The Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) and the Johannesburg branch of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) announced on Thursday their intention to form a new, unified metropolitan business chamber.
The two bodies said in a statement they had signed a memorandum of understanding in terms of they would set up a joint interim council to negotiate the formation of the new chamber.
The new chamber would, in turn, be affiliated to the new national business organisation that the country’s four largest business groups have agreed to establish.
Nafcoc, the SA Chamber of Commerce (Sacob), the Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services and the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut (AHI), signed an agreement earlier this month, in terms of which they too established an interim council with a view to a full merger later this year.
”It is intended that unity discussions at the metropolitan level will closely follow the timeframe of the national chamber unity process and should be concluded by end August this year,” the two Johannesburg groups said in a statement.
The interim council of the new Johannesburg chamber will be chaired by Excel chief executive Maurice Radebe with Johannesburg Tourism Company chief executive Deon Viljoen as his deputy. The interim body invited the Johannesburg affiliates of Sacob and the AHI to join them in building a new, ”de-racialised” business chamber for Johannesburg.
The JCCI was originally a Sacob affiliate but it quit the national body in July 2001, claiming that Sacob had become a self-serving organisation that disregarded the regional chambers that provided its revenue, and that focused on big corporate
members at the expense of small and medium-sized businesses. – Sapa