Hansard: NA: Mini-plenary 4
House: National Assembly
Date of Meeting: 10 May 2022
Summary
No summary available.
Minutes
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MINI PLENARY - NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
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VOTE NO 36 – SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
PROCEEDINGS OF MINI-PLENARY SESSION - VIRTUAL
Watch: Mini-plenary
Members of the mini-plenary session met on the virtual platform at 14:00.
The House Chairperson, Mr C T Frolick, took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayer or meditation.
The Chairperson announced that the virtual mini-plenary sitting constituted a meeting of the National Assembly.
APPROPRIATION BILL
Debate on Vote No 36: Small Business Development:
The MINISTER OF SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Chairperson, hon members, the Deputy Minister, distinguished guests, entrepreneurs and small, medium and micro business owners, as we are in times of economic hardship, we stand before the people of our country to bring programmes that will lift the burden from their shoulders.
Government policies drawn from manifesto commitments of the ANC continue to make it easy for investors to inject money in our economy, creating business opportunities for small businesses to trade. We will use our policy instruments to provide business finance to start- up businesses, and invest in existing businesses to give them the much needed support for their growth.
The budget vote we are tabling here, as the Department of Small Business Development, contains programmes and services drawn from progressive policies that the ANC received as per the mandate received from the people of our country.
Small businesses might be small in size and turnover but they are not small in injecting jobs in our economy and in sustaining the livelihood of our people. While we are in times of hardship, we have a responsibility to use policy instruments like business grants that are offered by many government institutions to bring joy and hope to the people of our country.
President Ramaphosa, in his 2022 State of the Nation Address, announced a number of measures in the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan to bring such hope, and to place our economy on a path of economic recovery to replace the 2 million jobs lost as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The President was very clear: Government has prioritised SMMEs and co-operatives on the basis that these are the businesses that create the most jobs and provide the most opportunities for poor people to earn a living. All stakeholders must pitch in, as part of the new social compact for jobs, growth, and
transformation. We must leave no-one behind.
In the spirit of social compacting, the Ministry and officials from the department together with board members and management from Seda and Sefa, have met with stakeholders, SMMEs and co- operatives across the width and breadth of our beautiful country over the past few months. We undertook roadshows across the provinces – to date we have covered six of the nine provinces. We met with SMMEs, co-operatives and other stakeholders working at the coalface to hear their concerns and issues.
We opened up our door to meet with strategic stakeholders including the community constituency in Nedlac, international and local development partners, large corporates in the banking, mining, agricultural, manufacturing, retail, telecoms and digital sectors, representative business structures, relevant ministries, departments and entities, and our counterparts at provincial level.
In all these meetings we asked three questions. Are our policies and instruments working for SMMEs and co-operatives?
What can we do better? How do we work together to achieve greater scale and impact?
What did we find? First, we need to make it easier for SMMEs
and co-operatives to do business. The regulatory burden on
SMMEs is real, and we need to reduce red-tape.
Second, we need to do more to open up markets to SMMEs.
Everywhere, small business owners are complaining about being
squeezed out of markets by large players. This is what the
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Competition Commission has characterized as over concentration
in our economy.
Third, SMMEs and co-operatives are battling to obtain credit
from banks. This has been especially disastrous for SMMEs hard
hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, by the July 2021 unrest, and by
climate change disasters like the recent floods in KZN and the
Eastern Cape.
Fourth, our own reach and accessibility as the DSBD portfolio
was questioned, especially in townships and impoverished rural
areas. We must address this to have more impact.
Fifth, government is not working as one joined-up force to
support SMMEs and co-operatives. The District Development
Model is directing us towards working as one, and we must do
more to make this work.
Lastly, and which augers well for the broader social compact,
there is huge appetite and goodwill among a wide range of SMME
stakeholders to partner with the DSBD and its entities. This
will ensure that the public funds voted to the DSBD will
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leverage significant additional resources and capacity from
our strategic partners.
This approach of mobilising strategic partnerships across the
entire small enterprise ecosystem is directly aligned to our
National Integrated Small Enterprise Development Masterplan,
which has recently been approved by Cabinet for public
consultation. We have also drawn from the collective wisdom
and feedback of the DSBD portfolio committee which has helped
shape our strategic focus and priorities for 2022-23.
For the year ahead, as the DSBD portfolio we are focused on
five core priority areas. The first core priority area is to
enable the start-up and development of SMMEs and co-operatives
through red-tape reduction and enabling legislation. Our focus
here is on reducing red tape and the cost of regulatory
compliance.
The President announced in his state of the nation address, on
10 February 2022, the creation of the Red-Tape Reduction Office
in the Presidency. The DSBD will support the Red-Tape
Reduction Office in the Presidency in terms of understanding
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where the bottlenecks and pain-points for SMMEs are, as well
as supporting the resolution of issues.
We have done extensive research as the DSBD on red-tape issues
facing SMMEs, and through our Road-Shows to get a first-hand
account of the frustrations of the business community. We are
confident that the political authority and leadership of the
Presidency across the whole of government will enable red-tape
and blockages to be resolved.
The department’s Red Tape Reduction Programme for 2022-23 will
focus predominantly on the local government sphere. Building
on the Administrative Simplification Programme Pilot for SMMEs
and co-operatives which we are piloting in three district
municipalities, we will scale up support during 2022-2023 to
assist 20 municipalities in different provinces with red-tape
awareness and solutions. Here we will collaborate with Cogta
and with Salga. We will work with Provinces through Minmec to
gear up their role in red-tape reduction.
The other significant piece of work we are doing on red-tape
reduction is a review of SMME regulatory impediments. The
focus will be on existing regulatory burdens as well as on
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preventing new burdens through new laws/regulations/and by-
laws. We will be working closely with other government
departments/agencies at all levels of government to create an
enabling environment within which SMMEs and co-operatives can
thrive.
During 2022-23, we will continue with the review of the
Businesses Act which will provide for a simple and enabling
framework for business licensing by setting national norms and
standards. We will also give effect amendments to the National
Small Enterprise Act No 102 of 1996, to provide for the
establishment of the Small Enterprise Ombud Service.
The proposed Office of the Small Enterprise Ombud Service will
provide a fair and inexpensive dispute-resolution for SMMEs,
averting their need to resort to costly and long drawn-out
litigation. Public comments received on the Bill have been
considered and the process of amending the Bill is under way.
We will keep the House as well as the social partners in
NEDLAC closely informed of progress in amending legislation,
and of challenges should they arise.
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Our second strategic focus area for 2022-23 is market
development and market access. Our work in this area comes
from the recognition that markets are not sufficiently
competitive and are overly concentrated, a legacy of our
apartheid past. The recent report of the Competition
Commission provides useful guidance on market power across
different sectors, and how SMMEs continue to be disadvantaged.
We must at the same time use the public spend and work with
the private sector to co-create inclusive markets within which
our SMMEs can thrive. This is at the heart of our localisation
strategy, with prioritisation given to black-owned, youth-
owned and women-owned enterprises.
Markets are also spatially concentrated, and we are developing
strategic private sector partnerships to integrate township
and rural entrepreneurs into key retail, manufacturing, and
other high potential value chains.
We are implementing a Localisation Policy Framework, including
the listing of product brands produced by SMMEs and co-
operatives with wholesalers and retailers, among other
industries, as a way of increasing access to markets. We are
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also working with several government departments and entities
to increase the SMME density of state markets while the public
procurement bill is being finalised.
It is vital that the country reduces its dependency on
imported products by supporting locally manufactured products.
This is also strategic given the disruptions we have come to
experience over the past two years in global value chains. The
department and its agencies have established working
relationships with large retailers and wholesalers across the
country to list and purchase the products manufactured by
SMMEs. These include Dischem, Clicks, Pick n Pay, among
others.
Buzwe Bethu, a women-owned textile and design manufacturer
based in the township of Zwelitsha in the Eastern Cape has
been introduced to a major clothing retailer to design locally
inspired African prints. The business was supported with
machinery and equipment.
The localisation programme also saw an official of the
department, Ms Chantell Martin, win the Public Sector Leader
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Award for the 18th Annual Top Women Awards hosted by Standard
Bank on 4 November 2021.
During 2022-23 we will build on the localization support work
we have done to date. We are currently finalizing Enterprise
Supplier Development partnerships with a number of large
corporates around market co-creation, as well as gearing SMMEs
to service these markets at the right quality and price.
We are setting up a public private partnership platform which
will enable collaboration and shared accountability. By way of
example, our partnership with Tiger Brands will introduce
aggregator models, where small black producers can
collectively achieve the scale for large off-takes.
Tiger Brands will provide warehousing and logistics as well as
stock finance and technical skills to support the integration
of township-based entrepreneurs into their formal food and
beverage supply chains. I would like to invite other companies
to join.
As a department we will make sure we support the SMMEs who
access these supply chain opportunities by contributing to the
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other critical parts of the eco-system – access to finance,
access to business development services, and access to
incubation and accelerator programmes. The R500 million
Innovation Fund developed through the Ecosystem Development
for Small Enterprise Support, Edse, Programme partnership with
the EU is an important initiative to finance black suppliers.
It is envisioned that this fund will leverage more than
R3 billion for enterprise supplier development support from
private banks and non-bank financial institutions.
The other important piece of work we are doing around market
development and market access is implementing the SheTradesZA
Hub through our implementing agency, Seda, in partnership with
the International Trade Centre, ITC. We have just recruited
Provincial Ambassadors to create awareness and pursue
potential collaborations with both private and public sector
institutions. During 2022-23 we are targeting another 2 500
women-owned enterprises to register on the SheTradesZA
platform. We will allocate R416 million over the medium term
to sector and market development work within the department.
The third strategic focus area for 2022-23 is access to
business development services and support infrastructure. Our
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approach here is to up-scale our support to incubators and
digital hubs, to roll-out business support infrastructure in
townships and rural areas, and massify entrepreneurship and
business development training and support. Much of this work
happens through our entity, Seda.
With regards the incubation support, it is now widely
recognized that incubation significantly increases the
survival rate of start-ups. As a country we currently have a
low survival rate for SMME start-ups, with the recent Gem
Report indicating that 80 percent of businesses fail in their
first three year of existence.
To address this, we have set a target of establishing 250
operational business incubators in South Africa by 2024. These
Incubators consist of both private and government funded
Centres. At the end of March 2021, 110 incubators were
supported through the Seda Technology Programme.
Twelve new incubators were approved through the Incubation
Unit at a cost of R60 000 000 million during the 2021-22
Financial Year and are currently being established.
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An additional pipeline of 11 incubators is being readied for
approval during the 2022-23 Financial Year. We are
deliberately targeting underserviced provinces and districts.
Some of the areas where the additional incubators are planned
for includes the districts of Sarah Baartman, Joe Gqabi,
Fezile Dabi, Xhariep, Sedibeng, West Rand, Amajuba, iLembe,
Umgungundlovu, Mopani, Waterburg, Nkangala, Namakwa, Pixley ka
Seme, Dr K Kuanda, the Central Karoo and Overberg. We will
leave no one behind.
The additional new incubators being developed by the private
sector and Seda will create an additional 25 000 jobs, in
addition to the more than 100 000 jobs already secured through
the 110 incubators we have established.
We are deliberately trying to link our incubators with the
broader innovation and tech ecosystem. This underlies the
model of the digital hubs and the centres for entrepreneurship
and rapid incubators we are implementing in partnership with
TVET colleges and universities. Next week we will also launch
the Innovation Bridge Digital Start-Up Community, an open
innovation platform that enables collaboration, access to
finance, markets, and support services for underserved
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entrepreneurs and innovators. This is a partnership between
the DSBD, the Department of Science and Innovation, the CSIR
and the World Bank.
The focus on capacity building for technology start-ups is
also the focus of the partnership between the DSBD, the Global
Entrepreneurship Network, the UNDP and the 22-On-Sloane
Incubator, supported by the Allan Gray Foundation. We are also
partnering with GEN, the UNDP, 22-On-Sloane, and the
Department of Social Development to grow social
entrepreneurship in the country and the continent.
This partnership with Gen and 22-On-Sloane builds on the work
undertaken directly by the DSBD and Seda around
entrepreneurship training and support. During 2022-23 a total
of 20 000 SMMEs and cooperatives will be provided
entrepreneurship awareness training through Seda, with 75 000
SMMEs and co-ops being targeted over the MTEF. There will be
a similar emphasis on Training, Mentorship, and Coaching with
66 000 enterprises/SMMEs and co-operatives supported over the
MTEF.
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We will also be facilitating the Presidential SMME Awards to
recognize and showcase entrepreneurial talent. This will be
part of a broader SMME Indaba where we will officially launch
several partnerships we will implement with the private sector
and other development partners.
Our roadshows revealed the challenge of service access in
townships and rural areas. Many entrepreneurs complained about
the expensive public transport to get to their nearest Seda
Branch. We have listened. This year we will establish 80 new
Seda service access points in townships and rural areas at a
cost of R 24 million. As we move towards the merged new
entity, these service points will also incorporate Sefa
offerings. I repeat, we will leave no-one behind.
Besides service infrastructure, we will also co-fund the
establishment of shared infrastructure facilities for SMMEs
and co-operatives through the Shared Economic Infrastructure
Facility, Seif. The facility has approved and supported five
projects in the 2021-22 financial year with an accumulative
value of R 55,9 million, and which will be finalised this
year. The approved projects will support emerging farmers, co-
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operatives, and informal business, and create more than
5000 jobs.
Our fourth strategic focus area for 2022-23 is access to
finance. Our work here is aimed at reducing the prevailing
credit gap estimated to be R346 billion. A key milestone in
this work will be the finalisation of the South African SMMEs
and co-operatives funding policy. The policy is currently
undergoing thorough consultations and will be concluded this
financial year, creating a seamless flow of funding from
financiers to small enterprises in South Africa.
Through Sefa, we will prioritise building a sustainable loan
book through the expansion of credit and decreasing
impairments. We will also build on the success we have had
with credit guarantees which have been able to leverage
additional monies from private banking and non-banking
financial intermediaries.
Here, we will be deliberate in building a sustainable black-
owned financial intermediary base. This is critical to our
future success. We are also prioritizing the automation of
Sefa’s application process to speed up turnaround times. We
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are also undertaking measures to increase access in rural
areas and townships, through improving Sefa’s visibility and
through direct outreach. We will leverage more off Seda’s
footprint.
We are confident that there will be an equitable fund flow
across provinces. The R2 billion Sefa funding envelope for
2022-23, which is inclusive of the DSBD transfer together with
other generated funds, will see over R200 million disbursed in
each province, and slightly more for the poorer rural
provinces such as Limpopo, the Free State, the North West, the
Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and the Northern Cape. We are
deliberate about redress.
This R2 billion is expected to support 84 831 SMMEs and co-
operatives creating 104 968 jobs. This is the massification
and scale that the President called for in SONA. We have also
developed our own funding instruments to respond to the SMME
credit gap.
Our flagship is the Township and Rural Entrepreneurship
Programme, Trep. The Township and Rural Entrepreneurial
Programme is a dedicated programme aimed at transforming and
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integrating opportunities in townships and rural areas into
productive business ventures. For the financial year 2022-23,
the allocation for Trep is R953 325 000, with a target of
supporting 24 000 township and rural enterprises across
various sub-sectors.
The second programme is the Small Enterprise Manufacturing
Support Programme. This is a key programme of South Africa’s
localisation strategy. The purpose of the Small Enterprise
Manufacturing Support Programme is to diversify and strengthen
the country’s industrial base through a focused import
replacement programme. The financial support provided through
this programme is up to R15 million per entity. An amount of
R295,994 million has been set aside for the programme for
2022-23.
The third programme is the Young Entrepreneurs Programme. This
is aimed at contributing to the high youth unemployment in the
country, and to align with the National Youth Policy. One of
our new initiatives here which we are implementing with Seda
and Sefa is the Youth Challenge Fund, YCF, launched in 2021.
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The goal is to support young entrepreneurs with opportunities
for self-employment and enable a generation of job creators.
This year the Young Entrepreneurs Programme is being put to
scale with 10 000 start-ups targeted for the 2022-23 financial
year. We are also ensuring an increased targeting of youth
across our various financial instruments. Between the DSBD and
Sefa, R630 million will be made available for youth
entrepreneurs and SMMEs during 2022-23.
The fourth programmatic area of funding is Co-operatives
Support. The objective is to support co-operative enterprises
financially and non-financially in partnership with other key
strategic stakeholders. The programme offers blended financing
to eligible co-operatives on a cost-sharing combination of a
grant and loan. For the 2022-23 financial year, the budget
allocation is R76,9 million with a target of supporting
200 co-operatives.
The fifth and last strategic focus area for the year is
institutional strengthening and gearing. We have listened to
the advice of the portfolio committee to urgently ramp up
capacity. We have heard the line of march that service
delivery should not be compromised while we establish the new
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entity which will result from the merger of Seda, Sefa and the
Cooperatives Bank Development Agency.
In the area of institutional strengthening, for the 2022-23
Financial Year we will be seized with four priorities.
First, we will see the Draft National Integrated Small
Enterprise Development, Nised, Masterplan through to
finalisation. The Draft Nised Masterplan was presented and
subsequently approved by Cabinet to be gazetted for public
comments.
The Nised will provide the overarching strategy around which
strategic partnerships in the small enterprise development
eco-system can be facilitated and co-ordinated. A key part of
organisational strengthening in the DSBD will be around co-
ordinating the Nised, and preparing and managing strategic
partnerships in the ecosystem.
Second, we will strengthen our information management systems
across the SBDB portfolio to better understand the relevance
and value of offerings. Over the next two years we will
complete the SMME database, put in place a district
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information system, develop a capable M&E system, and
ultimately develop a digital one-stop shop with Fourth
Industrial Revolution, 4IR, capabilities that will serve all
players in the ecosystem. To this end we will draw on
technical support from the World Bank and the Edse Programme.
Third, we will finalise our organizational structure and align
it to our strategy. We will over the next few months fill
critical posts, including the DDG posts that have been
awaiting finalization of the new structure. The final piece of
institutional strengthening we will be seized with is that of
the proposed merger/incorporation of Sefa and the CBDA into
Seda.
Already, we have developed a working business case. We have
established a joint operations forum for co-ordination and
accountability, and we have appointed new transitional boards
for Seda and Sefa. We are currently mobilising the required
technical expertise we need, and are finalising a project
charter with GTAC for the necessary legal, change management,
planning and content support to the process.
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In conclusion, I table before you the Budget Vote of the
Department of Small Business Development for the year 2022-
2023. The budget is an indication of government’s commitment
to promote the development of small businesses and co-
operatives that contribute to inclusive economic growth and
job creation. The department is allocated a budget of
R2 563 billion for the 2022-23 financial year.
Transfers and subsidies amount to R2 305 billion, compensation
of employees R190 million, goods and services R63 million and
capital expenditure R4,7 million. This means that, 89% of the
budget is channelled towards supporting small businesses and
co-operatives and 11% towards operating costs.
The allocation to the agencies of the Department, the Small
Enterprise Finance Agency, Sefa and the Small Enterprise
Development Agency, Seda amounts to R2,2 billion. Seda is
allocated R 884 million, Sefa is allocated R1,3 billion of the
transfers and subsidies.
I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the portfolio
committee for guidance as well as to stakeholders and all
SMMEs, co-operatives and informal businesses for the continued
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support to this Ministry. I would also like to thank the
Deputy Minister, Mr Sbu Dlamini, the rest of my Ministry team,
the DG, Mr Lindokuhle Mkhumane, and the department, as well as
the boards and officials in Sefa and Seda, for their
contribution and support. I would also like to thank the
President and Cabinet colleagues for the support they are
providing.
As the Minister responsible for Small Business Development, I
invite you to work hand in hand with the department in the
year ahead as we continue to reinforce our commitment to
develop, support and promote small enterprises to ensure their
growth and sustainability.
This Budget Vote shows the unwavering commitment of the ANC
and of the DSBD to SMMEs and Co-operatives development.
Working together and leaving no-one behind, we will build a
better tomorrow for the SMMEs and Co-operatives of South
Africa. I thank you.
Ms V S SIWELA: Thank you, hon House Chairperson. Hon Ministers
and Deputy Ministers in our midst, members of the Portfolio
Committee on Small Business Development and hon members, it
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has been an eventful year in the life of our country and
across the globe since the last Budget Vote debate. South
Africa like the rest of the world has had to deal with the
human cost and massive economic impact of the coronavirus
disease 2019, Covid-19, pandemic, social unrest in KwaZulu-
Natal and Gauteng in July 2021, and the devastating floods,
particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West.
There are signs of economic recovery taking place, especially
since vaccines have been rolled out. We see economic
activities happening all around us in our townships, villages
and cities. People are selling their products, going out to
restaurants, music concerts, tourism attraction and living
life as they used to be before the pandemic strike our
beautiful country. While we celebrate this beginnings of
economic recovery we must not lower our guts and suffer as a
fifth wave of Covid-19 is looming. There are many risks to our
outlook for small business recovery, including the ongoing
Covid-19 pandemic rising interest rates and our domestic
electricity constrains. It is important to acknowledge that
the purpose of Vote 36 – Small Business Development is to
promote the development of businesses and co-operative
enterprises.
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Its ultimate objective is to contribute to inclusive economic
growth and job creation in South Africa. It is on this mandate
that the portfolio committee reports to this House, makes
observations and recommendations for consideration and
adoption. One of the most debated points made by the President
in this year’s state of the nation address was his affirmation
that the private sector has a large responsibility to drive
job creation. The President said that about 80% of people in
South Africa are employed in the private sector. The test for
government, therefore, is how it creates the conditions that
enable particularly small business and co-operatives to
emerge, to grow, to access new markets, to create new
products, and to employ more people. Our people must be given
the necessary regulatory financial and other support to
unleash their dimensions in the economy.
Xitsonga:
Ha khensa, Holobye ...
IsiZulu:
Siyabonga ...
English:
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... because you have mentioned that you’re going to make sure
that you don’t leave anyone out. Hon members, while there is
undoubtable evidence of progress with structural reforms as
outlined by the President in February and our Minister today,
there is still the difficult reality experience by people on
the ground. The drive to reduce red tapes support businesses
and facilitate the development of new industry are, indeed,
encouraging. However, small business people have told our
committee on numerous occasions that they would like to see a
greater sense of urgency and a far stronger commitment to
accelerate employment stimulus to create jobs and funding for
their business ventures. This can only happen if the
department can fast-track those Bills to be adopted by
Parliament. Government must do more to address backlogs,
particularly in the energy sector that continue to haunt
particularly small business.
Hon Minister, we are considering this Budget Vote when the
unemployment rate in our country is the highest it has been in
decades. They really unemployment rate stood at 46,3% at the
end of the fourth quarter of 2021. This is horrible picture by
any measure. These levels of unemployment in a country with a
history of racial class and gender operation are simple
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unsustainable. The Department of Small Business Development
should be capacitated to play a much more dynamic role in
rolling back these painful realities in a country as much as
we agree with you, hon Minister, that in your organogram and
on the issue of vacant posts will appoint. Because if the
vehicle is not oiled it won’t move. Therefore, we appreciate
that and that should happen urgently.
We have noted the marginal increase in expenditure of the
department at an average annual rate of 0,6% from R2,6 billion
in 2021-22 to R2,7 billion in 2024-25 financial year. Given
the scale of the challenges in our economy this by no means is
enough to allow the department to fulfil its mandate. The
committee has expressed its concern regarding the budget cuts
to Small Enterprise Development Agency, Seda, funding in the
light of rising unemployment. However, ...
IsiZulu:
Kodwake siyabonga, Ngqongqoshe, ngoba uyasho ukuthi ...
English:
... you will open centres so that you are closer to the people
and we would appreciate that. Let us also utilise our
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Parliamentary Constituency Offices, PCOs, because what is
important is that we appreciate all the plans documented well,
but the problem is to make sure that we reduce this
unemployment and more people get job that will satisfy us as
the committee.
The committee welcomes the reintroduction of the Small
Business Advisory Council as this has been our regular
recommendations since the Fifth Administration. We also
welcome the measures taken with respect to cutting unnecessary
red tapes. The committee supports and welcomes the appointment
of Mr Sipho Nkosi by the President as a seasoned business
expert. We trust that he will assist government eliminate red
tapes that stifles investment and growth of small and medium-
sized enterprises, SMEs, and co-operatives. We believe as the
portfolio committee, hon Minister, that the District
Development Model, DDM, will assist us because there is
disjuncture between the three levels sphere of governance
where we must make sure that local economic development, LED,
desks in our municipalities is working together with us
because most issues which are supposed to be dealt on the
ground are not being dealt. Therefore, the department cannot
be all over, but that model will assist us to make sure that
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we touch the ground. Therefore, we really appreciate that DDM
model as the portfolio committee.
Hon Minister, as we said in our previous engagement, our
committee is concerned that the department has not table
legislation in recent years for consideration by Parliament.
And we know that those processes take long. The department is
now eight years old, and it must move. Therefore, our request
is that please as the department try your best that those
pieces of legislation are taken into cognisance. In spite of
the numerous loopholes that necessitate policy or legislation
change in the sector, we acknowledge that the draft National
Small Enterprise Amendment Bill intended to ament the National
Small Enterprise Act of 1996, which was published for comments
in the Government Gazette in December 2020.
However, it is disappointing that not much progress has been
achieved since then. We, therefore, call on government to
accelerate the completion of the National Small Enterprise
Amendment Bill. The committee believes that the achievement of
the department’s objectives depends on the successful
completion of this Bill, for instance, the amalgamation of
Small Enterprise Finance Agency, Sefa, Seda and Co-operative
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Banks Development Agency, CBDA, must be underpinned by an act
of Parliament. The establishment of small enterprise Ombuds
office will also be facilitated in part by the Bill. The
committee notes and welcomes the areas where progress has been
made. We call for the finalisation of the department’s
organisational structure and fill of critical senior posts
because if your structure is limping we will not achieve our
objectives, hon Minister.
We recommend that proposed business case required by the
National Treasury, Department of Public Service and
Administration and Department of Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation concerning the major structural reconfiguration and
filling of vacant posts should not be achieved to the
detriment of the small business sector. We call on the
department ... Thank you. [Time expired.]
Mr J N DE VILLIERS: Chairperson, there are currently two wars
that have a major impact on South Africans. The first is the
much-publicised war in Ukraine, where Russia has invaded the
independent country and is relentlessly murdering its
citizens. This war will have a devastating economic effect on
the worlds’ economy, including our own. Ukraine is one of the
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biggest producers of grain and cooking oil in the world, and
the war in Ukraine will translate into rising local prices on
these items, which form an already important part of South
African households’ ability to put food on the table. Small
business owners will be hit hard, as they are forced to react
to the rising cost of doing business, while their customers’
ability to spend worsens.
This brings us to the second war that threatens South Africa -
the war on poverty, unemployment, and inequality. This war is
currently being lost, as unemployment recently soared to 35% by
the narrow definition and 46% by the expanded definition. As
explained by the President in his Sona, it is widely supported
by most parties and commentators that small businesses and
small, medium and micro-sized enterprises, SMMEs, could be the
engine of economic growth that South Africa needs to bring down
unemployment, and it therefore becomes critical that government
creates an environment for SMMEs to thrive. The purpose of this
Budget Vote for the Department of Small Business Development is
exactly that, to enable the department to promote the
development of small businesses, which it does via various
services and its agencies, the Small Enterprise Development
Agency, Seda, and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency, Sefa.
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As a department, there are various goals, which most portfolio
committee members agree on. These include the prioritisation
of the following. The urgent merger of Seda and Sefa in order
to give an improved service to small business owners who need
business support and financial solutions, such as access to
finance. The creation of a regulatory environment that
improves the ease of doing business. The establishment of the
Small Enterprise Ombud Service office, so SMMEs can settle
disputes more cost-effectively and have more effective
protection against bullying by bigger businesses. And lastly,
measures to embrace the informal business sector and help them
come into the formal sector.
If executed effectively, these and other measures by the
department can help SMMEs become better engines of growth. But
Chairperson, the simple reality is that for small business to
really thrive, South Africa needs much more than just the
Department of Small Business Development initiatives. Small
business cannot function without a growing economy that
creates markets and profit opportunities; a stable power grid
that works and is reliable; functional and well-maintained
transport infrastructure via roads, rail, harbours and
airports; protection of citizens and their place of employment
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by a functioning and well-run police force; and a professional
State, run by capable officials who have no political ties and
were not cadre deployed.
The reality is that small business cannot function if national
government does not function. And herein lies the biggest
threat and also opportunity for small business. The biggest
threat to small business development remains the management of
our country, via the ANC in control of national government.
There can be no doubt that as long as the ANC remains in
control of the country, we will have no reliable power.
Politically connected criminals will be allowed to continue to
steal taxpayer money, infrastructure will increasingly fail,
the police will remain dysfunctional, and unemployment,
inequality and poverty will get worse.
But it is not just doom and gloom for South Africa. The
opportunity at our country’s doorstep is the 2024 national
election, where voters can choose to break the ANC cycle of
abuse that cripples our country’s wonderful potential. If
voters reject the ANC in 2024, a new DA led coalition
government can fix the power network so that people and
businesses have power. Road and trains can run again, so that
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people can travel to work. The police can be restored to
corrupt-free guardians of society, so that small businesses
and their employees can operate fearlessly in a society free
from criminal syndicates, theft, murder and fraud. Taxpayers
can trust the government that their taxes are not being stolen
by cadres, but paid to professional government officials who
are qualified for their jobs and operate free from political
interference, giving all small businesses a fair chance to
compete for government tenders without political meddling.
If South Africa was a business, it would be as simple as just
to say, we need new management, and for that, the shareholders
- the citizens of this country, need to fire the ANC
management in 2024 by voting for a party that has a proven
management track record - a party that gets things done. Only
then can we break the back of the poverty cycle and create
employment, equality and wealth for the deserving people of
South Africa. I thank you.
Ms B MATHULELWA: Thank you, House Chair. Greetings to the
commander-in-chief, the Whippery of the EFF, the battalion of
the EFF, and the rejected businesses out there. The EFF
rejects the proposed budget for small businesses because this
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is a budget of salaries and procurement for the department and
not to help small businesses. This is made worse by giving
such an important portfolio to a Minister who does not take
either their job or small businesses seriously. As for the
EFF, we have made it very clear in the past that we do not
need the department ... [Inaudible.] ... but a way for the
ruling party to distribute patronage to the cronies in
training who do not have original ideas but steal other
people’s businesses. We have proposed in the past that there
is no basis to separate small businesses from trade and
industry. The basis of industrial policy in South Africa must
start with small businesses and spread across all provinces.
This was captured in the failed NDP where government made
commitments that it will procure more than 30% from small
businesses but this is not through. It was a department
created out of a need to create positions of factions in the
ruling party and it must come to an end. The same way we said
as the EFF that there was no need to have a Department for
Economic Development and we were vindicated. We didn’t just
say this in speeches but we have spent time with small
businesses in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape and other
provinces to understand how the decision to separate small
businesses from industrial policy has impacted entrepreneurs.
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We have spent time with Uncedo txi association and border taxi
associations in Matatiele, Mount Fletcher, Maclear and Mthatha
in the Eastern Cape who spend a lot of money in automotive
industry but do not benefit from any industrial activities.
And this is the case with most taxi associations all over the
country. As a result, the only source of revenue is the roots
and it causes conflict. Even when these associations ask for
basic support such as land to build taxi ranks, they are not
given land, instead they are harassed by the traffic police on
a daily basis.
We have spent time with small businesses in Ezingolweni
Township in Port Shepstone whose businesses were burned down
during the 2021 unrests, Minister. Your department promised to
intervene and other entities in the provincial and local
government promised to intervene, but these businesses are
still in ruins. We have spent time with small businesses -
those in Ezingolweni Township in Port Shepstone. We have spent
time with hawkers and street vendors in Isipingo in KwaZulu-
Natal, who are also still waiting for the relief fund after
2021 July unrests. When we submit questions on written reply
to the Minister, they are responded to with disregard. We have
also spent time with the co-operatives who produces tea tree,
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peanuts, mango and bananas in their own gardens in Ward 32,
Ray Nkonyeni Local Municipality in Ugu District.
These communities are the victims of the colonial and
apartheid laws that dispossessed black people of their land.
Today, they want their land back to do their farming as they
are already exporting their products overseas. But because
there is no clear direction from the government - no intention
to expropriate land without compensation for equal
redistribution, and there is no clear link between farming and
agro-processing and retail, these small businesses are doomed
to die.
Small businesses are not only suffering in the automotive and
farming sectors, but in all other sector as well. We found the
same in construction, retail, textile and hospitality
industries. What is even worse is that the government,
especially municipalities, are the biggest culprit that are
killing the small businesses. They accept services from small
businesses but do not pay them on time. In November 2020, a
small business called Thompson Construction did work for
Alfred Nzo District Municipality, but they haven’t been paid
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yet. We must close the department and make small businesses
the businesses of industrial policy. I thank you.
Mr B N LUTHULI: Thank you, Chair, small business is a key
driver of the economy and empowerment, and deserves the
dedicated support of government. It is not just the IFP that
emphasises the importance of small business when it comes to
job creation. According to “Small Matters”, a 2019 study by
the International Labour Organisation, ILO, which included
data from South Africa, in almost all of the 99 countries in
the sample, the self-employed and micro and small enterprises
- small economic units - make up more than two-thirds of
employment.
This being said, we would like to remind government of its
commitment, through the Department of Small Business
Development to focus on enhanced support to small business and
co-operatives, with an emphasis on programmes to advance
entrepreneurship amongst women, the youth, and people with
disabilities to contribute to job creation and economic
growth.
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As our country attempts to slowly pick up the pieces in the
wake of the crippling COVID-19 pandemic, we were knocked
sideways in July 2021 by the destructive unrest in Kwazulu-
Natal and Gauteng. According to the SA Special Risks Insurance
Association, Sasria:
The damage in July’s looting and mayhem, the most
expensive riots in the world cost more than R50 billion.
This was followed by yet more devastation in 2022, with
the flooding in Kwazulu-Natal and the eastern cape. Not
only lives were lost, but businesses and livelihoods
destroyed.
As the IFP, we are concerned.
According to National Treasury, real gross domestic product,
GDP, is expected to grow by 2,1% in 2022 an average 1,8% over
the medium-term. This limited economic growth rate does not
bode well for South Africa as a whole, and small businesses in
particular. This is why the budget allocated to the Department
of Small Business Development must work harder, and give
beneficiaries more bang for the buck. We cannot afford a
single cent to go to waste through irregular or fruitless and
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wasteful expenditure. Any opportunities for corruption must
also be identified and prevented before losses can occur.
As the IFP, we further have concerns that we believe merit the
attention of this House: Firstly, is the merger of the Small
Business ... [Time expired.]
Mr W W WESSELS: Thank you House Chair, the Minister speaks
about bringing hope. The question is: If the R2,563 billion
appropriated to this department will bring hope? Will it bring
hope to struggling Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise, SMMEs?
Will it bring hope to the millions of unemployed South
Africans?
I understand why the Minister’s video during her address. If I
was responsible for the destruction of small business in South
Africa, I would also hide my face in shame.
We hear the same thing over and over again each year. One
roadshow after the other and one master plan after the other.
We hear that government will make it easier and will focus on
making it easier to do business. We will cut the red tape. Yet
this department fails year in, and year out, to do that.
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The hon President has appointed someone who will appoint –
nobody knows – someone to do this pivotal and very important
function. Something this department should have played a role
in doing. This proves once again that this department is
redundant.
The hon Siwela says after eight years of existence, it is now
time for the department to move. This department can be
considered as a failed experiment. Small business development
did not take place since this department has come into
existence. The actual opposite has happened.
This department should be merged with the Department of Trade,
Industry and Competition rather for small businesses to
thrive.
We firstly need basic service delivery. Our municipalities
should function. No business can function under the current
circumstances where roads and transport infrastructure are
completely deteriorated. No business can function and thrive
whilst there is load shedding and unreliable electricity
supply. No business can thrive whilst there is erratic water
supply and sewage running in the street.
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This government has failed to develop small businesses and
create a conducive environment for small business.
Government’s policies have failed. It is cadre deployment and
corruption that are responsible for the difficulty to do
business.
To get this economy going and develop small businesses, we do
not only have to get rid of this department but the ANC
government – the failed ANC government. That hon Minister,
brings hope. That is what is bringing hope this 2024. I thank
you.
Mr W M THRING: Thank you, hon House Chairperson, as we
consider this Budget Vote, the ACDP is cognisant of the fact
that in most developed and developing economies, up to 70% of
the jobs created emanates from the small business sector. The
critical importance of small businesses ... those who seek to
destroy or diminish the role of small business, we cannot
allow this to take place.
The ACDP is aware that the Department of Small Business
Development is tasked with the responsibility of leading and
co-ordinating an integrated approach to the promotion and
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development of entrepreneurship, small businesses and co-
operatives, within an enabling legislative and policy
environment, to increase employment and reduce poverty and
inequality. However, with a three-year budget extending to
2024-25 of over R7,8 billion, over four programmes, this is
easier said than done.
If the values of this department, such as integrity and
professionalism, are to be upheld, then it is important that
some of the recommendations of the committee are fast-tracked.
Some of these
Some of these being the National Small Enterprise Amendment
Bill, together with the mergers and necessary organograms must
be concluded speedily. The outstanding forensic investigation
must be brought to finality and the investigation report of
the Auditor-General must be made public, so that where
necessary corrective action can be taken, and consequence
management applied.
It is unacceptable that the Small Enterprise Finance Agency,
Sefa, has not supplied the committee with a list of co-
operatives that were funded from 1 April 2021 to 31 March
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2022, and using the POPIA Act as an excuse will not hold
water. We must remember that the National Lottery Board, NLB,
refused to release the names of beneficiaries citing the POPIA
Act, but when they forced to disclose, it was then that the
rot and corruption were revealed.
In conclusion, the ACDP calls upon the small business sector
not to be used as government agents to flout the section
12(2)(c) constitutional rights of their employees, by
implementing vaccine mandates in the workplace, when science
shows that both the vaccinated and unvaccinated can contract
COVID-19. Professor Shabir Madhi, who advised the Coronavirus
Command Council, CCC, is on record saying that the vaccine
drive did not work because vaccines don’t prevent infection.
In addition, he said that those with previous infections have
as much protection as anyone who has had a Messenger RNA,
mRNA, jab. It’s time to stop the madness. I thank you.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: House
Chairperson and the Chair of the National Council of
Provinces, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members of the
National Assembly, hon members of the NCOP, the distinguished
guests, members of co-operatives that are present here today
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and those listening all over the country, the small, medium
and micro business owners, ladies and gentlemen, the issues
and questions which have been raised in this House are
welcome. We will attempt to provide reasonable responses that
are as honest as possible as being taught by Amilcar Cabral
and I quote, “Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell
no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no
difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories.”
Just as our country was attempting to address the legacy of
apartheid and colonialism of a special type, we had to deal
with the 2007-08 global economic crisis. As if this was not
enough, we had to confront Covid-19 head on in 2020. Just
recently when we had developed an Economic Reconstruction and
Recovery Plan we had to deal with the unrests in KwaZulu-Natal
and parts of Gauteng, and now it is the impact of floods which
happened in KwaZulu-Natal and in the Eastern Cape. These are
provinces with high levels of poverty incidents.
All these have worsened the crisis of unemployment, poverty
and inequality. Therefore, the challenges we face require our
collective efforts across the political divide. Just as we
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appreciate the criticism, we also note your constructive ideas
and solutions to the challenges facing our country.
On the National Integrated Small Enterprise Development Master
Plan, NISED, the master plan is a co-ordinating framework for
the development and support of small, medium and micro
enterprises, SMMEs, in South Africa. It is formulated based on
resolving four key issues that restrict the growth potential
and success for SMMEs and co-operatives. These include the
following: Information asymmetry, policy uncertainty, service
delivery shortfalls and mistrust between government and
business. Cabinet has approved the draft master plan for
public comments and we are calling on the academia community,
labour and various spheres of government, including all South
Africans, to submit comments.
On the red tape reduction, red tape refers to excessive
bureaucracy or adherence to official rules and formalities
that inhibit the ease of doing business. The Department of
Trade Industry and Competition and National Treasury have
focused on specific reforms meant to turn off World Bank’s
teams of doing business indicators. Such teams, amongst
others, focus on specific improvements leading to such
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initiatives as the online BizPortal that has significantly cut
the time taken to register a business, reduced the number of
procedures in the issuing of construction permits through
doing away with approval stamps from four different agencies.
Whilst the ease of doing business programme focuses on the
necessary regulatory and business process efficiency reforms,
the Department of Small Business Development has been driving
awareness around the need to address unnecessary red tape
within government. In this regard, our department has been
working with local, provincial, national departments as in
partnership with Government Technical Advisory Centre, GTAC.
We have completed a diagnostic report on red tape reduction.
Coming out of this report, the department has run a municipal
level initiative. The outcomes of this initiative will be put
into rationalising municipal reporting requirements as well as
initiatives at national, provincial and district level. We are
also taking lessons from the pilot into the red tape reduction
awareness programme. We will run with 20 municipalities this
year with red tape cases derived from bottlenecks across the
local, provincial and national levels.
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In this context, we see the red tape reduction office in the
Presidency working as an escalation mechanism for issues that
cannot be dealt with at provincial level by the Department of
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, by the
Department of Trade Industry and Competition and National
Treasury or by our department.
On the incorporation of Small Enterprise Finance Agency, SEFA,
and Co-operative Banks Development Agency, CBDA, into Small
Enterprise Development Agency, SEDA, compared to global peers,
small enterprises are the biggest contributors to form
creation and economic growth, but in South Africa the small
enterprises sector is underperforming. The reasons for this
underperformance range from historical legacies, the structure
of the economy, lack of suitable and properly co-ordinated
government support for the sector. The current reality is that
support offered to small enterprises in the country is
disjointed and not able the meet the required magnitude and
generally gets too few SMMEs and co-operatives in respect of
both the financial and non-financial support. This is
reflected in the data on SMMEs survival rates.
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In light of the above, the department got approval from
Cabinet to proceed with the process of incorporating small
business support functions into a single agency. We are at an
advanced stage of setting up a project management unit that
will offer support to the department in ensuring that this
work of incorporating SEFA and the CBDA into SEDA is finalised
by 31 December 2023.
On the development of co-operatives, international studies
have shown that countries which have created an environment
conducive to the promotion of co-operatives by developing
legislative instruments, supportive programmes and delivery
institutions grow rapidly and contribute positively to the
economic development, employment creation and economic
ownership by local communities and human resource development.
I can give examples like Spain, Kenya, Italy, India and
Bangladesh which have successfully worked on co-operatives. As
a country we need to derive lessons from these experiences as
we prepare to scale up our work on co-operatives.
On the funding policy for SMMEs and co-operatives, Cabinet has
approved that the Department of Small Business Development
develop the SMMEs and co-operatives funding policy to unlock
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funding opportunities to the SMMEs sector. The policy is aimed
at strengthening the provision of development finance towards
the SMMEs sector with a view to improve access to finance for
SMMEs and co-operatives. In line with this mandate, the
department is leading the process of developing the SMMEs and
co-operatives financing policy.
The department has been involved over the past two months in
several consultative sessions supported by the EU funded
ecosystem development for small enterprises programme. We are
currently in the process of consolidating these inputs so that
they can be tabled in Cabinet for approval.
Lastly, the envisaged introduction of the Co-operative Banks
Development Agency into our portfolio has presented us with an
opportunity to provide qualitative co-operative enterprises.
With these few words, I thank you, Chair, and thank you for
your time. Thank you very much.
Mr V ZUNGULA: Chair, citizens in the small and medium-sized
enterprise, SMME, sector are very clear. The issue of SMMEs
must not be made about slogans and rhetoric. It must be about
practical programmes to uplift small and medium-sized
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enterprises, SMMEs, in the country. All economic indicators
globally point to one thing, that is, the growth of the
economy is linked to SMME development. Citizens are able and
willing to run their own SMMEs. They just ned support from
government. The department must provide solutions tailor-made
for the South African context.
South Africa is a mix of both formal and the informal economy.
The Department of Small Bushiness only focusses on the formal
economy and ignores the millions of citizens who try their
trade in the informal economy. The requirements for funding
and government assistance must be tailor-made for the informal
sector where citizens run businesses with less formal
requirements. Hawkers, carwashes, spaza shops and saloons must
all receive funding and support from the government. The
department must prioritise correcting the anomaly of 82% of
the SMME sector in the North West not being in the hands of
the citizens.
This is the case all over the country and the silence of the
department in this anomaly is very concerning. What is even
more concerning is the report by the TimesLIVE that states
that more than six billion of our South African rands left our
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economy to fund terrorists. This is money that could be used
to circulate around the country, grow the economy and create
jobs.
The Department of Small Business Development must have a
compliance division in order to ensure that all traders trade
within the law. This division must also deal with the fake,
expired and rejected goods that are used to poison our people.
The department must work with the Competition Commission in
order to deal with the predatory business practices that
completely wipe out local businesses in the SMME sector. We
can’t allow South Africa to be a banana republic and everyone
does as he pleases. We can’t allow native citizens of this
country to be displaced from the economy. We can’t allow black
South Africans in particular to be relegated to a state of
being grant dependents. The department must protect South
Africans in the SMME sector. South Africans own spaza shops,
salons, hawkers, general dealers, taverns and hardwares and
must be protected from being completely displaced in the
economy. The department must have means of ensuring that South
Africans dominates the SMME sector. South Africans must
dominate all economic activities in our country. It is a
hatred of our citizens where the majority of our economic
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activities in the SMME sector are not dominated by citizens.
If South Africans are not dominant players in the South
African SMME sector, which other sectors of the economy will
they dominate in?
IsiXhosa:
Ngoko ke, siyacela maqabane, bantu abaphethe eli lizwe ...
English:
... please, correct this anomaly. Wherever we go across the
country we must have South Africans being the dominant players
in all economic activities. [Time expired.]
Mr H G APRIL: House Chairperson, hon members, Minister, Deputy
Minister and all protocols observed, I don’t know if I can be
heard and seen properly, but let me jump into the work of the
day. The story of South African entrepreneurship is a long and
inspiring one.
Before there was our Department of Small Business Development
even before we defeated the apartheid state, black
entrepreneurs like Lebo Gunguluza braved the conditions of
oppression to launch successful enterprises. When Lebo arrived
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in Durban in 1990, he has R60,00 in his name. At the age of 26
he started his first company. He became one of Africa’s
youngest self-made black millionaires without any funding or
tenders from government and overcame tremendous arts in his
entrepreneurial journey to build a multimillion rand empire
over the years. Recalling those heady days, Lebo says, “I
spent my first million in one year.” By the end of 1999, he
was flat broke. “My car was repossessed and now I was
blacklisted,” he said.
Down and out he would go to the sea and to a stores nearby and
stand in a corner reading business books that he could not
afford to buy. If the staff chased him away he would go home
change his clothes and come right back. He says I made up my
mind and whatever I went in to the next I would be in a space
that pace well under the structure. I would also continuously
reinvest in my business, watch my cash flow and do business
with only scrupulous clients who paid me on time.
Entrepreneurs are risk takers who drive an ambition whoever
unique mind set to which shakes them apart from other run of
more businesses.
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Lebo’s story is not different from another famous entrepreneur
by the name of the Chinses billionaire, Jack Ma. Jack Ma tells
his story that he failed his university in written exams. When
KFC came to China, out of 25 people 24 were hired, and guesses
what, he was not one of them. Because Jack was an entrepreneur
he never gave up and work as a self-employed tour guide
helping foreign tourists in order to teach himself to speak
English. A trip to Seattle in 1995 where a friend showed him
the internet for the first time proved to be a decisive
shaping stepping stone into his future. In 1999, he found the
Alibaba group, a business to business e-commerce platform and
today is one of the biggest multinational technology companies
specialising in retail e-commerce and technology.
The Department of Small Business Development is not, and must
never become the SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, for all and
sundry who wish to become SMMEs and co-operatives. It must
unearth talent and facilitate the emergence of South African
entrepreneurs who have the never give up spirit that Lebo and
Jack had. Such a calibre of innovative business people work
hard and make the sacrifices and succeed against all odds. The
department and the whole of government must develop the
capacity to unearth these genes and give opportunities and
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tailor-made support for them. Such people are the ones who
would provide employment to those who are not made for the
risky cut throat endeavours that a real entrepreneur goes
through.
Entrepreneurs in Reiger Park, Alexander and Mitchells Plain
are in equal measure as those existing in Sandon and
Constantia. The only difference is that the ones in Sandon and
Constantia are born into privileged and mountains of money in
trust funds. They are born with the figurative silver and gold
spoon in their mouths.
Our mandate as the ANC is not to fight against the trust fund
babies. No, we are not antiwhite or antirich people movement.
Our mandate is to do what China did since 1978 and what South
Korea did since 1960, to unleash the talent of South Africans
who apartheid had relegated to a miserable existence of
poverty, unemployment, substance abuse and crime. We know that
even in such circumstances our people emerge and form
businesses and industries they can claim as their own. Spaza
shops, taxis and other businesses thrive in our own townships
and our villages. Many of them like our late icon Richard
Maponya who has built a huge mall with a value chain in
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Soweto, is one of the examples that we can make. The impact of
COBID-19, the civil unrest in July 2021 in KwaZulu-Natal and
Gauteng and the natural disasters in some of our provinces
have impacted thousands of SMMEs and co-operatives negatively.
The ANC welcomes the medium-term recovery programme and the
COVID-19 relief programme such as the SMME debt relief fund
and the business growth resilience facility introduced in the
previous financial year. The bounce back support scheme
announced by the National Treasury just now the other day on
26 April 2022, is also designed to support business recovering
from the July 2021 unrests as well as the flood-related
disasters in various provinces.
Examples of business people who have been assisted especially
from Alexandra is the state of the art fleshy the Fourth
Industrial Revolution, 4IR, business incubation hub that has
been launched by the Department of Small Business Development
that is connecting businesses from different spaces and from
different spheres.
I also want to say that it is a real shame that the DA and EFF
coalition cannot even pay small businesses in Tshwane,
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Ekurhuleni and Joburg. They want to score cheap political
points here while they are not paying small businesses in the
municipalities that they are currently governing. It shows
their lack to govern.
I also really want to suggest that hon Babalwa go for a basic
reading lessons to enable her articulate written speeches of
the researchers that they have written for her. Mr Wessels
really has to go to Orania and show what his organisation
think about blacks in general and Africans in particular. It
is only the ANC-led government that is serious about
transforming the lives of small business people. With this I
thank you, Chair.
Mr B N HERRON: Chairperson, if a state is seriously looking
for the small business sector to create nine million jobs and
lead South Africa’s socioeconomic recovery, we need to bring
the banking sector to the party and jointly develop an
enabling environment that acknowledges small businesses
struggles in a struggling economy over the past decade and a
half.
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The fact that just 27% of the R200 million COVID-19 loan
guarantee scheme that was announced by President Ramaphosa in
April 2020 has actually been approved with another 13%
somewhere in the pipeline, shout at us to wake up. It reflects
the very wide gulf that exists between the vision of small
businesses leading South Africa’s socioeconomic recovery and
the precarious position many small businesses that haven’t
been forced to their knees yet over the past two years
actually find themselves in today.
According to the Banking Association South Africa the main
reason that just 27% is the loan guarantee scheme has been
approved was due to many small businesses had already been
been in financial distress before the COVID-19 disaster
struck. Many small businesses were not in good standing before
the pandemic, they did not have a record of paying their debts
and had unrealistic expectations of borrowing money they have
been unable to repay.
If just 27% of entities had their books in order and they duck
in a row on entering COVID-19, it implies that nearly three
quarter of the sector were already in trouble at the time.
Even at an extra 13% of applications are eventually approved,
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it implies that 60% of small businesses entering COVID-19 were
unfundable according to the present financial sector rules.
The loan guarantee scheme announced by President Ramaphosa was
a joint initiative of the government, the banking sector,
Reserve Bank and the Treasury. The Treasury would initially
fund the R100 million guarantee with an option to increase it
to R200 million if needed and provided the scheme most
successful. If we could only disperse R27 million of the
potential R200 million loan guarantee in two years, how does
the state and the financial sector propose to materially
assist small business to grow nine million jobs now? What
happens to business still in distress and drowning in debt
including all those excluded from benefiting from the COVID-19
loan scheme? Do we simply write them off now? Should we be
considering an amnesty of some kind coupled with business
development assistance to enable them keep operating? Should
we be obliging established businesses to play a mentorship
role in guiding new entrants into the market?
In an economy of such dramatic inequality such as ours,
without changing the rules, the real existential questions
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remain. How do new businesses enter the game if they do not
have resources to tap into loans?
Other rules of the game are too geared to further enrich those
who already have resources which implies that most South
Africans are excluded. Thank you. [Time expired.]
Ms K B TLHOMELANG: House Chairperson, Ministers and Deputy
Ministers present, chairperson Ms Violet Siwela and colleagues
in the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development, hon
members, it was eight years ago that the President of the
Republic of South Africa announced the establishment of the
Department of Small Businesses Development on 20 May 2014. The
announcement marked a turning point in the history of SMMEs
and co-operatives at the centre of economic growth and job
creation.
This is in line with the aspiration of the National
Development Plan. This year the ANC has declared a year to
advance and defend South Africa's democratic gains. We need to
debate what the substance of these gains is, particularly for
our people in the small enterprises and co-operatives. Today I
pay special tribute to those workers in the informal economy
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and those who are abused by metro police and criminals in
cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The priorities of the committee, in our committee meeting last
week, we committed ourselves to maintaining oversight of the
department's commitment and implementation of the committee’s
resolutions. In this regard, the ANC will ensure that we see
improvement and achievement of the targets, particularly for
the empowerment of the youth, people with disabilities and
women-owned enterprises. This together with the development of
the village, township and small dorpies [towns] SMMEs and co-
operatives have the greatest impact on achieving the purpose
of this Vote and mandate of the department.
The ANC welcomes the Township and Rural Entrepreneurship
Programme as a necessary innovation by the department. The
department introduced the programme in the middle of the 2020-
2021 financial year, as part of the country's COVID-19
Economic Recovery Programme. Township and rural
entrepreneurship provides a maximum of R1 million towards
working capital expenditure and other capital expenditure.
What is significant is that in an R100 000 package, R50 000 is
a grant. Small business people have benefited from the
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favourable repayment terms of a maximum of 60 months and a
fixed interest rate of 5%
Township and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme targets
enterprises in rural areas and townships, targeting mainly
businesses owned by women, youth, and people with disability.
This programme supported over 13 000 businesses and aims to
support 20 000 rural and township enterprises in the next
financial year 2023-2024. This support goes to businesses that
are the backbone of villages and township economies like spaza
shops, bakeries, confectionaries, auto body repairs,
hairdressers, clothing, shisanyama and butcheries.
R2,9 billion has been budgeted to continue to roll-out this
programme with the aim of supporting 100 000 township and
rural enterprises by 2024. Concerns raised in the committee,
access to finance has consistently been raised as a challenge
by the informal businesses, start-ups, existing SMMEs and co-
operatives. The ANC supports the department's commitment to
focus initiatives such as building a sustainable loan book,
investing in a sustainable black-owned financial intermediary
base, and a couple of sensibilities services to improve the
sustainability of clients.
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We are concerned, however, that the Small Enterprises
Development Agency, Seda, budget is projected to decrease,
from 2019 to 2025, as well as Seda’s budget was cut in excess
of R3 million during the previous financial year. The
achievements of the department, the ANC is excited about the
launch earlier this year of the Hustle Academy with the
support of the department and global tech giant Google who is
committed to helping empower local entrepreneurship in a free
week-long boot camp. We are also happy that the department has
focused on master plans targeting the manufacturing,
agricultural and digital automotive mining industries. To
achieve an inclusive economy, we need to more effectively
support and grow vibrant and sustainable small, and medium
enterprises and co-operatives.
The ANC government has specifically set aside targets for
designated groups to have those who in the past were locked
out of playing a role in our economy. As the President said,
we are unapologetic that at least 40% of government
procurement spending must go to the women-owned enterprises;
30% to youth and 7% to companies owned by persons with
disability. With this, the ANC supports the Budget Vote, I
thank you.
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Mr M G E HENDRICKS: Hon House Chair, the chairman of the
portfolio committee referred to the triple whammy that has
caused a lot of disruption in the programmes of the Small
Business Development Department, so I do not want to delve
into their failures, and I must say that if we use the last
term as an example, we will never achieve what President
Ramaphosa has promised the nation that most job will come from
the small business sector. However, we have listened to the
Minister. We have listened to the Deputy Minister. We have
listened to the chairperson and report of the portfolio
committee on the way forward.
And that gives us a lot of encouragement that we are not going
to let the President down and not achieve the many jobs that
we must create from the Small Business Development Department.
I am not going to speak about Ukraine. I do not know where
that fits in the debate but it must be related to the fact
that the DA has put Gauteng under administration. So all its
lawmakers in all spheres of government are now put on terms
and many of them are set to be fired. Let us come back to some
positive developments. We are aware of the fact that a village
in the Eastern Cape called ... [Inaudible.] ... village has
been given a fishing vessel to transform that rural village to
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a fishing village. And I call it a smart village. If the Small
Business Development Department takes it further, they have
used the technology transfer of funding they should do more.
So it would be nice to know that our villages are being
transformed into fishing villages and maybe even a harbour.
I was in Dimbaza over the weekend to be close to the
conference I had in the Eastern Cape and Dimbaza we know was
in former Ciskei and most of the activists during that time
were dumped in Dimbaza for their resistance activities. That
particular area has got an industrial park. And I cannot hear
any reason why the Small Business Development Department
should do something for Dimbaza because our resistance
fighters were dumped in Dimbaza.
Lastly, Minister De Lille is responsible for creating jobs for
the poor which is not necessarily aligned to our Labour
Relations Act, and she has created ... I supported the
President in creating many jobs, but we have asked her to go
full ... [Inaudible.] ... Thank you very much, hon Chair.
Afrikaans:
Mnr H C C KRÜGER: Agb Huisvoorsitter, ...
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English:
... this is dedicated to the risk takers, the job creators,
the entrepreneurs - those who get up every day and fight a
losing battle against the monsters this government has
created, the bureaucracy that inevitably seeps into everything
government touches, the red tape between success and another
failed small business.
Government spends billions of rands in many departments on the
development of small businesses. However, the SMME failure
rate is one of the worst globally, with an estimated five out
of seven SMMEs failing within their first three operational
years. The result is that people’s dignity is often one of the
casualties, with community instability the consequence.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor measures the total early-stage
entrepreneurial activity in South Africa at a low level of
17%. A study in 2017 concluded that only 10% of adults intend
to start their own business in South Africa. The fewer SMMEs
that are established along with existing SMMEs faltering,
result in a dramatic decrease in employment opportunities. To
address the problem of limited business establishment and
growth, government must create an environment beneficial for
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entrepreneurs, with no bureaucratic intervention where
politics wait outside.
To state that the ANC has failed the South African small
business constituency is a gross understatement. Government
must use their powers and functions to free small businesses
from the clutches of red tape. However, the DA welcomed the
President’s announcement of the Red Tape Reduction Unit during
the Sona. This was, in essence, a motion of no confidence in
the three Ministers the ANC has appointed since the addition
of the Ministry of Small Business Development in 2014.
The Red Tape Reduction Bill tabled in the Fifth Parliament and
the Ease of Doing Business Bill tabled in the Sixth Parliament
by the DA were sadly rejected by the ANC. What makes the ANC’s
rejection of these Bills staggering is that they were, in
essence, exactly what President Ramaphosa had called for
during Sona 2022. If passed into legislation, these Bills
would have cut costs and relieved burdens on small businesses
who have suffered for far too long.
The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms T Joemat-Pettersson): Thank
you very much.
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Mr H C C KRÜGER: Chair, I have six minutes.
The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms T Joemat-Pettersson): Yes, I
will give you one minute.
Mr H C C KRÜGER: Chair, no, I have six minutes. Chair.
The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms T Joemat-Pettersson:
Continue.
Mr H C C KRÜGER: Chair, according to my records, I have six
minutes.
The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms T Joemat-Pettersson: Yes, we
will give you extra time.
Afrikaans:
Mnr H C C KRÜGER: Die komitee se verslag is nie ’n groot skok
of onthulling nie, maar bloot bevestiging van die departement
se terminale onbekwaamheid om hul eie skip in veilige
vaarwaters te hou. Die Minister is soos ’n verwarde
skeepskaptein sonder rigting of roer, afwesig van meeste
komiteevergaderings. Ten minste nege van die komitee se 15
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waarnemings is negatief. ’n Duidelike bewys dat die ANC nie
bevoeg is om hierdie belangrike strategie in werkskepping,
deur middel van kleinsake te bestuur nie.
English:
If you happened to study the committee’s report, it would be
very difficult to claim that the Minister and her department
are doing a good job of addressing the rights of aid to
entrepreneurs and small business owners.
The massive unbalanced aid environment between the informal
trader sitting next to the road to sell her goods and formal
business, is an oversight of the policymakers in the governing
party, hence their failure to address unemployment.
Afrikaans:
Wat kommerwekkend is, is dat die regering nie ons
entrepreneurs kan of wil ontwikkel nie. Suid-Afrikaners is ’n
trotse nasie wat beheer wil vat oor hul toekoms. Ongelukkig
faal die regering om hierdie honger na ontwikkeling te stil.
Ons gemeenskappe in die landelike gebiede suig al vir jare aan
die agterste speen en dit het tyd geword vir ’n verandering,
’n verandering in regering.
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English:
Think of a South Africa where entrepreneurs can trade without
barriers from government. Barriers include red tape, spatial
development by municipalities, service delivery, labour laws
and property rights, just to name a few. This thought will
take you to a caring government, a government that is free,
fair and pregnant of opportunities for all. This government is
called the DA government.
In 2024, the DA will take over this government, and we will
make sure that we are the champions of a friendly, job-
creating business environment for all. I thank you.
The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms T Joemat Pettersson): Hon
Kruger, my apologies for interrupting you. It is the time I
received from the table staff.
Mr A M SHAIK EMAM: Chairperson, thank you for you indulgence;
I was busy on another session at the other side on another
Vote. The NFP notes Budget Vote 36 of the Department of Small
Business Development, and indeed, we will support this Budget
Vote. Having said that, we note that R5,2 billion in tax
relief will be made available, particularly for 15 000 youth-
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owned enterprises, to boost economic recovery and youth
unemployment.
However, to properly respond to the aftereffects of the Covid-
19 pandemic, we first need to understand it. Many companies
closed their door because of Covid-19. Then we had the problem
of the insurrection that took place in July and now, of
course, we have had the floods in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern
Cape and I could say, parts of the North West.
I think what is important to note is that the small business
sector, particularly, which in terms of a report shows that
98% of the country’s economy is made up of small and medium-
sized enterprises, but they are only delivering 28% of the
jobs, yet, 90% of the jobs will created by small businesses by
2030, which is what we are saying.
Now, how do we actually intend doing this. I think we need to
understand something. Yes, indeed, our economic growth is at
an all-time low in the country. Many, many of our youth and
others are unemployed, but we also need to understand that
most of these youngsters, particularly those that go into
small businesses, do not have the necessary skills. When I
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talk about skills, I say that they may have skills in a
particular kind of business they enter into, but unless they
are also skilled in terms of management, accounting
principles, labour relations and things, just allocating funds
to them and leaving them to make a success of it is very
difficult. So, you have to nurture them over a period of time.
Some of the challenges that the small businesses are
experiencing currently are the high costs of doing business,
for starters. They cannot compete because of the conditions,
the high rentals, and all these things that add to it. Now, I
think when we give them assistance it is not just about
rolling out the money, but also to give comprehensive support
so that they can actually make a success of it. [Time
expired.] The NFP supports it. Thank you.
Mr F JACOBS: Thank you, House Chair. Minister and hon members,
as the ANC, we support this Budget Vote debate. We meet at a
critical juncture in our life of our beloved country impacted
by challenges of covid, widespread hunger, poverty, greed,
corruption, unprecedented levels of unemployment, business
locally and global crisis. Despite these hallowing realities,
small business hold, huge potential to address these
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challenges and remain a vital cog in our national economic
recovery efforts.
Across the world there is about 400 000 small, medium and
micro enterprises, SMMEs, and they are the backbone of the
economies of the world and account for more than 95% of the
firms and between 70% of the jobs. So, SMMEs hold a big
potential for us in terms of income generation, improving the
quality of life and also addressing our transformation and
development goals. So, it goes without saying that this
department played a critical role and how the budget vote
debate spells out the building blocks to advance this.
Hon Chair, Small Enterprise Development Agency, Seda, Small
Enterprise Finance Agency, Sefa,’s annual performance plan has
over the last medium-term been impacted by the realities of
covid and it’s important for us to improve and build on the
work that they have done. In regard, the annual performance
plan and budget for 2022-23, are critically important as they
are tabled to reflect our wishes and unlock the immense
differences in SMMEs that they can do to achieve our
transformation agenda. We must ensure that the annual
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performance plans are exactly that and hinges on our ability
to translate our dreams into reality.
Hon Herron, we agree, access to finance is the big elephant in
the room and we must explore your recommendations. It remains
a tragedy and a past that South African banks refused to bank
and learn to the informal traders and emerging entrepreneurs.
Hence, we welcome the innovative micro development finance
products and policy instruments as outlined by the Minister.
We appreciate the commitment to seamless and automated
application process. And we agree with hon Zungula that we
need practically simple programmes. We need to stop the
predatory practice as outlined by the Competition Commission
and get South Africans to big risk. We can’t legislate the
risk and take a chance. But like hon April says, we must
unleash the potential of South Africans and they must become
more entrepreneurial. Hon Kruger, I think we have listened and
Mr Nkosi is with the department and he will apply all the best
efforts to eliminate all the red tape that stifle small
business. We have seen successes from smaller countries like
Rwanda.
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Minister, we are also pleased that there would be a provincial
and district breakdown allocation of the budget so that we can
ensure equity and transparency in the process. We welcome the
finalisation of the legislative framework as this portfolio
committee, and we will watch that with great interest.
We applaud the Gauteng government’ signing into law of the
township economic Bill and the City of Joburg approving the
informal trading policy that will assist with addressing the
tensions between the local and foreign-owned businesses. We
appeal on all metros especially the City of Cape Town to focus
on black, rural, local and township businesses. It’s very
clear that there is a big assault on small informal traders in
Langa, in Rylands and at the Grand Parade here in Cape Town.
We also want to see this department working with organised
government South African Local Government, Salga, to
meaningfully promote township and local economic development
and drive district based economic planning. We also welcome
the commitment to support more than 200 community based co-
operatives.
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In the state of the nation address, the President appeal for
government, civil society, big business to work together in a
social compact in order to drive economic recovery and enhance
social cohesion. In the past two years, we’ve seen many
players in civil society, business, demonstrating their true
South African nature and patriotism and helping South Africa
through this difficult time that we’ve experienced.
We wish to reiterate the call and make the appeal that those
that have concentrated capital in their hands, - you know who
you are, collectively, we must do more. But big business has a
critical role in promoting localisation facilitating entry
into the mainstream economy base emerging black businesses.
Local is not only lekker [nice], local is needed. And we
welcome the public-private platform created by the department.
We cannot do this alone and unless we work co-operatively and
pursue a more inclusive economy. It’s a matter of time where
we will encounter more destructive events as we seen and
witness in July 2021, or perhaps on a larger scale. Are we
agreeing that we must move beyond the road shows, the Indabas,
now is the time for delivery, now is the time for renewal,
rebuilding and to unite?
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Whilst the DA continues to fear monger, nag, promote doom and
gloom and complain, we bring hope, practical change and
renewal. The DA and its leader can only ... [Inaudible.] ...
Come to the Cape flats and do a fact-finding mission on the
lived experience of African and coloured people in the
townships that has to experience daily gang violence and
poverty and open-air sanitation stenches in here. Instead, you
focus on the price of potato chips in school tuckshops.
Because that is the only thing that you can focus on. We must
work collectively to fulfil our constitutional mandate of
dignity and access and a better life for all.
Hon Wessels, we agree that we need to improve infrastructure,
water and electricity. But you must help us encourage white
Afrikaner capital to invest and support black businesses.
Imagine if black shoppers were to start boycotting Shoprite
and other white owned businesses. So, it does make business
sense for South Africans to work together and to co-operate as
outlined by the ANC.
Hon Thring, we share you sense of urgency and transparency for
the beneficiaries and we will also push that quite hard in
this portfolio committee. But we do not share your false faith
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in the anti-vaccination sentiment. Vaccination is proved to
have saved lives and we want to encourage everybody to
vaccinate. And it’s irresponsible for our hon member to have
this anti-vaccination sentiment.
I also want to approach the hon member of the EFF. It is also
a shame that she is deliberately misleading the House. Ninety-
eight percent of this budget will go directly into grant
funding for small business. So, what she says is incorrect.
Hon Thlomelang, we thank you for explaining Small Business
Technical Assistance Program, B-TAP, application and the
innovation that is happening there. Yes, hon Hendrik, we, as
the ANC, we leave no one behind. Even in these small fishing
villages and klein dorpies [small towns], the ANC ...
Afrikaans:
... loss niemand agter nie.
English:
Minister, we have faith in you and our team of experts and we
will continue to do oversight and delivery. The ANC supports
small business because small business is everybody’s business.
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The ANC tables and supports Budget Vote 36 – Small Business
Development. I thank you.
The MINISTER OF SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Hon Chairperson, I
want to highlight the following, that we note the contribution
that have been made by the hon members. We do appreciate the
frankness of the contribution and we understand them as part
of the robust debate about how we serve the small, micro and
medium enterprises, SMMEs, and cooperative sector better and
how we improve the economic plight of our people. The
imperative of the economic recovery, construction and
transformation is a challenge that faces all of us. While we
might choose to be partisan about it, and seek to score cheap
political points, our people are looking at us for leadership
and to ameliorate their plight.
Chairperson, I would like to just respond to few of the things
that have been raised as I have said that I appreciate the
engagement. Firstly, we continue to do our good work in our
space in ensuring that SMMEs thrive and succeed. We are still
going to continue to push for more women and young women,
including youth in general, to accept continental and
international market. As a result, we have started to take our
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people out of the country. We went to Tanzania with 20 SMMEs,
women-owned, and that was part of exposure. We proceeded to
Dubai, again with a high number of entrepreneurs mixed of
gender.
We continue to ensure that, whatever that we do, balance the
small business eco system. It’s a pity that others chose to be
blind to that reality. On the issue of investigation, that was
not done or reported, as the other hon member claimed here.
The investigation report was done by Auditor-General of SA,
AGSA, and the department did provide a response on that, on
the portfolio committee of 4 November in 2020, wherein they
gave an input, and they did talk to the implementation of the
report that resulted in a disciplinary action.
Again, on others really wanting to give a false hope to our
people, fortunately, they have eyes and ears to bear testimony
to this because they are our beneficiaries. We may not have
touched everyone, but we have tried our best, and this is why,
hon members, up to now, just this year, we really tried our
best on the informal sector. We’ve distributed about
R9,7 million worth of the equipment and support that we have
provided to small businesses.
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As I have said, I am talking about things that has happened
just now. Under the Business Recovery Programme, following the
riots that occurred in KwaZulu-Natal, that we reported to the
portfolio committee and the House. We have provided
R235 million, and of course, we have disbursed R176 million to
other businesses, and these are the deals that come out of our
agencies, which means, they are a government intervention
through the Department of Small Business Development. Under
the Recovery Scheme for Informal Businesses, we have supported
5 135 informal businesses to the tune of R13,75 million.
Again, this is continued in the report that was provided in
the portfolio committee.
Therefore, it is not fair to the people of South Africa, to
have a hon member misleading everyone that the department does
not support the informal businesses. I agree, that indeed we
have to do more with the little that we have. There is much
more that needs to be done, which is why we really appreciate
your support, hon members, and we are hopeful that you will
walk this journey with us and assist us in pleading for more
money for small businesses. As I indicated earlier, and I
heard hon Faiez also make mentioning it, that it is not true
that the money of the department goes towards salaries. That’s
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not fair, unless one is providing oversight that is not
understood.
It is understood on one rate, from the documents that we have
done, one will know what are the numbers, including the recent
presentation that we have made. I can assure all of you, hon
members, that we are more determined to work with all of you,
in ensuring that our SMMEs thrive, because when our SMMEs
thrive, it means that our economy is going to grow, and when
our economy grow, it means that more jobs have to be created.
That requires all of us, irrespective of the slogans or the t-
shirt that we wear. Yes, towards elections we make politics,
but all of us are public representatives, that through the
processes and the responsibilities that we have, we ought to
make sure that we complement each other.
We shouldn’t be talking about the legacies of the past, if all
of us were focused, including in the municipalities where we
govern. The challenges that continues to be faced by informal
businesses in the Western Cape, are a reality of what we can
see. Yes, national government can’t do it alone. We are
responsible for certain things, as others believe that Mr
Nkosi is replacing our work. Again, it talks to the
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VOTE NO 36 – SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
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understanding of the scope of small business ecosystem and
what needs to be done.
We are not going to wake up as the Department of Small
Business Development and issue bylaws; we are not going to
wake up and provide water licence, there are respective
departments for that, and I have said, hon Chair, several
times, that the members, especially those that are responsible
for the portfolio committee or those that want to politic
about the work that we do, should make their responsibility to
understand the broader ecosystem, but we are here to assist
everywhere all the time. Thank you, hon Chairperson and thank
you, hon members.
The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms T M Joemat-Pettersson): Thank
you, hon Minister. Hon Jacobs, it is not parliamentary to say
that a member has deliberately misled the House without the
substantive motion. This is just a caution and we will look at
that from the side of the Table.
Mr F JACOBS: House Chair, I withdraw.
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The ACTING HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms T M Joemat-Pettersson): Thank
you very much, hon Jacobs. Hon members, that concludes the
debate and business of this virtual mini-plenary session. The
mini-plenary will now rise, and the House is adjourned.
The mini-plenary rose at 16:01.
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