Portfolio Committee meeting minutes - I am elected Acting Chair and face immature ANC behaviour

At the first meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development after the election, our Committee Chairperson Hon Ruth Bhengu was off sick so the committee had to elect an acting chair. There were two nominees - me, and Hon Mabasa from the ANC. Due to the poor attendance of ANC MPs I was elected with the ACDP and EFF voting for me and the NFP abstaining.

It is very rare for a non-ANC member to be in the Chair at portfolio committee meetings. Below are the meeting minutes taken by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group staff member who attended the meeting. I'm not sure of his use of the word meme, but the minutes convey the somewhat surreal meeting which ANC members did their best to disrupt.

Sefa forced to review its business model after sustaining heavy losses

The Small Enterprise Finance Agency, Sefa, presented its annual report to Parliament on Wednesday. CEO Thakhani Makhuvha hit the nail on the head when he said “cash is king” in business.

He was referring to his cash-hungry clients, thousands of small and micro businesses for whom a cash injection from Sefa is often the only thing that keeps them going. But he could have been referring to his own organisation, which is bleeding cash at an alarming rate.