Business unity in the Eastern Cape is a step closer to reality following a compromise agreement that aims to meet the government‘s goals.

A “collective”, informally termed Business Eastern Cape, has been established after a meeting in East London on Tuesday involving all the major business chambers, and Economic Affairs MEC Mbulelo Sogoni.

The chambers included Sacob affiliates Percci and the Border-Kei Chamber of Business, the National Federation of Chambers of Commerce, the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut and the Foundation of African Business and Consumer Services.

Nafcoc Eastern Cape president Tembelani Nodada has been appointed chairman of this new body, which will act as the central communication point between business and government.

Business Eastern Cape said yesterday the structure was intended to complement the national business unity discussions under the Chambers of Business SA (Chamsa).

Border-Kei Chamber of Business president Hanlie Bassingthwaighte‘s organisation will provide secretariat support.

“What we are trying to do is that we have been talking as segmented businesses, but we need to start working together now,” Nodada said yesterday.

“In the past we have been talking, but now we are saying that small, medium and big business have to start working together.”

The various business chambers signed an agreement earlier this year during the Jobz Summit in East London, that it would have a unified face by August.

Discussions have been ongoing since, with the various camps initially sticking to their guns and terms.

Relations appear to have thawed, though, with Nafcoc and Percci members jointly attending and hosting events more publicly in the past few months.

Nodada said one of the first priorities was to submit the names of candidates as business representatives to sit on parastatals, as requested by Sogoni.

A key criterion would be that these representatives have the requisite experience to contribute meaningfully to issues, he said.

“We are encouraged to see that the provincial government wants to revive the interaction between organised business and themselves that we had going fairly efficiently some years ago,” said AHI Eastern Cape chairman Gerhard du Plessis.

Khusta Jack, the man appointed by Percci to spearhead unity talks, said yesterday business needed to consolidate its efforts to have a collective impact on the economy.

He said unified business could accelerate economic transformation and work towards national growth targets, which would help reduce unemployment.

“This will be effective in terms of those elements,” he said.

There are no clear indications of when unity in the true sense will come about, with Nodada saying this would be dependent on this happening first at a national level.