ECSECC recently celebrated its 30th anniversary with a Stakeholder Reflection Session, featuring a keynote address from its founding CEO, Mr. Mcebisi Jonas. The event, which brought together government, labour, business, and civil society under one roof, served as a critical opportunity for reflection, learning, and galvanising stakeholders for the Eastern Cape's next developmental phase, highlighting ECSECC’s enduring role as a vital think tank and social compact builder.
Mr. Jonas began by grounding ECSECC’s origins in the turbulent backdrop of South Africa’s democratic transition. Formed amidst widespread labour unrest and uncertainty, ECSECC emerged with a crucial mandate: to mediate, build consensus, and facilitate cooperation among government, business, labour, and civil society.
Crucially, Mr. Jonas emphasised that ECSECC was designed to be autonomous and critical, ensuring it was not merely a governmental department but a body capable of challenging policy and providing objective, evidence-based critique to drive equitable, developmental outcomes.
ECSECC’s early contributions, according to Mr. Jonas, were foundational to the province’s initial direction: It facilitated tough negotiations during uncertain times, holding the social compact together. It was a key advocate for an inclusive, development-oriented model for Industrial Development Zones (IDZs). Its critical research on provincial resource allocation disparities successfully influenced National Treasury decisions, showcasing its policy impact.
Mr. Jonas urged ECSECC to retain its critical independence in the decades ahead. Its future role must involve supporting the government not through simple alignment, but through evidence-based critique and strategic insight, challenging the status quo when necessary for the greater good of the Eastern Cape.
This sentiment was echoed by Border-Kei Chamber of Business Executive Director Ms. Lizelle Maurice, who noted that ECSECC was "ahead of its time" in pioneering the social compact model.
A significant portion of Mr. Jonas’s address focused on the deep-seated structural challenges that continue to plague the Eastern Cape. Regarding economic dislocation and diversification, he called for an immediate focus on re-establishing the Eastern Cape as a transport and logistics gateway by urgently improving vital rail and port infrastructure, which he termed 'decoupling'. He stressed that the low level of State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) investment in the province must be actively addressed and leveraged. While the automotive sector remains critical, Mr. Jonas stressed the need to diversify the industrial base into areas like agriculture, food processing, the green economy, and ecotourism.
Concerning spatial development and natural potential, he highlighted the 'Bantustan legacy', noting the underdevelopment of former Bantustan areas requires targeted, strategic investment in infrastructure, even contemplating the building of new towns and strategically unlocking the Wild Coast’s massive development potential. For 'resource maximisation', he highlighted the unrealised potential in natural resources, urging a boost to export-oriented commercial farming and the development of ecotourism hubs – proposing the expansion of the Addo area to potentially become a "second Kruger National Park."
Mr. Jonas then shifted to what he termed the "subjective” or "soft” challenges – issues of governance, leadership, and political culture. Under Governance and leadership failures, he warned that the province's key urban centers, including Buffalo City, Nelson Mandela Bay, Komani, and Mthatha, are rapidly decaying and failing to deliver essential services. He added that the 'factional threat' where factionalism and poor leadership are crippling municipal governance, making the need for merit-based deployment over political patronage a critical imperative for recovery.
On harnessing wasted political capital, Jonas lamented the underutilisation of the province's deep pool of capable political leaders. He urged the current leadership to leverage this "political capital" to influence national government, shape SOE investment decisions, and contribute much-needed thought leadership amidst a global "crisis of ideas," warning of the dangers of growing racism, crime, and state failure.
In his concluding remarks on reclaiming consensus politics, Mr. Jonas warned that the very politics of consensus that led to ECSECC’s birth is being eroded by conflict, populism, and "winner-takes-all” politics. He tasked ECSECC with acting as a unifying force, mandated to: promote dialogue, cooperation, and shared purpose; push back against populism and superficial solutions; and build strong societal partnerships and civic cohesion.
The session also saw remarks from ECSECC Board Chairperson Mr. Simphiwe Khondlo and CEO Mr. Luvuyo Mosana, who contextualised the 30th anniversary within the celebration of the newly promulgated ECSECC Act. Mr. Khondlo noted the importance of reflection, quoting that "experience is actually not the great teacher, but it's actually reflections from experience that become the great teacher." He emphasised that the new Act provides a vital legislative foundation, strengthening the organisation's arm in planning, research, and, most importantly, driving implementation.
Mr. Mosana echoed this focus on execution, stating that the new five-year strategy is aptly themed "Fetching the Future." He emphasised that the future must be secured through "path creation development" – moving away from economic dependency by prioritising local endowments, their beneficiation, and value chains. This approach will be anchored by ECSECC's mandate to lead the provincial research agenda, culminating in the development of an Eastern Cape Regional Observatory and the Eastern Cape Atlas to ensure scientific, data-driven planning and execution.
In conclusion, Mr. Jonas left ECSECC with a clear challenge: to be courageous, autonomous, and unifying to realise the Eastern Cape's untapped potential.
Watch Mr. Jonas' remarks here
View this event gallery here
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