Yesterday, on my way to Soweto, I made a detour to Marshalltown in downtown Johannesburg to visit a friend of my Constituency Officer, Nomzekelo Monakali. Her friend, Andile Cele, owns a fashion store, she said, and wanted to talk to me about how to grow the business. I'm always keen to talk to budding entrepreneurs so I didn't take much persuading. What I found was a young man filled with ideas, perseverance, a determination to succeed and the makings of a fashion brand that, I believe, has the potential to make him rich and famous.
A place for ideas, discussion and suggestions for making South Africa a better place.
Sunday, 9 November 2014
Sunday, 2 November 2014
The beauty of choral evensong
One of the highlights of my month is singing in choral evensong at St George's Church in Parktown. Evensong is peculiar to the Anglican church and is taken from the Book of Common Prayer with most of the liturgy sung rather than spoken. St George's evensong takes place on the first Sunday of each month, followed by sherry in the hall. It is a beautiful service which leaves one feeling spiritually enriched and ready for the week ahead.
Thursday, 30 October 2014
Lufhereng housing development in Soweto shrouded in controversy
Today in Parliament I called on the City of Johannesburg to come clean on the Lufhereng housing development in Ward 53, Soweto, which is shrouded in controversy.
Statement by Toby Chance, MP
30th October
2014
The City of Johannesburg has long been bragging about
its massive Lufhereng housing development in Ward 53 in the far west of Soweto.
Launched in 2008, it was projected to comprise 6 000 rental units, 6 000 bonded
units and 12 000 RDP units, as well as schools, clinics, crèches, agricultural
and commercial land.
Monday, 27 October 2014
Press statement: E-tolls killing jobs throughout Gauteng
Democratic Alliance press statement
by
Toby Chance MP
DA Shadow Minister of Small Business
Development
E-tolls killing jobs throughout Gauteng
27 October 2014
Release: immediate
Note to editors: This statement was delivered to members of the media at a
press briefing hosted by DA Shadow Minister of Small Business Development, Toby
Chance MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, Mmusi Maimane MP, DA Shadow
Minister of Transport, Manny de Freitas MP, and DA Gauteng Shadow MEC
for Roads and Transport, Neil Campbell MPL, this morning. A spreadsheet detailing the costs breakdown is
attached here.
The Democratic Alliance today
announces the initial findings of our survey on e-tolling’s impact on small
businesses.
The results confirm what the DA has
said all along – e-tolls are killing jobs and businesses in Gauteng.
Saturday, 25 October 2014
Entrepreneurs worlds apart
This opinion piece appeared in the Cape Argus on Thursday 23rd October.
Earlier this month I attended two events
which at their core aimed to achieve the same thing – entrepreneur development
and job creation, but which illustrate the huge gulf that exists in South
Africa between the worlds of the informal township entrepreneur and the
connected tech entrepreneur. They also gave me an insight into the political
and economic terrains in these two worlds, where the language used seems to
have been drawn from completely different dictionaries, written with
contrasting ideologies and politcial imperatives in mind.
The first event was the Township
Revitalisation Summit in Orlando Stadium, Soweto, convened by Gauteng Premier
David Makhura. The second was the SiMODiSA Start Up SA conference at the Cape
Town International Convention Centre. The two venues immediately set the scene
for a dichotomous relationship.
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Dr Thami Mazwai and me in sync on the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Thami Mazwai's column in today's Business Day pays me the compliment of quoting my recent article about South Africa's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.
To quote Dr Mazwai: "Comments by Democratic Alliance shadow small
business minister Toby Chance in the Financial Mail of October 9, underscore
the urgency with which new Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu
must undertake her mandate."
He goes on to say: "As Chance points
out, small business development thrives in an ecosystem approach in which all
play their respective roles. Our past was premised on silos in which the
government did its own thing, the universities did theirs, the Setas blithely
went their own way, the chambers had their programmes and the private sector
prided itself on its market approach. This has simply not worked and the
evidence, continuing unemployment and inequality, is there for all to
see."
Saturday, 18 October 2014
BEE polarises SA - letter to Business Day
On Thursday Business Day published my letter headlined "BEE polarises SA" - read it below or on BDFM here.
Let me know what you think. The DA is submitting our response to the new BEE codes and we need your input.
Is it time BEE was phased out completely, or do we need new ways of redressing the inequities of the past that also incentivise the creation of new businesses and jobs? This is an important debate that will not go away.
Let me know what you think. The DA is submitting our response to the new BEE codes and we need your input.
Is it time BEE was phased out completely, or do we need new ways of redressing the inequities of the past that also incentivise the creation of new businesses and jobs? This is an important debate that will not go away.
"Last Friday, I was a panellist at the
SiMODiSA Start Up SA conference in Cape Town where several hundred
representatives of SA’s “entrepreneurial ecosystem” gathered.
We listened to pitches from aspirant
entrepreneurs. At least four were delivered by two people — one black and one
white. Assuming they hold a 50-50 stake in their business, under the new
Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) codes, they would get a Level 4
rating. If the black entrepreneur shed his white partner, however, he would get
a Level 1 rating, leaving his former partner with a Level 5 rating at best.
It would be hard to imagine a more perverse
and socially polarising piece of legislation. Everyone I spoke to, of whatever
hue, strongly believed the BEE regime in SA had to change. The African National
Congress simply does not get entrepreneurship."
Toby Chance, MP
Democratic Alliance shadow minister for
small business development
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