his support of mediation, citing the new rules as significant step forward for the justice system in his budget speech on the 29^th of May, saying: “Mediation has proven to be a successful form of dispute resolution in many jurisdictions. The rules will also make it possible to resolve many of the civil claims brought against government. Early resolution of these disputes to avoid the costly litigation will save Government and other litigants millions of rands.”

Change is coming and it is clear that business, big, medium and small, will need take up the challenge to introduce their own strategies and processes to the benefit of not only their own organisations, but to collectively contribute to the speeding up of the economy of justice as a whole.

Adv Willie Pienaar is Deputy Chairman of Equillore.

About Equillore

Equillore is a dispute settlement specialist. Equillore manages a comprehensive national panel of mediators and arbitrators who specialise in efficient dispute settlement across a wide spectrum of industry sectors.

Established in 1997, Equillore has successfully settled more than 50 000 disputes. The company provides the case management system for the African Commercial Dispute Settlement Centre and, together with the Cape Chamber of Commerce, offers international mediation and arbitration services benchmarked against leading global standards. Equillore holds the African license for Modria, the online dispute settlement system used by eBay, PayPal and other online specialists.

Equillore is a founding member of the Dispute Settlement Accreditation Council. 

“It is clear that the world has not been impressed by the instability in industrial relations and some of the recent decisions on matters such as electricity and toll roads as well as the scandals that have come to light,” said Viola Manuel, Executive Director of the Cape Chamber of Commerce.

“The tragedy is that this comes at a time when the African continent is poised for years of growth driven by a boom in natural resources, particularly oil and gas. South Africa, as the leading economy on the continent, should be reaping the benefits of this economic upsurge.”

The sudden depreciation of the rand would create many problems for business. Some exporting industries would benefit but others which rely on imports would be hurt.

“In the Western Cape the clothing industry will have to pay more for imported textiles and, as 80 per cent of the fabric used by local manufacturers is imported, the industry could be hurt. On top of that there is a 22 per cent duty on imported fabrics. This adds up to the threat to jobs,” said Manuel.

The new situation required a review of a whole range of decisions by Government. An example was the planned nuclear power stations which became 13 per cent  more expensive this month as the value of the rand plunged. It should also rule out the purchase of unnecessary luxury aircraft for our VIPs.

The total population of the country is estimated at 52,98 million with 11,1% living in the Western Cape.

For a copy of the publication  see here