Declaration in the National Assembly on Vote 31 of the budget adjustments

 Declaration on Vote 31 of Votes and Schedules 
28^th November 2018

Small Business Development

South Africa and this House have heard the ANC speak ad nauseam about the central role small businesses play, or should play, in our economy.

But the plain fact is, with economic growth of less than 1% our economy and the fortunes of small business are going backwards, not forwards.

This department is but a blip on the radar of small businesses struggling to survive a deluge of red tape, inaccessible government support and an unfriendly business environment.

It is totally irrelevant to the vast majority of them. With the result that it is incapable of making a dent in the 9,7 million unemployment queue.

Small businesses have the potential to create millions of jobs in South Africa but this department has shown little capacity to be the driver of government initiatives to make this happen.

The DA rejects this budget adjustment.

Statement by the IMF team after visiting South Africa

The IMF was recently in SA to assess the state of our economy. Their report bears, in parts, a striking resemblance to what I said in my speech yesterday about what is needed to stimulate economic growth, particularly the second bullet in paragraph 4.

You can read the report here.

Speech in the National Assembly: Growth the pre-requisite for jobs

Yesterday the National Assembly debated the DA's motion on access to jobs and I was selected as a speaker alongside my colleagues Geordin Hill-Lewis (who sponsored the motion) and Gwen Ngwenya.

While the topic was access to jobs, we agreed that my speech should focus on what was required to create the jobs in the first place, i.e. measures to stimulate economic growth.

You can view the debate on YouTube here, my speech starts at 4:13:20.

You can read Geordin's speech here and Gwen's here.

The ANC were on the defensive from the beginning and had nothing to offer the country by way of solutions: they are out of ideas, incompetent, corrupt and stuck in an economic paradigm that will never create broad, inclusive prosperity in SA.

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Just a few days ago I was in conversation with a Wits masters student about the future of South Africa. She said she was seriously considering emigrating to the UK, following many of her friends who had left South Africa in the past few years. Her reason? The jobs situation here is so bad, and prospects in the UK are better, even with Brexit looming.

What really concerned me is that she and the friends she referred to are young, black professionals – the sort of people our country needs to be a successful nation.

ANC government’s late payments killing small business development and jobs

Date: 20 November 2018

Release: Immediate

Note to Editors: This statement follows a press briefing by the Democratic Alliance (DA) Spokesperson on Access to Jobs, Geordin Hill-Lewis MP, the DA Shadow Minister of Small Business Development, Toby Chance MP, and small business owner Bobby Mabe, on the scourge of late payments by the ANC government which threaten critical jobs. Small businesses are the life-blood of the South African economy, contributing nearly 60 % of the labour force and 34% of GDP. However, the reality is that, some 80% of South African small businesses fail within the first three years of activity. Many of these businesses fail because of unnecessary burdens placed on them such as late payments.

Media advisory: DA and small businesses to brief media on how the ANC government’s late payments kill jobs

Date: 19 November 2018 Release: Immediate Tomorrow, 20 November 2018, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Spokesperson on Access to Jobs, Geordin Hill-Lewis MP, the DA Shadow Minister of Small Business Development, Toby Chance MP, and various small businesses will address the media on the scourge of late payments by the ANC government which threaten critical jobs. The failing ANC continues to pay lip service to small businesses but fails at every turn to assist them. The government is notorious for the late and non-payment of small businesses, with an estimated R27 billion in outstanding invoices. Late payments have a direct impact on job security for people employed. With 10 million unemployed South Africans, the functioning and existence of small businesses are vital. Details of the briefing are as follows: Date: 20 November 2018 Time: 10:00 Venue: Nkululeko House, 21 Ernest Oppenheimer Street, Bruma, Johannesburg

Statement in the National Assembly about last week's Investment Conference

This afternoon I read this statement in the House:

ANC fans are hailing last week's Investment Conference in Sandton as a major step in President Ramaphosa's goal of attracting $100 billion of investment in 5 years.

A total of R290 billion of investment was pledged, topped by Anglo American's R71,5 billion.

While we don't want to rain on South Africa's parade, we can see the spin for what it is.

Is the R290 billion new investment on top of what we were likely to have secured in the normal course of events? Would the investments have been forthcoming anyway? Was the conference a huge propaganda exercise to elevate the President's status as he sat on his gleaming white throne receiving gifts?

Anglo's statement refers to the preservation of 79,000 jobs, not the creation of new ones. The other investors provided very little detail on how their money would be spent.

The investment of R1,4 billon into tech start-ups bucked the trend, but this is only a tiny fraction of the total pledges.

It's all very well making the trophy buffalo announcements, Mr President, but where's the beef? 

Where's the concomitant reduction in the cost of doing business, deregulation of labour markets,  incentives for exports and entrepreneurs and fixing the skills deficit? 

Without them, all these investments will wither and die in South Africa's unfertile economic soil.

Small Enterprise Finance Agency still leaving township industrial parks in the lurch

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY

“2657. Mr R W T Chance (DA) to ask the Minister of Small Business Development:

(1)        Whether the R163 827 014,90 spent to date by the Gauteng provincial government on industrial parks in the province is reflected in the accounts of the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa); if not, why not; if so, (a) how is this expenditure reflected and (b) what repayment will Sefa make to the provincial government;

(2)        have the improvements resulting from the specified expenditure resulted in an increased rental collection rate from tenants at the industrial parks; if so, what are the relevant details;