Rooikat vehicles formed part of the army’s response to the July 2021 riots. Photo: Rajesh Jantilal/ AFP/Getty
“I tell our team at Toyota every day there is going to be an event in 2024 … and there will be a 2025 event and each one of these, as we stack them up together, is giving us a different perspective of how to change.” He said he was confident that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office and business leaders were collaborating to confront the priority challenges of energy security, safety and security and logistics after 115 CEOs signed a pledge to assist the government with technical expertise and funding to “reverse the current trajectory”.
Ward said it was important for businesses to collaborate with the government on small projects to achieve change. He said had“We formed some really small partnerships around water, sanitation, power, safety and security that are now widening the circle of influence in the South Devon basin and getting wider and wider … That’s the first point of collaboration that changes the eye point and the mindset that then develops into saying, ‘we’re going to fix the power station’.
He said the port was hampered by equipment that was not properly maintained because politicians would not allow Transnet’s workshops to open on weekends to expedite repairs. He said the port had 128 straddle cranes three years ago but only had 55 presently.