Today I visited the Jet Park Industrial Business hub in Ekurhuleni to engage with business owners on some of the issues they face on a daily basis.
I was shocked to discover that Jet Park road is full of potholes, is uneven and has not been fixed properly.
There are no truck ports in Jet Park and the trucks are forced to park along the road.
The stormwater drainage is not maintained and gets blocked when it rains heavily.
The business owners we spoke to complained that they are without electricity on a weekly basis, which is leading to businesses finding other premises to operate from.
This has been happening since October 2017 when lightning hit a substation resulting in R25 million damage.
This has a negative impact on jobs leading to retrenchments and businesses shutting down.
Since then Jet Park has suffered a 20% downtime due to electricity outages, which has now further been exacerbated by the current load shedding.
It is the responsibility of government to create a conducive environment for businesses to be flourish by ensuring that there is well maintained infrastructure.
This is not happening at the Jet Park Industrial business hub. When the DA governs Gauteng we will ensure that we prioritise industrial parks in terms of maintenance so that we can attract more investors, which will lead to creation of employment of opportunities.