23 February 2004

A CLOSER relationship between Buffalo City Municipality and business will help foster public-private sector ventures, city manager Mxolisi Tsika told the Daily Dispatch recently.

Tsika's comments came after last week's Grahamstown High Court judgment, which dismissed the Osner Group's application to force the municipality to remove overhead power cables.

The cables, which run over the Osner Group's property, supply electricity to the DaimlerChrysler plant in West Bank.

Tsika told the newspaper he was relieved the matter had been settled. He committed the municipality to providing efficient, equitable and sustainable services to all business.

"Both the Osner Group and DaimlerChrysler are major players in our local economy and obviously we are committed to creating an environment for them to operate in," he said.

Tsika said DaimlerChrysler's role in the local economy was enormous and the manufacturer consumed R22-million in electricity a year.

"Daimler is also the largest private-sector employer in the city with 3 800 employees and its injection into the economy in terms of salaries and wages is about R225-million a year."