Humanity at work

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development recently returned from a five day study tour to the Basque region of Spain as well as Madrid. Our purpose was to visit the Mondragon Corporation, Spain’s leading exponent of cooperatives as an organising principle of business, learn from its successes and failures and understand the role government plays in the cooperatives sector.

The development of coops has long been on the South African government’s agenda, but its track record is lamentable. A 2009 DTI study revealed that 88% of coops formed to date had failed. Since responsibility for coops was transferred to the Department of Small Business Development in 2014 their performance has not improved while hundreds of millions of rands have been pumped into the sector to try to kick start it. It remains moribund and lacking direction.

DA Premier Candidate Solly Msimanga visiting industrial parks in Orlando West and Pennyville

#MsimangaForPremier: DA Gauteng Premier Candidate Msimanga takes his Listening Tour to Township Industrial Parks in Soweto

by DA Media -

Date: 03 October 2018

Release: Immediate

On Thursday, 4 October 2018, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Premier Candidate, Solly Msimanga, will take his Listening Tour to the Township Industrial Parks in Orlando West, Soweto. The Township Industrial Parks are in a state of disrepair due to a lack of proper maintenance despite the fact that the business tenants are paying rent to the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA). The DA Gauteng Premier Candidate will listen to, and engage with businesses about the issues that they face on a daily basis. The DA Gauteng Premier Candidate will also engage with Ekasi Entrepreneurs at the Township Entrepreneurial Conversations panel discussion in Orlando West. The media is invited to attend and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs. The details of this leg of the Listening Tour are as follows: Date: Thursday, 4 October 2018                                                                         Meeting with businesses in the Township Industrial Parks in Orlando West, Soweto. Time: 10:00 am: 11:30 Venue: Township Industrial Parks in Orlando West, Soweto. Address: 65 Makhetha Street, Industrial Park, Orlando West, Soweto. Meeting with business associations in Orlando West Time: 12:00 am to 13:30 pm Meeting with Ekasi Entrepreneurs Time: 15:00 pm to 16:00 pm Venue: Soweto Gold and Beer Garden Address: 11846 Senokoanyana Street, Orlando West, Soweto.

The DA's plan to get SA growing helps small businesses play their part

The DA’s plan to get SA growing

by Mmusi Maimane - Leader of the Democratic Alliance

Date: 10 September 2018

Release: immediate

Note to Editors: the following statement was delivered by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, Mmusi Maimane, at a press conference in Johannesburg today. Maimane was joined by DA National Spokesperson, Refiloe Nt’sekhe. This week, Statistics South Africa confirmed that we are in recession. This news came as a surprise only to foreign ForEx and bond investors, and it would seem, to our government. This is no surprise at all to anyone living in South Africa. The truth is that South Africans have known this for months - they have felt it in their own homes as the struggle to make ends meet gets more difficult, they have heard it as the word spreads about more job losses every day, and they've seen it in the streets and in the shops and in their pockets.

Letter to Hon Bathabile Dlamini, Minister of Women in the Presidency, re late payment of supplier

This morning I wrote to the Minister of Women in the Presidency, Bathabile Dlamini MP, drawing attention to her department's late payment of invoices from a supplier, Duma Travel. This is the same company who came to me for help some weeks ago when trying to get their outstanding payments due from Parliament for travel services rendered. I wrote to the Speaker  and the Chief Financial Officer of Parliament demanding their attention to the matter and I am pleased to say some outstanding payments were made soon after that. But they still owe Duma Travel money.

Jack Ma of Alibaba was in Joburg last week - some useful takeaways

Last week I listened to one of the world's great entrepreneurs tell the story of how he created a business empire worth $500 billion in a matter of 19 years. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba.com, was in Joburg as the keynote speaker at the Netrepreneurs conference, all about how African tech entrepreneurs can grow and compete on the world stage. 

Ventureburn magazine has an excellent summary of his speech with the six takeaways - highly recommended reading you can find here.

Section 25 of the constitution and expropriation without compensation

On Saturday I attended the hearings on amending Section 25 of the constitution at Heartfelt Hall in Tshwane where a long line of people offered their opinions on the topic. I later learned from Glynnis Breytenbach that many of the EFF submissions came from the same people who had appeared at other hearings. While the highest quantity of submissions were for amending the constitution the best and most cogent arguments came from those opposed. I was joined by my colleagues Patrick Atkinson, Sej Motou and Anchen Dreyer, and earlier in the day Darren Bergman, Glynnis and Ghaleb Cachalia.

Opinion piece - Evidence points to marginalised small business sector

Three recently released reports paint a dismal picture of the contribution small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are making to the economy. They are a wake-up call for policy-makers who assume that SMEs are the main jobs drivers and will create 90% of new jobs by 2030.

Compared to its peers, South Africa has a smaller number of firms in proportion to the size of the economy and a much higher proportion of jobs coming from large firms and government. With smaller firms closing down and shedding jobs, and larger firms getting bigger though not necessarily hiring more people, it is inevitable our unemployment rate will increase further.

The reports focus on the formal SME sector and extract data from Treasury, SARS, commercial banks and other providers of finance as well as firms seeking finance. They each claim, in their respective focus areas, to be the most comprehensive studies yet done.

They home in on changes in tax receipts over time, access to finance and the quantum of firms and their contribution to employment to gauge whether the sector is making its expected contribution to the economy and participants are succeeding or struggling.