South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) president Vusi Khumalo remains at the helm of the organisation, following the election of a new board for 2015 to 2017.
The chamber on Monday announced its new board, following its annual general meeting last week, with Tinus Havenga appointed deputy president and John Oxenham first VP.
Other board members included Leigh Gunkel-Keuler as second VP and Nico Vermeulen as treasurer.
The chamber also welcomed Chose Choeu, Paris Dlamini, Fred Jacobs, Zeph Ndlovu and Sharon Steyn to its board, while Alan Mukoki would remain CEO.
Meanwhile, the chamber reiterated that it had, at its yearly convention held last week, adopted four motions aimed at promoting the growth of business in the country during 2016.
The chamber called on government to draft and enact a Bill of Rights for Entrepreneurs to encourage small businesses and a spirit of entrepreneurship within the country.
It also suggested that a coherent, transparent and affordable national energy policy be presented to tackle the shortfall between energy supply and demand. This needed to take municipal practices and the resulting disparities in tariffs, which adversely affect industrial and other users, into account.
This, it said, needed to be accompanied by a comprehensive consultative process between business, labour and community organisations.
“In the implementation of a national minimum wage, consideration must be given to adverse consequences as shown in international precedents and measures introduced to mitigate these,” it added.
Lastly, the chamber believed that, in light of the “extremely disappointing rate of skills development”, the country’s sector education and training authorities system needed to be reassessed to establish whether a more successful mechanism for the management of skills levy income could be found.
“Sacci will call on government to attend to the requirements of the business community, which have been carefully considered and advanced in the form of convention motions, as a means of accelerating economic and business growth and improving the climate for investment,” Khumalo said in a statement.