Question NW1037 to the Minister of Small Business Development
31 May 2018 - NW1037
Chance, Mr R to ask the Minister of Small Business Development
(a) How was the R15 million transferred from the underspending National Informal Business Upliftment Strategy to the Gazelles expenditure as it is reported in the third quarter report of the 2017-18 financial year of her department, (b) why was the additional amount required and (c) what had already been budgeted for the Gazelles?”
Reply:
(a) The National Informal Business Upliftment Strategy instruments i.e. were formulated and implemented from 2015/16 financial year. These instruments have not been performing well due to both capacity and the tedious nature of the implementation mechanisms such as partnerships with municipalities that were not forthcoming and the internal supply chain processes with onerous requirements. Based on this and given the underperformance of the programme a decision was made by the Department to transfer part of the funds to the performing programmes and The National Gazelles Programme was identified as one of these.
(b) The amount was required since the Gazelles programme has not been funded since its conceptualisation.
(c) The Gazelles programme did not have a budget. It was funded through the adjustment estimates applied for every year till recently when the programme was allocated R30 million budget by the National Treasury.