The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber will host its AGM later this month, with the purpose of pouncing on the potential of SA and the Bay region to create tangible change and opportunity across sectors.
The May 27 AGM, at the Capital Boardwalk, will bring together business leaders and key stakeholders to engage on the theme “Actions required to unlock the potential of South Africa and the Bay of Opportunity”.
The engaging panel discussion will feature dynamic and courageous Business Leadership SA chief executive Busi Mavuso, alongside automotive industry stalwart — Volkswagen Group Africa managing director and chairperson Martina Biene.
Mavuso, a chartered accountant with extensive academic credentials, including two master’s degrees and ongoing PhD studies, is widely recognised for her leadership in business and governance.
She also serves on multiple boards as a non-executive director, including for Business Unity SA, and contributes actively to national development.
Her work has earned her numerous accolades, including runner-up in the 2024 Business Leader of the Year Awards and a Future Leader Award from the BPI Iconic Leadership and Excellence Awards Foundation.
Biene brings more than two decades of global automotive industry experience, having started her career with Volkswagen in Germany in 2001.
She has held several senior leadership roles across product development, sales and marketing.
Since her appointment as chairperson and managing director of Volkswagen Group SA in November 2022, she has overseen operations across the sub-Saharan Africa region, further strengthening the company’s strategic footprint on the continent.
Business Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen said the conversation came at a pivotal moment where the need to retain existing jobs, while unlocking new avenues for growth had become increasingly urgent, especially as local industries faced a multitude of challenges.
Central to the discussion will be the recognition that while innovation, efficiency and forward-looking industrial strategies are essential, they cannot be realised in the absence of an enabling domestic environment and a stable and supportive regulatory framework and policies.
Van Huyssteen emphasised that Nelson Mandela Bay’s ability to capitalise on its industrial strengths would depend on how effectively these structural challenges were addressed.
“Our metro is one of South Africa’s foremost manufacturing hubs, with deep capabilities in the automotive and broader industrial sectors, but in a rapidly evolving global economy, those historic strengths alone will not guarantee future competitiveness.
“We are operating in an environment where agility, innovation and reliability are no longer differentiators, but absolute requirements.”
She said to unlock the “Bay of Opportunity”, the region had to urgently get the basics right.
“Reliable electricity, water security, efficient logistics and capable local governance are not optional extras; they are the baseline conditions required for businesses to operate, invest and grow.
“The reality is Nelson Mandela Bay is the most fixable metro in South Africa, and is uniquely positioned to lead in reinventing its economy as a low carbon manufacturing base on the African continent.”
She stressed the need for urgent collaboration.
“Unlocking South Africa’s economic potential requires a genuine partnership between business and government, grounded in accountability and execution.
“We need urgency in strong leadership and decision-making, and consistency in delivery, because every delay further weakens our competitiveness and places additional pressure at an unprecedented time when the world trade order has been upended and the conventional rules and norms are no longer in place.
“If we get the basics right, proactively find the opportunities and move with the necessary urgency, we have a shot at unlocking the potential of the Bay and positioning the metro, and South Africa more broadly, as credible and competitive players in the global economy, but the window to act is narrowing, and the cost of inaction is simply too high.”
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