THE Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) hosted a second feedback session with the Presidential eThekwini Working Group (PeWG) on 13 May. The PeWG was established in February 2024 to address service delivery challenges impacting the ease of doing business in eThekwini.

At the engagement, business noted that some areas have experienced improvement, including police visibility and turnaround plans being approved. However, the Chamber said it is starting to witness a loss of momentum and inadequate results to date. “DCCI believes if we do not mitigate against potential risks and address operational issues within the PeWG, this platform will merely be a government-to-government engagement with business operating in isolation, resulting in the PeWG being ineffective,” the DCCI wrote in feedback to members.

The DCCI provided the following update to members from the business engagement:

Core business concerns:
Infrastructure Failures: Recurring issues raised include erratic water and electricity supply, poor project execution (e.g. pipe overlays, pump station delays), broken sewer systems, and un-addressed maintenance backlogs—especially affecting South Durban Basin.
Stalled Investment & Bureaucracy: Delays in unlocking catalytic sites like the Natal Command Film Studio due to non-provision of electricity and high rates valuation (R900 million) were raised as high-priority blockages.
Financial Model Stagnation: The joint funding model has been under discussion for years with no implementation; business stressed urgency in adopting proven models from other platforms like NLCC to accelerate infrastructure maintenance.
Safety & Security: While business welcomed Metro-police collaboration and SAPS coordination, they flagged:
- Slow progress on key initiatives (e.g. anti-hijack forum, port scanners).
- Exclusion of private sector reps from meetings and operational task teams.
- A call for clarity on what intelligence and infrastructure information can be shared.

Tourism Disconnect: Complaints that tourism revitalisation efforts are not inclusive, poorly coor-dinated, and fail to build a city-wide calendar of events in collaboration with business.

Business requests and proposals

Establish a clear deliverables matrix with specific project timelines and accountability mecha-nisms to track performance and measure impact.
Revisit timelines for the PPP/financial model – business argued December 2025 is far too late, especially with election cycles and private sector decisions pending in the next 12–18 months.
Formalise private sector roles in workstreams and technical forums.
Better use of social facilitation in infrastructure projects to prevent extortion and include local communities in project planning.

Government and secretariat commitments
Acknowledgement of the plateau and the need to shift gears into an implementation-focused mode.
Agreement that the financial model timeline must be brought forward; secretariat and city to revise with milestones.
Proposal to formally clarify which safety and justice discussions are open to business and im-prove transparency in coordination efforts.
Call for building a structured partnerships framework and support for key PMOs (e.g. for events/tourism pipeline).
Secretariat welcomed the offer of technical support from business (e.g. SABO’s PPP team) and noted the need to boost capacity on both sides.

The DCCI said the meeting achieved the objective of airing its concerns on the slow progress of the pro-ject since its implementation in 2024. “As the business community, we were also able to address the office of the presidency on a way forward towards tackling the issues that we have presented. However, we are not done. As the business community representatives, we will continue to advocate and lobby until we believe the progress is moving us forward as the business community towards a sustainable economy and a business environment that is conducive for businesses to thrive in eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa,” the DCCI said.