The newly formed Chambers of Commerce and Industry of South Africa (Chamsa) on Tuesday appointed Sipho Mseleku as the new CEO of the body.
Mseleku, who is currently the CEO of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) has a BA (Hons), LLB, LLM (Taxation) and Higher Diploma in Company Law from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Chamsa is a constituent member of Business Unity South Africa (Busa), which is the new national body replacing the former Black Business Council and Business South Africa.
Chamsa is the unification of the four largest business chamber organisations: Nafcoc, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob), the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut (AHI) and the Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services (Fabcos).
Mseleku said Chamsa aims to enhance domestic investor and international business confidence in South Africa.
Chamsa president Patrice Motsepe added that the new body is important for all chambers to speak with one voice, especially on national issues facing business in the country.
“This body has urgent work to be done so as to execute its mandate. It will make sure that our black and white businessmen work together on the ground,” Motsepe said.
“Successful black businessmen have a responsibility to the poor to bring them into the mainstream economy of the country, otherwise we will all of us be doomed if this does not happen. White people also need to feel part and parcel of the process of unity by realising that this is not only about black people,” he added.
He said Chamsa relies heavily on different constituencies in all chambers to succeed.
Motsepe said Busa and Chamsa will soon be in the same offices in order to cut costs and duplication.
While Chamsa is a unification, Busa is a merger of two confederal business bodies, namely the predominantly white Business South Africa and its black counterpart, the Black Business Council. Both Chamsa and Busa will be headed by Nafcoc president Motsepe.
His deputy at Chamsa is AHI president Franklin Sonn, with Fabcos president Sam Buthelezi and Sacob president Mac Mia as first and second vice-presidents.
Both Mseleku and Motsepe could not be drawn into how Chamsa will be funded.
“We have been approached by some corporate bodies on how they can help Chamsa and we are pretty confident that the organisation will be fully funded,” Mseleku said.
Asked how the Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban chambers fit into Chamsa, Mseleku said the organisation’s constitution states that it represents only national bodies, not regional ones. — I-Net Bridge