Letter in Business Day: SA must nurture entrepreneurship

Today's Business Day features my letter on entrepreneurship which was prompted by three recent articles in their excellent new comment and opinion pages, as well as my visit to Riversands Incubation Hub last week.

I am very pleased Mmusi Maimane is pushing the need to support entrepreneurship in his campaign to take over from Helen Zille as DA leader. For without entrepreneurs, we will not meet our job creation target of 11 million new jobs by 2030. Big businesses shed jobs to cut costs to become more competitive, new and growing businesses create them. Government's top priority must, therefore, be to introduce policies that maximise the job-creating opportunities for new and growing business.

You can read my letter on BDLive here or the unedited version below:

May I commend you on your new opinion and commentary section in the revamped Business Day. There is always something new and interesting to read.

Wednesday’s edition featured two articles of particular relevance to South Africa’s prospects. It is common cause that job creation will depend on the formation and growth of small and medium enterprises, which in turn will depend on their being nurtured and provided with opportunities to enter the mainstream economy. In the longer term, an entrepreneurial economy requires an education system which teaches and instills an entrepreneurial culture in our youth.

Riversands Incubation Hub - pioneering small business development

Today I visited Riversands Incubation Hub near Diepsloot in north west Johannesburg at the invitation of Anne Vicente who handles its PR and marketing. She is doing a good job - today's Business Day has a feature by Lesley Stones on the hub - you can read it here. Stones is upbeat about its vision and conveys the staff's sense of excitement about its potential impact on small business development.

I won't repeat what she says in her article but add a few observations of my own and comments from Anne and the hub's CEO, Jenny Retief who spent a valuable hour with me after my tour.

Small Business Development Portfolio Committee Chair opposed to transparent oversight

Yesterday's portfolio committee on Small Business Development revealed that Chairperson Ruth Bhengu is more interested in protecting government agencies and hiding inconsistencies in the ANC's economic policy than conducting transparent and effective parliamentary oversight.

The Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) previously reported directly to Minister Ebrahim Patel’s Department of Economic Development, but as of 1 April 2015, SEFA now reports to Lindiwe Zulu as the Minister of Small Business Development. Therefore oversight of SEFA is the responsibility of the Small Business Development portfolio committee.

Job-creating Gauteng Township Industrial Parks should be Minister Zulu's top priority

Democratic Alliance press statement by

Toby Chance MP

DA Shadow Minister of Small Business Development 

13 April 2015

Release: immediate

Note to editors: The following remarks were made today by the DA’s Shadow Minister of Small Business Development, Toby Chance MP, following an oversight visit to two Township Industrial Parks in Pennyville and Orlando West, Gauteng.

Today I witnessed first-hand a tragic missed opportunity to stimulate enterprise and create the jobs our country so desperately lacks.

On visiting two of Gauteng’s Township Industrial Parks, in Pennyville and Orlando West, it became clear that both national and provincial government have displayed sheer neglect in supporting, maintaining and advancing these parks in order to create jobs and grow the township economy. 

DA to conduct oversight visit to township industrial parks in Pennyville and Orlando West

12 April 2015

Release: immediate

The DA’s Shadow Minister of Small Business Development, Toby Chance MP, and DA Spokesperson on Economic Development in the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Martin Louw, will tomorrow conduct an oversight visit to two township industrial parks in the City of Johannesburg, followed by a press briefing. 

Township industrial parks have the potential to create jobs and address racially based economic exclusion, and thus should be prioritised by government. However, a long history of under-investment and neglect has left them in a dire state.

The DA will announce its action plan in this regard.

The briefing will take place as follows:

Date: Monday, 13 April 2015

Time: 10:00

Venue: Pennyville Industrial Park, 114 New Canada Road, Pennyville, Johannesburg (near to the New Canada train station)

There will opportunities for photos and interviews

Media enquiries:

Graham Charters

Media Officer

072 635 0440

Cecilia Mary Elizabeth Chance 17th November 1928 - 23rd March 2015

Tiggy Chance - eulogy by her elder son, my brother Sebastian

Loving wife and mother; grandmother and great grandmother; sister, aunt, godmother; poet, journalist, teacher, businesswoman, music festival founder. We will all have our own memories of the woman we have come here today to remember.

My mother was a unique, wonderful multi-talented person and we miss her greatly.

Cecilia, or Tiggy, as she became known, was born on 17^th November, 1928 in Caspidge, a country house near Bromsgrove. Her father Hugh was a director of the family glassmaking business near Birmingham. Her mother Cynthia Baker-Cresswell came from a landowning family in Northumberland.

It was a prosperous, comfortable home. Educated at a Rudolf Steiner school in Surrey, Tiggy did not receive the kind of academic education  required to gain the coveted place at Oxford to read English. This was always a source of regret to her, feeling that she had not achieved her potential. However, mum didn't let this disappointment hold her back, and she went on to live a full and rewarding life.

Criticism of government economic policy is mounting

Whether it is the IMF, BUSA, Cosatu, the Black Business Council or the World Bank doing the criticising, they all agree on certain key fault lines within our economy. The economy is dominated by big players, investment is too low, there is a rampant skills and entrepreneurial deficit, we are consumer and not producer focused, we are good at writing blueprints and plans but are hopeless at implementation, and we are still suffering the legacy of apartheid. Where there is less agreement is what to do about it.

Broadly, some say government should intervene more to stimulate growth while others say the opposite, that government must “get out of the way” and let business do what it does best, which is create wealth.