Department of Small Business Development, SEFA and SEDA 2021/22 Quarter One and Two Performance Reports; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson said the purpose of the meeting was for the Portfolio Committee to receive briefings from the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD), the Small Enterprise Finance Agency(SEFA), and the Small Enterprise Development Agency(SEDA) on their Quarter One (Q1) and Quarter Two (Q2) performance reports. The Committee was ready to speak to errors or gaps in the performance reports so that the entities could make corrections and improve on their performances. The Deputy Minister would be leading the presentation for the Department of Small Business Development on its 2021/2022 Q1 and Q2 performance reports.

The Deputy Minister of Small Business Development, Mr Sdumo Dlamini, greeted those present and said the Department hoped that the Committee would continue to guide it as it moved ahead. The Director-General would talk to the matters that needed to be presented for the meeting. The meeting was very important regarding the decisions that the Department would have to take as well as for talking to the matters the Committee was interested in.

Q1 Performance Report: DSBD

Overall Performance Summary

Mr Lindokuhle Mkhumane, Director-General, DSBD, presented the Department’s Q1 report. On governance and compliance, he said the Department had a functioning Audit and Risk Committee. This had been one of the audit findings addressed. On the overall performance, he said performance for the quarter had not been very impressive at 42.9%. Overall, the Department achieved nine out of 21 of its Q1 targets. Not all targets that underperformed carried financial implications. On the performance summary, he indicated that the trend was for the Department’s performance to increase from Q1 onwards.

Performance Highlights

He said that the Business Viability Programme implementation was in progress and approvals amounted to R3 105 414. The Manufacturing Scheme Support Programme had approved a total of R43.5 million and disbursed R68.9 million, financed 15 Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), and facilitated 518 jobs. The Township and Rural Enterprise Programme(TREP) had disbursed a total of R41 538 849 for 443 applicants. The Spaza-Shop Support Programme (SSSP) had supported 1 288 approvals to the value of R4.5 million; Supporting 770 (59.7%) Women Owned Enterprises to the value of R2.7 million; and 325 (25%) Youth Enterprises to the value of R1.1 million. The SMME index was created as an important tool for the Department to measure businesses performance. The SMMEs and Co-operatives Funding Policy had been revised to improve access to finances.

On under achievements, he said the underachievement in the vacancy rate target contributed to underspending by R5.3 million. There were other under achievements in the areas such as creditor payment, listing of SMME and co-operative products, participation on the SheTradesZA platform. Measures were in place to address underachievement.

Financial Performance

Ms Semphete Oosterwyk, CFO, DSBD said the Department had spent R797.46 million, accounting for a variance of R15.987 million against its Q1 budget. For Administration, R23.207 million had been spent as opposed to the projected R28.228 million; for Sector and Market Development, R7.616 million had been spent against the projected R11.762 million; for Development Finance, R480.419 million had been spent against the projected R487.403 million; and for Enterprise Development, R258.654 million had been spent, against the projected R285.818 million. The Department had addressed 26 of its 33 audit findings and the remaining 6 were being addressed.

Targets not achieved per programme

Administration

Mr Mkhumane said 99.3 % of valid creditors were paid within 25 days as opposed to the targeted 100% because 15 invoices amounting to R13 320.67 were processed in 50 days due to an internal control deficiency. As a future corrective measure, the Department was going to track invoices using the invoice register submitted to Financial Accounting Unit to allow for immediate reconciliation of invoices received and paid.

The Department had a 12% vacancy rate in funded permanent posts as opposed to the proposed less than 10% due to 8 new vacancies (7 newly created posts and 1 termination). The Department had a recruitment plan in place, which would be implemented as soon as guidance was provided on the structure.

Sector and Market Development

He said the Department had 24 products produced and services rendered by SMMEs and Co-operatives linked to market as opposed to the targeted 75, due to cost of compliance, unavailability of products in demand, and products and services that had reached a saturation point. As a corrective measure monthly stakeholder engagements were taking place with the major retailers and the Department was working with Proudly SA to drive the buy local campaign in support of the SMME listings and localisation programme.

He said 247 women-owned enterprises had been monitored to participate on the SheTradesZA platform instead of the targeted 500 because there had been less registration of women-owned enterprises onto the SheTradesZA Platform. To improve on this, the Department was planning to develop a media campaign with a complementary series of webinars to popularise and mobilise Women-Owned Enterprises.

Development Finance

He said the Department supported co-operatives to the value of R4.2 million as opposed to the targeted R10 million because it was still awaiting outstanding compliance documentation from applicants. The Department would conduct ongoing follow-ups and focus on processing the new pipeline of applications.

The Department’s TREP supported township and rural enterprises to the value of R41 538 849 as opposed to the targeted R277.6 million because of capacity constraints on manual application capturing and processing. To improve on this, there was a need for fast-tracking of online processing directly from e-portal; and also for strengthened collaboration between DSBD, SEDA and SEFA.

Enterprise Development

He said the National Integrated Small Enterprise Development Masterplan had not been submitted to the Economic Sectors, Investment, Employment and Infrastructure (ESIEID) Cluster because consultation with key stakeholders continued beyond Q1 due to the significance of inputs that were being received. The Masterplan would be submitted to the ESIEID cluster upon approval by the Minister.

Please refer to the PowerPoint presentation for further details.

The Chairperson asked the Department to proceed with the presentation for its Q2 report so that the Committee would be able to engage with both quarter one and two presentations.

Q2 Performance Report: DSBD

Overall Performance Summary

Mr Mkhumane said the Q2 presentation would be brief so that it did not repeat the items that were covered in the Q1 presentation. There had been a 10% improvement in the overall performance of the programmes from Q1 to Q2. For Administration, 71% of targets were achieved; Sector and Market Development, 40% of the targets were achieved; Development Finance, 33% of the targets were achieved; and Enterprise Development, 100% of the targets were achieved. Overall, the Department achieved 12 out of 21 (54.5%) of its Q2 targets.

Performance Highlights

He detailed the highlights as follows: 56.3% of female Senior Management Services (SMS) representation; 3.4% representation of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in quarter two; a total number of 321 SMMEs and co-operatives had been exposed to international market opportunities; revision of the Schedule to National Small Enterprise Act and the National Integrated Small Enterprise Development Masterplan was presented to Cabinet.


Financial Performance

Ms Oosterwyk, presented that the Department had spent R717.301 million, accounting for a variance of R34.445 million against its Q2 budget. For Administration, R23.397 million had been spent as opposed to the projected R25.867 million; for Sector and Market Development, R10.192 million had been spent against the projected R25.058 million; for Development Finance, R421.170 million had been spent against the projected R445.146 million; and in Enterprise Development, R258.807 million had been spent, against the projected R260.675 million. The Department had eight audit findings which it was busy addressing.

Targets not achieved per programme

Administration

Mr Mkhumane presented that 99.95% of valid creditors were paid within 25 days as opposed to the targeted 100% because one (out of 1977) invoice amounting to R17 279.21 had been paid in 27 days of receipt from the supplier due to delays in getting clarity on the differences between the invoice and order values. As a future corrective measure, Financial Management Unit would make continuous follow-ups with managers who had to certify invoices. Cases of non-responsive managers would be escalated.

The Department had a 19.2% vacancy rate in funded permanent posts as opposed to the proposed less than 10% due to the exit of 12 Ministry staff and the resignation of four permanent employees. The 12 Ministry posts had been filled as of 1 October 2021 and the Department was to implement the adjusted Recruitment Plan/ Catch-up Plan to cover backlog in appointments and make use of online applications (email) to ease the recruitment process.

Sector and Market Development

He said the Department had 27 products produced and services rendered by SMMEs and Co-operatives linked to market as opposed to the targeted 75, due to Poor retail trading environment, as a result of tight economic conditions and the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic, which had resulted in the reluctance by retailers and wholesalers to on board SMMEs and Co-operatives. As a corrective measure there had been a need to increase and diversify private sector stakeholders to board SMMEs and Co-operatives.

He said 205 women-owned enterprises had been monitored to participate on SheTradesZA platform instead of the targeted 500, because the number of participants had been lower than the number registered. To improve on this, the Department was going to continue to create awareness to popularise and mobilise Women-Owned Enterprises to participate on the SheTradesZA platform.

Development Finance

He the Department supported co-operatives to the value of R6.073 million as opposed to the targeted R26.3 million because despite numerous follow-up measures put in place by the Department, the applicants had not submitted the outstanding compliance documentation. The Department would conduct on-going follow-ups and focus on processing the new pipeline of applications.

The Department’s TREP supported township and rural enterprises to the value of R88.2 million as opposed to the targeted R208.2 million because capacity constraints on manual applications capturing and processing of TREP applications had remained a challenge. To improve on this, there was a need for fast-tracking of online processing directly from e-portal; and also for strengthening collaboration between DSBD, SEDA and SEFA.

Enterprise Development

He said that all the Q2 targets for the Enterprise Development programme had been achieved.

Please refer to the PowerPoint presentation for further details.




Discussion on the DSBD’s Q1 and Q2 Reports

The Chairperson welcomed the presentation and said the Members of the Committee were welcome to deliberate on the presentations delivered by the Department. She thanked the Department for highlighting the areas where it was having problems and indicating reasons for deviations as well as proposing corrective measures that would be undertaken. Underspending in other programs had not been that bad, since it was below 5% and the Committee appreciated the targets that were made for both quarters and believed that there would be improvements going forward.

Mr F Jacobs (ANC) acknowledged the Department’s Q1 and Q2 reports and said the reports showed good progress. The reports showed honest accounts of areas with weaknesses that needed to be addressed. He noted the issues that needed to be worked such as the 10% vacancy rate; localisation weaknesses; cooperative issues; the new youth program and the under-funding of townships, women and youth. The Committee needed to keep the Department accountable so that improvements could be realised in the coming quarters. It was a bit unacceptable to not reach the ‘women target’ and there was a need to empower and educate the communities so that they could meet the compliance requirements.

Ms B Mathulelwa (EFF), said there had been several cases that were referred to the DG and she wanted to know how far the Department was with processing these cases. The cases were related to beneficiaries that were ‘robbed under the name of the Department’.

The Chairperson asked the DG to respond to Ms Mathulelwa.

Department’s response

Mr Mkhumane confirmed that there were cases that were referred to him by Ms Mathulelwa, some of which were related to franchising, and some referred to people who wanted to apply for business recovery support. The matters had been submitted to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) and were being addressed by it. The Department would investigate all the cases and submit a report to the Committee, indicating the progress of the investigations on each case.

The Chairperson said the Committee would be waiting for the report from the Department.
The Committee adopted the Department’s Q1 and Q2 reports and the Chairperson requested SEFA to deliver its presentations.

Q1 Performance Report: SEFA

Performance Summary

Mr Martin Mahosi, Chairperson, SEFA, presented the overview of SEFA’s Q1 performance against the approved corporate plan for the financial year 2021/22. He said SEFA’s amortised total Loan Book as of 30th June 2021 had been R2,7 billion (including funds): 1.24 billion Wholesale Lending (WL) facilities and R1.47 billion Direct Lending (DL) facilities. The quarter on quarter total portfolio growth had been recorded as 8.8% and the loan book portfolio at risk had stood at 39% as of 30th June 2021. 

He said SEFA had made total approvals for Q1 to the value of R378 million, representing 88% of the quarterly target and the total disbursements for the quarter amounted to R404 million representing 75% of the quarterly target (R216.6 million DL and R187.7 million Wholesale Lending (WL)). In Q1, a total of 5 824 SMMEs had received financial support via the SEFA loan programmes, resulting in the creation and maintenance of 12 334 jobs. R371 million had been disbursed to black-owned SMMEs, R126 million to township-based SMMEs, R136 million to women-owned SMMEs and R90 million to youth-owned enterprises.

Balanced Scorecard

Mr Mxolisi Matshamba, CEO, SEFA, presented the balanced scorecard of SEFA, stating that there had been a significant under-performance for youth-owned enterprises, of which the target was 162 780 but only 90 283 were funded; enterprises owned by people living with disabilities, of which the target was 37 824 but only 110 were funded; women-owned enterprises, of which the target was 217 040 but only 136 241 were funded; and enterprises in villages and rural communities, of which the target was 217 040 but only 123 892 were funded. Those targeted groups had been largely influenced by low disbursements in Microfinance.

He said SEFA was working on a Youth Fund concept in partnership with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), European Union (EU) and DSBD to improve the performance of the Youth Owned Enterprises and that would be finalised in Q2. The process to recruit a dedicated resource for the Disability Programme was under way and would be finalised in Q2, which would ensure that there was a dedicated focus on the target and engagements with the sector to build a pipeline.

He said the majority of SEFA’s disbursements had been done in Gauteng followed by KwaZulu Natal then Western Cape. The majority of SMMEs supported in KwaZulu Natal and Mpumalanga had been through SEFA’s Micro Finance and Informal sector loan programme, whilst in other provinces, more support had been through SEFA’s Direct Lending programme

Financial Performance

He said SEFA's cost to income ratio for Q1 had been 105% compared to an annual target of 106% and savings in some costs were achieved in Q1, however, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) quarterly allocation received had been lower than budgeted for (with a shortfall of R36 million). Savings in Q1 had been achieved on: Personnel expenses – R14.8 million; Investment Property Expenses – R10 million; Impairment Movement – R38 million lower than budgeted and R1.8 million on Other Operating Expenses when comparing June year-to-date numbers to the budgeted year-to-date numbers. He said the revenue growth had been 70% when comparing quarter one of 2020/2021 and that of 2021/2022. For the eighth year in a row, SEFA had received a clean and unqualified audit opinion.

Please refer to the PowerPoint presentation for further details.

Q2 Performance Report: SEFA

Performance Summary

Mr Mahosi said that SEFA’s amortised Total Loan Book as of 30 September 2021 had been R3 billion (including funds): R1.38 billion Wholesale Lending (WL) facilities and R1.59 billion Direct Lending (DL) facilities. The quarter on quarter total portfolio growth had been 8.8% and the loan book portfolio at risk had stood at 41% as of 30 September 2021. Total approvals for Q2 had amounted to R487 million, representing 76% of the quarterly target.

He said the total disbursements for the Quarter had been R385 million representing 47% of the Quarterly target and a total of 8 940 SMMEs had received financial support via the SEFA's loan programmes, resulting in the creation and maintenance of 11 137 jobs. R329 million had been disbursed to black-owned SMMEs, R135 million to township-based SMMEs, R138 million to women-owned SMMEs and R96 million to youth-owned enterprises. During Q2, of the 23 performance indicators measured through the Balanced Scorecard, 30% of them had out-performed the quarterly targets, by achieving 100% or more.

Balanced Scorecard

Mr Matshamba presented that there had been low levels of disbursements in Q2 which impacted the achievement of development impact targets. SEFA noted significant under-performance for youth-owned enterprises, for which it supported 39% of the targeted 244 170; enterprises owned by people with disabilities, for which it supported 2% of the targeted 56 763; women-owned enterprises, for which it supported 42% of the targeted 325 560; and enterprises in villages and rural communities, for which it supported 58% of the targeted 325 560. It was anticipated that developmental impact would improve in Q3 when a new intermediary (R20 million) would deliver development impact.

Financial Performance

He said SEFA’s cost to income ratio for q2 had been 89% compared to an annual target of 106%, which had been a result of higher than budgeted interest from lending operations and cost savings noted under personnel expenses, properties expenses and other operating expenses.

He said the entity's impairment ratio had been 2% better than budgeted. An increase in the loans and advances in the first half of the year from the last quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year had caused new loans (Economic Recovery Programmes Loans) that were still in moratorium to currently sit in stage 1 and 2.


The lower impairment rate had been driven by the higher level of disbursements from SEFA's balance sheet, particularly disbursements to Micro Finance Institutions and the end-user impact would be measured in Q3 of the current financial year.

Please refer to the PowerPoint presentation for further details.

Discussion on SEFA’s Q1 and Q2 Reports

The Chairperson invited the Members to engage on SEFA’s presentations.

Mr D Mthenjane (EFF) said the reports were supposed to provide true reflections of what was happening around the communities but he was not convinced this was the case. He would be convinced that the reports were true reflections only when people from rural communities started speaking out, saying the Department and its entities were indeed helping them. The community members had indicated that the application forms for SEFA funding were not user-friendly. There was a need to help those whose applications got rejected, in order to make necessary corrections so that their applications could be accepted.

Mr Jacobs said SEFA was doing great work under difficult circumstances, but there was room for improvement. It was exciting that SEFA was migrating to online applications that were going to make the application process more efficient and effective. There was a need to help all South Africans, the targets on ‘township, youth, women’ were not being met, despite those targets referring to people or areas that needed drastic interventions. Were the officials able to go to the townships and meet with women, youth and organisations for the disabled or not?

There was a need to engage in debates on making finance more accessible to entrepreneurs because ‘micro-finance’ systems were found to be slow. There was a need for SEFA to keep its ‘eyes’ on the loan books and ensure that repayments were being made so that the funds could be made available to other persons as well. 

Ms K Tlhomelang (ANC) welcomed the report and said she was impressed that the seven issues raised in the audit findings were being resolved. It was important for the Committee to perform oversight on the status of the applications that were being made to SEFA on a monthly basis. SEFA had the responsibility to help businesses whose funding applications got rejected, in making the necessary corrections and improvements to their applications so that the businesses could reapply for funding.

Ms Mathulelwa said she was concerned that SEFA was not doing enough to communicate to communities regarding the available opportunities as it had been evident that most people had difficulties reaching SEFA and some were not aware of its opportunities. The Committee had to engage with the Department on the instalment of localised offices that could help the communities regarding SEFA opportunities. There was a need to create a solution for reaching communities at local levels.

Mr G Hendricks (Al Jama-ah) said he was happy with SEFA’s progress on ‘youth applications’. There was a need to inform more youth about opportunities and to assist SEFA in further marketing its programmes, given that the highest unemployment rate was among youth from 18 to 24 years of age. SEFA needed to inform the Committee on how the entity could be helped in marketing their programmes to more youth.

The Chairperson said she appreciated the presentation and congratulated the entity for achieving a clean audit. On the issue of visibility, there was a need to popularise SEFA programmes. The online applications system would assist in improving the system and it would be able to inform rejected applicants on how to correct their applications in due time.

The Committee adopted SEFA’s Q1 and Q2 reports and the Chairperson invited SEDA to deliver its presentations.

Q1 Performance Report: SEDA

Performance Overview

Dr Joy Ndlovu, Chairperson, SEDA, said that a total number of 25 indicators had been due for reporting in Q1 and the organisation had achieved 16, reflecting an organisational achievement of 64%. Nine indicators had been underachieved, one indicator had been achieved between 80% to 99%, four indicators had been achieved between 50-79% and the other four indicators were achieved below 50%.
 
She said the organisation continued to contribute positively to the implementation of the TREP. Nine new incubators had been approved, of which four had been dedicated to University based Incubators and the remaining five would be dedicated to driving enterprise supplier development and localisation, targeting over 500 SMME's to be linked to core supply chain opportunities. The organisation had successfully piloted mall activations in three provinces: Free State, Mpumalanga and North West.

Performance Dashboard

Mr Nkosikhona Mbatha, Acting CEO, SEDA, stated that the presentation would not spend time on what was achieved but would focus on the targets that were not met.

Programme 1: Township, Rural and Informal Business

He said the Number of Panel beaters, motor mechanics, auto spares and auto-fitment businesses that SEDA had targeted to support for quarter one was 1160 and only 244 were supported. The under-performance had been due to slow uptake of the programme and SEDA would assist 1200 SMMEs who were members of the National African Association of Automobile Service Providers (NAAASP) and 1000 SMMEs who are Retail Motor Industry (RMI) members would be supported through structured training and coaching, as a corrective measure.

He said, of the 1 160 jobs SEDA had planned to create, only 714 were realised because there had been few businesses that created jobs due to macro-economic conditions and the effects of Covid-19 restrictions.
As a corrective measure SEDA would support 1000 clients in labour absorptive sectors like manufacturing and agriculture who showed high prospects for job creation. SEDA would visit 400 SMMEs that were supported with Technology Transfer, Standards implementation and Conformity assessments in the previous quarters to check if additional people were being employed.

Programme 2: Business Competitiveness and Viability

He said the target for the number of SMMEs and Cooperatives listed to supply wholesalers and retailers had been 300 and only 51 were successful because some of the targeted SMMEs and cooperatives were still undergoing training. 15 SMMEs (150 products) had been loaded on the Takealot platform and 36 SMMEs were placed on the Smart Procurement platform in April for 6 six months with the aim of accessing markets and facilitating trade. As a corrective measure, SEDA would support 600 clients through listing requirements training, product pricing training, quality interventions training and listing with major retailers.

He said, the other that were achieved below 50% in Programme 2 were: Number of SMMEs & Cooperatives exposed to international markets, of which 7% of the target was achieved; Number of SMMEs and Cooperatives assisted with productivity improvement, of which 25% of the target was achieved. SEDA had been working on improving on those targets for the coming quarters of the financial year.

Programme 3: Administration

He said that all the targets in Programme 3 had been achieved with at least 100% per target.

Financial Performance  

Mr Elias Maabane, CFO, SEDA, said that due to the current economic situation in South Africa especially the Covid-19 national pandemic, SEDA's budget allocation from DSBD had been cut from R937.368 million to R867.791 million for the 2021/2022 financial year. The actual expenditure for the period April to June 2021 had amounted to R145.36 million resulting in a pro-rata underspending of R154.42 million, against the pro-rata budget of R299.78 million. Commitments for Goods and Services for the end of June 2021 were about R178.71 million and the total spending and commitments had amounted to R324.07 million. Management was reviewing and monitoring the expenditure against the budget and the projects were being re-prioritised.

He said the underspending by 6.76% was mainly due to vacancies and the salary increase not effected, awaiting the national resolution between the unions and government.

Please refer to the PowerPoint presentation for further details

Q2 Performance Report: SEDA

Performance Overview

Mr Mbatha presented that a total number of 25 indicators had been due for reporting in Q2 and the organisation achieved 21 indicators reflecting an organisations achievement of 84%. Four indicators were underachieved, two indicators were achieved between 50% to 79% and the other two indicators were achieved below 50% category. SEDA had continued implementing the District Development Model and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) had been signed with the Western Cape Provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT). SEDA had piloted the Pop-Up markets in four provinces: Free State, Mpumalanga, North West and Western Cape. The entrepreneurship in school programme had been resuscitated in the quarter in partnership with Prime Stars and a total of 9 500 Learners had participated in the programme.

Performance Dashboard

Programme 1: Township, Rural and Informal Business

He said SEDA had targeted to support 2 319 Spaza shops and general dealers, only 1 663 were supported because the branch network had been experiencing several challenges with the conversion of informal Spaza shops to formal, as those were mostly owned by foreigners. In addition, the turnaround time for applications for accessing funding from SEFA had been hampering the uptake in the sector. As a corrective measure, SEDA would engage Business Associations to gain access to their members.

He said a total of 1 159 Panel beaters, motor mechanics, auto spares and auto-fitment businesses were to be supported and only 49% of that target was reached due to slow uptake of the programme. To improve on this SEDA had engaged informal businesses working in the auto-motive after-market and the DSBD had reduced the annual target to 1350 at the end of August.

Programme 2: Business Competitiveness and Viability

He said it had aimed to get 300 SMMEs and Cooperatives listed to supply wholesalers and retailers and only 10% of that target was reached because the Branch network was currently working on the identification of SMMEs and Cooperatives who would be able to meet the standards for supplier development and several SMMEs assisted were not ready for listing with wholesalers and retailers. As a corrective measure, SEDA would be working together with DSBD on the list of SMME's and Cooperatives that were market ready to list their products.

He said it had aimed to assist 811 SMMEs and Cooperatives with incubation programmes and only 77% of the target had been reached since some of the incubated SMMEs had graduated in the second quarter. The new intake of incubates was underway and performance in this indicator would improve in the 3rd quarter.

Programme 3: Administration

He said that all the targets in Programme 3 had been achieved with at least 100% per target.

Financial Performance

Mr Maabane presented that the expenditure for the second quarter (July – September 2021), had amounted to R301.37 million against the budget of R154.78 million, resulting in an overspending of R146.59 million, which had been due to the catching up from the first quarter. The actual expenditure for the Year to Date(YTD) period April to Sep 2021 had amounted to R446.73 million resulting in a pro-rata underspending of R7.83 million, against the pro-rata budget of R454.56 million. Commitments for Goods and Services for the end of September 2021 had been estimated to be about R70.07 million and the total spending and commitments had amounted to R516.8 million. The total overall spending as of September 2021 was 98.23% of the YTD budget.

Please refer to the PowerPoint presentation for further details.

Discussion on SEDA’s Q1 and Q1 Reports

The Chairperson invited Members to engage on the SEDA reports.

Mr Jacobs said SEDA had presented a very comprehensive report, although there were areas that had room for improvement. The issue on the ‘responsiveness of the application’ and getting businesses ready to acquire loans and financing was key. The realisation of a merger between SEDA and SEFA would create a bright future for the Department.

Ms Mathulelwa said the communities were facing challenges registering their companies; the website was not accessible or user-friendly and took too long to process registrations. The system had taken 24 hours in the past but it now took longer. These matters had to be addressed and the website had to be improved. SEDA was not performing as well as SEFA, it was too relaxed and had to improve on its systems.

The Chairperson noted Ms Mathulelwa’s concerns.

Responses

Dr Ndlovu thanked the Committee and acknowledged the Committee’s inputs. She handed over to the Acting CEO to answer the issues regarding slow registrations.

Mr Mbatha on the issues raised by Ms Mathulelwa, said that SEDA was working 24/7 on the technology side. It had to close ‘some loopholes’ to improve on the system speed for processing registrations.

The Chairperson welcomed the SEDA presentation and said the reports were encouraging. The work done was appreciated. The Committee would appreciate it if SEDA could improve its slow registration processes.
It adopted the reports by SEDA.

Consideration and adoption of minutes

The minutes of the 24th November 2021 were adopted without any amendments.

Closing

The Chairperson thanked all present for their efforts. She asked that the Department and its agencies note all of all the issues raised by the Committee and work on improving on these issues. She hoped that the improvements would reflect in the next quarter.

The meeting was adjourned.