SMMEs demand contracts

A group of about 20 small business owners and contractors targeted a privately-owned automotive retail business in Port Elizabeth yesterday.

They are demanding that the company give the SMMEs at least 30% of the construction and other work being undertaken at a massive new dealership facility being built in the west of the city.

The SMME owners, who form part of a larger group of small business owners in Nelson Mandela Bay who have been jostling for municipal contract work though protests and other actions for more than a year, staged a protest outside Algoa Toyota in Cape Road, Newton Park.

Police were monitoring the situation from before midday.

Unitrans-owned Algoa Toyota, which operates two dealerships in Port Elizabeth, is constructing a massive new flagship facility in Willow Road, Fairview.

The facility, which is expected to be completed in about November next year, will cost between R60-million and R80-million and will incorporate both of the company’s current Toyota dealerships.

Work on the site began three to four weeks ago.