Media statement: Ramaphosa must commit to Payment Plan to pay business suppliers

Ramaphosa must commit to Payment Plan to pay business suppliers
	by Toby Chance MP - DA Shadow Minister of Small Business Development

One of the tests for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s first 100 days in office will be to ensure that more than 100 000 unpaid invoices, worth over R7.7 billion, much of it to small businesses, is paid out as a matter of urgency. The DA will write to both Minister Lindiwe Zulu and President Ramaphosa asking that they commit to a Small Business Suppliers Payment Plan to clear the arrears currently due to hardworking men and women in the small business sector.

Panel discussion on Classic Business - the Ramaphosa effect on SMEs

Yesterday evening I participated in a panel discussion on Classic FM's business programme, Classic Business.

The other panelists were Joe Schwenke, founder of what is now Business Partners, and Dawie Roodt, Chief Economist at The Efficient Group.

An interesting discussion, which you can download by clicking here.

The main point I tried to get across was that Cyril Ramaphosa is not the silver bullet the economy needs as he has to first make the hard choices on labour reform, BEE, tackling the unions and favouring the National Development Plan as opposed to the National Democratic Revolution before he can claim our support.

After the panel discussion I went home and sat up to listen to President Zuma resign as President of the Republic. What a relief. Today we vote on the election of a new president.

Assuming it is Ramaphosa, we will find him a tougher customer to oppose than Zuma but we must never lose sight of the fact that Ramaphosa is a child of the ANC too, and he has been complicit in all the misdeeds of the previous 5 years of Zuma rule.

Does he have the courage to strike out in a new direction? His choice of cabinet will be the first indicator or yes, no or maybe.