18 July 2025

Exporters Eastern Cape hosted its 45^th AGM yesterday [Thursday, July 17], where the resilience of exporters in the region was encouraged and commended.

In his Chairman’s Report Exporters Eastern Cape Chairman Quintin Levey said the leadership of the member-based organisation worked on upholding its mandate of creating an enabling environment for members to become globally competitive.

“To achieve this, collaboration is key to making sure all the role-players are talking to each other with synergy and making the most with what we have. Advancing export business across the Eastern Cape is our goal. We share the same interest of driving exports across all industries, while we have different challenges, we have the same goal at hand,” said Levey.

He said the US tariffs are one of the burning issues at the moment that needs to be addressed, and this could mean diversifying into other export markets.

Economist Dr Roelof Botha was the guest speaker of the evening, highlighting a few key macro-economic indicators which, despite all the challenges experienced globally and locally, “are moving in the right direction”.

Some of the indicators he highlighted were that we are one of the top food exporters in the world, our stronger Rand, the country was importing less minerals, and that we are making progress with renewables.

“I am optimistic about the future of our country… With greater cooperation between public and private sector, and if the interest rates can come down, I predict that we can grow the economy by 3% next year. We are such a resilient lot…,” said Botha.

Levey thanked the partners of Exporters Eastern Cape for their support, and also paid tribute to the late Greg Billson, a longstanding committee member who had passed away last year.

He also thanked Deon Joubert who is stepping down as Deputy Chairman of Exporters Eastern Cape, and other long-standing committee members Pravika Chetty and Loudeaux Minnie who are also stepping down.

Levey announced the election of new Exporters Eastern Cape committee members as: Colin Beyers, Imke Smit, Ashley Brickhill and Jeremy Dobbin.

The other 2025/6 Committee members for Exporters Eastern Cape are:

• • Quintin Levey
  • Selwyn Willis
  • Anathi Mlungwana
  • Celestin Ndhlovu
  • Andile Dlamini
  • Lee-Anne Vasi
  • Siphokazi Ngombane
  • Neil Barker
  • Gideon Smith
  • Jeannie Gerber
  • John Rankin

Deon Joubert (outgoing Deputy Chair of Exporters Eastern Cape) and Quintin Levey (Exporters Eastern Cape Chairman) picture during the AGM.