City calls on eThekwini residents to support local businesses

EThekwini Speaker Weziwe Thusi officially opened the #Buy Local, Invest Local Campaign seminar on Thursday. Picture: eThekwini Municipality via Twitter

EThekwini Speaker Weziwe Thusi officially opened the #Buy Local, Invest Local Campaign seminar on Thursday. Picture: eThekwini Municipality via Twitter

Published Jun 25, 2021

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DURBAN: “YOUR everyday decision, shapes our future.”

That was the rallying call by the Proudly SA organisation as it called for South Africans to buy locally made products in an effort to revive the economy and create job opportunities.

Proudly SA in partnership with the eThekwini Municipality held a summit on Thursday this week to encourage South Africans to buy locally made products to boost the local economy.

The eThekwini Municipality announced that it had identified several businesses that will benefit from the #Buy Local campaign.

Eustace Mashimbye, chief executive of Proudly SA, said even before the country was hit by Covid-19, it had been battered by downgrades by rating agencies and a high unemployment rate.

He said they had implemented several initiatives to redirect the economy towards local procurement including encouraging banks to buy locally made furniture, helping the government to identify local made goods that it should prioritise during procurement and building websites to advertise locally made products.

“Buy from companies in eThekwini, buy those goods made in South Africa, check the labels because if you buy from companies from other countries, you are supporting the economies of those countries,” he said.

He said when products are assembled in the country, even when the raw materials are sourced externally, there is job creation in the value chain.

“The product must be of high quality, it must help us preserve the environment as part of the green economy that we all want to pursue,” he said.

He said when people buy products with a proudly South African logo, they should have confidence that the product has been locally made, checked for quality and will help to create jobs.

He said there are items that the government has committed to buy locally.

He said they have built a portal for those who want to buy locally and can easily find what they want to buy.

Speaker of the eThekwini Municipality, Weziwe Thusi, said as part of the city’s economic recovery plan, especially to rebuild small to medium businesses “we saw it fit to initiate the buy local campaign”.

She said the eThekwini Buy Local, Invest Local Campaign is designed to support uniquely Durban and iconic businesses.

“The city needs to make a commitment and drive this initiative in order to facilitate economic growth and development in light of the challenges that local businesses face due to the Covid-19 crisis,” said Thusi

“We would like to appeal to members of the media and public at large to help us in driving the message that Durbanites must support their own local businesses by Buying Locally produced goods,” she said.

THE MERCURY

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City of Ethekwini