Opportunity Issue 96

FOREWORD
well for the country going forward, if this approach is
distilled into action – and no doubt, SACCI will serve as
a watchdog to see that this promise is fulfilled.
In the last quarter of 2020, the SACCI Board adopted
a strategic initiative that focuses on developing crucial
and pragmatic workstreams aimed at revitalising the
South African economy in the face of the Covid crisis.
Eleven key sectors were identified and will be activated
in stages during the first quarter of 2021, with a key
focus on small business. The three key areas raised in
the formulation of the action plan centre on:
· Inclusivity
· Innovation
· Collaboration
The first stage of this embarkation centred on
identifying the main roleplayers in each sector expected
to make the biggest impacts on the formulation of an
action plan, based on their skill sets and experience.
Most of the workstreams have the talent we now need
to proceed.
SACCI will draw on unemployed graduates to assist
with the administrative work for the workstreams
and will report on progress publicly to ensure that our
communities are aware of what needs to be done and by
when. We intend to generate a strong positive message
asserting that we will win back our economy, create jobs
and also grow as we push aside the challenges and do
things differently than we did in the past. The situation
demands that we think out of the box and generate a
new way of doing things, which neutralises the dead
▲ ▲ ▲
space we find ourselves in currently.
___ _____ __ _ _
Inclusivity
Innovation
Collaboration
___ __ ___ __ _ _
TRADE PROMOTION
In March 2020, SACCI signed a historic
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
with the Department of Trade Industry and
Competition (dtic) that formally recognises
SACCI as the umbrella body in the private
sector authorised to issue Certificates of Origin.
SACCI was geared up and ready to launch the
programme and a week later lockdown hit us.
In 2021, SACCI will implement the
programme although we have had to
reconfigure our approach on how this can be
executed in a lockdown environment where
much of our interface is virtual. Nevertheless,
technology has helped as SACCI draws
on webinars to inform the market. The
organisation is rapidly encouraging the
issuance of electronic certificates to circumvent
current challenges.
At a time when fear rules, there is much that needs
to be done to dispel myths and misunderstandings.
The media noise is that the new virus strain emanated
in South Africa. South African experts drew attention
to the new strain, which was then confirmed in other
countries and conveniently called the South African
strain. It is doubtful that the mutation is purely
traced from South Africa and exported to the rest
of the world. It needs reminding that this started far
away from Africa in the East… and viruses mutate
for their survival.
We also see our business community stepping up and
creating new devices to ease the strain on our oxygen
suppliers and our pharmaceutical manufacturers
entering into agreements to produce vaccines for the
world uptake. There can be no doubt that in 2021,
South Africa is very capable of the success espoused
by George Patton 76 odd years ago – to bounce back
from rock bottom.
Alan Mukoki,
SACCI CEO