Questions and Replies
30 November 2022 - NW3448
Mthenjane, Mr DF to ask the Minister of Small Business Development
What are the details of the (a) nature and (b) causes of the capacity constraints in the Information and Communications Technology Unit that led to her department not being able to hold one of the governance meetings in the first quarter of the current financial year as she reported during the meeting of the report-back on Vote 36 to the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development?”
Reply:
a) The ICT Directorate consists of:
- 1 Director,
- 1 Deputy Director,
- 2 Registry Clerks, and
- supported by 2 Sita Support Officials (providing desktop support).
b)(i) On 17 August 2021 a moratorium on filling posts in the Department was declared due to entry of the new Executive Authority.
(ii) The Deputy Director: Information Management/Information Technology Management terminated service on 31 August 2021 which left the Directorate with only 1 technical expert in the ICT space (Director: Chief Information Officer). To be noted is that the 2 registry clerks are not in the field of ICT and the resources from SITA are contracted to provide desktop support services and hence do not form part of the ICT Strategic functions. Further to this, the Director: Chief Information Officer was appointed as Acting Chief Director: Corporate Management after the resignation of the previous incumbent adding greater pressure during this period.
(iii) Approval was received from the Minister to fill the Deputy Director: Information Management/Information Technology post on 25 October 2021.
(iv) The post was advertised in the Public Service Vacancy Circular of November 2021.
(v) The post is filled as of October 2022. The reasons for the delay in recruitment is based on the fact that the HRA sub directorate of the Department had been severely under resourced. Adding to this pressure was the fact that the advertisement was just prior to the festive period and hence efforts to shortlist during this period became challenging. The appointed service provider was inundated with applications due to the volumes received for the posts advertised during this timeframe and resulted in delayed screening and filtering of candidates. This was further exacerbated with the resignation of the DD: HRA and resulted in one Level 8 official to assist with HRA for most of Q1 and Q2 of 2022/23 financial year.
(vi) These shortages affected the ability to coordinate and manage the requisite governance meetings, however had been brought back on track in Q2 and going forward.
STELLA NDABENI-ABRAHAMS
MINISTER: MINISTER OF SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
30 November 2022 - NW3606
Kruger, Mr HC to ask the Minister of Small Business Development
Whether her department has made an assessment on the regulatory measures (a) nationally, (b) provincially and (c) on the local government level that might impact negatively on (i) small , medium and micro enterprises and (ii) co-operatives; if not, why not, in each case; if so, what are the (aa) names and (bb) relevant details of all (aaa) legislation and (bbb) regulations that have been assessed to date?”
Reply:
(a)(b)&(c) The Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) has considered nationally, provincially and locally the legislation negatively affecting Small, medium and micro enterprises in South Africa. There are a multitude of legislative and regulatory criteria that small businesses need to comply with, not all of them are “onerous”, but still this provides a good indication that our regulatory frameworks are not well coordinated and synchronised, and are often duplicatory, placing both a cost and time burden on small businesses. The DSBD has prioritised twenty-nine (29) pieces of legislation (including related regulations, and by-laws, etc.) that impact on SMME growth and development. This is summarised in Figure 2 under point number aa&bb.
- The twenty-nine (29) pieces of legislation affect informal sector, small, medium micro enterprises and co-operatives across the spectrum.
- With regard to co-operatives, we have noted that CIPC reporting under the Co-operatives Development Act, is onerous as most co-operatives are required to submit audited financial statements. That imposes a considerable expense, which does not apply to any other small enterprise. This contrasts with the Company’s Act which has specified thresholds over which enterprises are required to submit audited annual financial statements.
(aa)&(bb) Names of legislation and (bb) relevant details