When billions are invested in KwaZulu-Natal, I want to know how a capable local business gets the work, delivers it and gets paid. That is the question I bring to SA Auto Week.
I ask it as a businesswoman who pursues contracts and carries responsibility for delivery. Behind every commitment a business makes are people depending on it. I understand why entrepreneurs are frustrated with conversations that keep returning to the same problems.
We have spent years discussing economic inclusion and enterprise development. We have strategies, workshops and dialogues. We must now account for what that activity has changed in the lives of people trying to earn a living.
Toyota's R10.4 billion investment in the new Hilux programme at Prospecton gives us something concrete to consider. Manufacturing connects a vehicle to component suppliers, transport operators and skilled workers. That is what interests me about Andrew Kirby and his team's leadership: the investment has a commercial purpose and requires other businesses to help deliver it.
The opportunity for us is to understand where we can contribute. A manufacturer may need a maintenance service. A logistics company may need a better way to reduce delays. There are problems waiting for businesses that can solve them.
We must get out of the comfort zone of waiting for the next tender to be advertised. Government contracts matter, but our ambition has to extend into private supply chains. We need to understand what major companies need and approach them with solutions worth buying.
That takes preparation. Understand the problem. Work out what your solution will cost and how you will deliver it. Show the buyer what will improve. We cannot expect a company to buy an idea we have not thought through.
For me, it is game time. I want entrepreneurs to back their capabilities, pursue the work and fight for a fair chance to prove what they can do. We have a contribution to make to this economy. We must put it forward.
The private sector must also examine how it recognises that contribution. A business owner should not need a familiar surname or an influential introduction before a credible proposal receives serious consideration. An entrepreneur you have never heard of can still understand your problem and have the capability to solve it.
If the value proposition is strong, give it a fair opportunity to compete. Make the requirements clear and assess businesses against them. Knowing somebody should never count for more than being able to deliver.
Then honour the obligations that follow. This is where government must confront the damage caused by late and unpaid invoices.
National Treasury's third-quarter report for 2025/26 recorded approximately R2.1 billion in invoices older than 30 days and still unpaid by KwaZulu-Natal provincial departments at the end of December 2025. Those invoices represent money businesses were waiting to receive.
When payment for properly delivered work is overdue, the consequences can travel through the business. An employee still expects a salary. A supplier still expects payment. The owner must explain why commitments cannot be met, negotiate for more time and try to keep the operation going.
Government's payment failure can become the entrepreneur's reputational crisis. Employees can lose trust. Suppliers can withdraw credit. The owner's name is attached to the broken promise, even when the money needed to honour it is sitting with the client.
Government must answer for that damage. Paying for completed work is an obligation. Business owners should not have to send the same emails repeatedly, chasing money already earned while trying to manage the next job.
It makes no sense to encourage entrepreneurs to grow, then leave them financing government's delays. Payment discipline belongs in every serious conversation about economic development.
So does the discipline of measuring results. A workshop completed is an activity. Whether a participant secured customers or earned an income requires further evidence. We must establish whether the support changed anything that matters to the people it was intended to serve.
Activity upon activity, without demonstrated outcomes or impact, cannot keep passing for success. If businesses remain unable to access work or sustain themselves, we must examine what failed and who is responsible for fixing it.
This is why I advocate a Collaboration for Greater Impact Framework. Start with a clearly defined problem. Bring together the buyer, the business and the partners needed to make a solution work. A credible order may require finance or technical support. Each partner must know what they are responsible for and by when.
The framework also requires us to establish our starting point and check what changed. Competing for recognition while the same problem remains unresolved wastes the opportunity to work together.
That is what SA Auto Week means to me: a chance to connect investment to capable businesses and agree on work we will take responsibility for completing. I want us to leave knowing which opportunities we will pursue and who will move them forward.
When we meet again, let us account for the orders placed, the work delivered and the payments made. Let the people earning because of that work have something to show for all our talking.
Nokwazi Mlambo is a prominent South African serial entrepreneur, development operator, and business executive with over 23 years of experience across construction, property development, and facilities management
The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of IOL