Commemoration of events on June 8th 1976 in Naledi, Soweto

Our Gauteng office issued this advisory today. I was unable to attend due to the budget votes in Parliament, so our constituency was represented by Chair Motau Maloma. DA to commemorate events leading up to June 16 uprising

by DA Media -

Date: 08 June 2017

Release: Immediate

Type: Media Advisory

Today, 8 June 2017, DA Gauteng Leader, John Moodey MPL, will commemorate the forgotten history of events leading up to the June 16 uprising that took place in Soweto in 1976. People in the Naledi community feel that the ANC has forgotten the historic contribution that began at Naledi High School. The DA will host the Naledi Heritage Forum who will share this untold story of the historic student uprising at an open town hall meeting. The DA Gauteng Leader will be joined by the DA Chairperson of the Johannesburg Region, Khume Ramulifho MPL, and Motau Maloma, Chairperson of the Soweto West Constituency. The event will take place as follows: Date: 8 June 2017 Time: 16h15 Venue: Naledi Community Hall, corner Bona and Legwale Street, Naledi.

Media Enquiries

DA Media   Anneke Scheepers DA Gauteng Communications Manager 079 511 7501

DA votes against the Department of Small Business Development budget

Appropriations Bill budget votes

Small Business Development

Vote 31

8^th June 2017

Toby Chance

Thank you madam Speaker.

This department has had no impact on the factors underpinning growth in the economy, essential to the creation, survival and growth of small businesses. It is silent on essential issues of regulatory, tax and labour reform.

With the country now in recession, opportunities for small businesses to grow are even more remote.

Its programmes and agencies are invisible to more than 97% of businesses in South Africa.

Minister Zulu missed an opportunity to be visible and relevant to these businesses by failing to support the DA’s Red Tape Impact Assessment Bill.

Her department’s narrow focus and continued funding of programmes widely acknowledged to be failing cannot be justified.

While small business development should be a government priority, in the hands of this minister and her directionless department it is all talk, excuses and no action.

Instead of being the champion of small business across government, Minister Zulu puts more energy into defending an indefensible president.

The DA cannot support this budget.

Press statement on prayer service in Naledi, Soweto

DA to attend a prayer service after horrific gender violence incidents

by Toby Chance MP - DA Soweto West Constituency Head

Date: 25 May 2017

Release: Immediate

Type: Press Statement

The DA will today attend a prayer service for peace which will be held in the wake of the ongoing violence against women. The meeting will be held in honour of Lerato Moloi, Bongeka Phungula and Popi Qwabe who were brutally murdered earlier this month. The DA strongly condemns the ongoing scourge of violence against women and we urge local police officials to be visible, proactive and swift in dealing with this deadly violence against women. I will attend the prayer session along with DA activists as well as the MMC for Community Development in the City of Johannesburg, Nonhlanhla Sifumba.

House Chair rules my term "The Invisible Minister Zulu" un-Parliamentary - watch on YouTube video

During yesterday's debate the house Chair, Yvonne Nkwenkwezi Phosa (wife of wannabe-President Mathews Phosa) ruled my term "the Invisible Minister Zulu" un-Parliamentary.

Our whips, John Steenhuisen and Ian Ollis, objected to this outrageous ruling and for a few minutes the House descended into a state of mild chaos as the Chair tried to regain control of proceedings.

While this was going on I conceived a plan to wiggle out of the mess while poking fun at Minister Zulu. Judging by her glum expression and response in wrapping up the debate, she was not amused.

In fact, she declared she was very visible because she was black! It is unfortunate that Minister Zulu should resort to racial stereotyping to try to make a point. She has being doing this more and more lately - she used it when defending her hiring of Dr Thami Mazwai as her special advisor whom I had accused of a conflict of interest in also being a supplier of services to the Department. She asked why the DA only accused blacks of being corrupt!

The ANC has got to get over its obsession with race. Truth is, it's hit rock bottom and can't think of any other way of attacking us.

You can watch it on the video here - 38:45 is where I am interrupted.

Small Business Development budget speech in Parliament

Delivered in the Old Assembly Chamber,  Parliament, 14h00, 18th May 2017

The Invisible Minister Zulu

House Chair

Before I continue let me congratulate and welcome our new Deputy Minister, Honourable November, to her position. We wish you well in your important endeavours. And a hearty welcome to all the guests upstairs in the gallery.

Chair, it is now abundantly clear, three years after the Department of Small Business Development was formed, that it is invisible to 97% of businesses in South Africa.

Let me repeat that. The Department of Small Business Development is invisible to 97% of businesses in South Africa.

How can I so confidently make that assertion?

Well, consider these facts.

Opinion piece in the 2016 GEM report on South Africa

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor has just published its 2016 report on South Africa. I was one of four guest contributors of an opinion piece carried in the report, which I reproduce below.

There is a growing voice of disagreement on the methodology, findings and policy implications of the GEM report versus the Global Entrepreneurship Index. The former focuses on the Total Entrepreneurial Activity Rate which equates a high number with positive economic activity while the latter prefers to look at the relationship between fast-growing businesses and a country's prosperity.

This is an important discussion which raises very big issues around priorities for boosting economic growth. I will be examining this in the months to come.

South Africa is under-achieving but can do better if we follow lessons from pockets of success.

Among South Africa’s great paradoxes is that we have by far the most advanced economy on the continent of Africa yet one of the lowest rates of entrepreneurial activity. We have been bumping along the bottom of country rankings ever since GEM started in 2001. Hence the question posed in this report: can the small business sector in South Africa be saved?

In short, yes, with the right policies and the right interventions by government and the private sector, then South Africa’s small business sector can be the catalyst for growth in our country.

Letter to Business Day on the pitfalls of micro loans

Today's Business Day carries my letter about the pitfalls of micro loans for small businesses. You can read the letter here or the full version I sent them below.

Sir

Mark Barnes must realise he is taking Postbank into treacherous waters (Postbank's fresh loan plan aims to boost access, BDay 28 April). While access to credit for informal sector businesses, in the form of micro loans, is touted as promoting financial inclusion, it has more often than not led to over-indebtedness and financial distress among borrowers and boom-bust times for credit providers.