 Once-bustling Rustenburg will take a year, probably longer, to get back to pre-strike levels of economic activity after the battering it took over the past five-months. Anne Trusler, a member of the North West Province’s Business Forum is concerned that many businesses have been mortally wounded. Sadly, it remains to be seen whether or not the business enterprises, professional skills and other key resources that were driven away by the strike will ever head back to town again. – GK
ALEC HOGG: Reports and those of us who have driven through Rustenburg have had some concerns seeing the businesses close – businesses not doing that well. You’re in the Business Forum. Give us an insight into, in fact how business has been affected over these past five months.
ANNE TRUSLER: Well, it’s been quite interesting. Everyone is very excited about the mines opening and the miners going back to work, but the reality for people supplying to the mine, is they’ve had no cash flow for five months, so that is going to make getting up and running again quite difficult. A lot of them have retrenched staff. They’ve put their staff on unpaid leave, and a lot of the processes that need to go through now, are induction processes, where their staff have to go through a Health and Safety Induction, and administrative processes, so it is going to be a couple of weeks before the contractors actually get back on track. A lot of that will also be determined by how quickly the mine’s administration departments can start looking at contracts, prioritising them and asking the contractors to get back on track.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: And the reality of the situation, for small businesses, I’m sure they’ve taken a more significant knock than the larger players have, in the industry?
ANNE TRUSLER: Well, I think Rustenburg is a mining town, so whether you’re small, medium, or micro enterprise, if you’ve got anything to do with the mines, or even vaguely related you’ve taken a knock. For instance, the single hostels use laundry mats to do the washing, so small, black companies that do the laundry mats, or car washing, or gardening services, etcetera, haven’t had any work or any income for five months, so it is a devastating impact on a small, emerging black business, where, suddenly for five months, you’ve got no work.
ALEC HOGG: Allied or, among the suppliers to the industry, presumably, would be quite a few companies that have members of NUMSA. Now we’re looking at NUMSA going on a strike from Tuesday. Have you done any assessment there, within your Forum, on what the impact this might be?
ANNE TRUSLER: No, I think we’ve been really reeling, under the last five months, trying to get data, and it is very difficult, when the data changes every single day, but the stories. If you’re looking at the people talking to each other, the banks are rescheduling loans, so that they don’t have to repossess houses and cars. The micro lenders have stopped lending. Furniture stores are repossessing. Insurance industry, the emerging sector where funeral policies are the main policies sold, are actually suppressing payment. For instance, for five months, people haven’t paid their funeral policy premiums but if a member dies, they are still being covered, so business is really trying to adjust to the situation, and it is changing day-to-day. It’s a buyer’s market, as far as the property market is concerned. Rentals, it’s really, difficult, many companies that are renting out houses, are using the key deposits, so they don’t have to eject the tenant, and then giving them an opportunity just to pay the water and lights. On the basis that as soon as the mines get back on track they will be able to catch up.
ALEC HOGG: Do you have any idea of the impact on the economic growth rate, if you like, of the North West Province or, perhaps just looking at the Rustenburg area?
ANNE TRUSLER: No, I contacted the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry and most of the stats that are available, are historical, from the past. There is nobody that is really on top of what is actually happening, month-to-month, in Rustenburg or the North West, but if you talk to people you will see that every, single sector has been affected. For instance, even in the Adult Basic Education and Training Sector, the facilitators haven’t been able to go and train Ad Ed, for the last five months, so companies that do that type of training have had either to retrench or keep people on standby.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI:Â And from your assessments, how long will it take then for growth to, potentially come back or return to the economy of Rustenburg?
ANNE TRUSLER: It is very difficult to assess but Rustenburg people are very resilient but I doubt within the next year, we’ll see significant growth. I think a lot of people will be just trying to reposition themselves and look at how to rehire their staff and try to secure contracts, but it is not going to happen overnight.
ALEC HOGG: We hear stories of professional people, dentists, doctors, teachers, and lawyers leaving Rustenburg for the big cities, is that true?
ANNE TRUSLER: It is true. That is true and Business Rescue. A lot of businesses have gone under Business Rescue but a lot of professional people, a lot of the doctors, radiologists, and the professionals rely on the mines, as their main source of income, so a lot of them have looked for a lot of opportunities and other options.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Well, thank you so much. That was Anne Trusler; she’s a Board Member of the North West Business Forum.
