An oversight visit to the Free Sate by the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development could be a special Women’s Month gift to Ms Gloria Mampotla, who is the sole director of Mampotla Trading Enterprises.
Ms Mampotla is a new construction service provider whose personal properties, including a house, were on the brink of being attached by the sheriffs instructed by Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa).
On the first day of its oversight visit in the province, the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development focused of the small, macro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) in the Xhariep District Municipality, where it visited one of the low-cost houses built by Mampotla Trading Enterprises.
Here Ms Mampotla could not hold back her tears as she told of her ordeal with the Department of Human Settlements and Sefa. She said the department allocated her over 200 houses to build in 2015, but later reduced the number to 40, and that is where her problems started.
“I got a loan from Sefa to buy construction material after the department has allocated 200 houses. The number was later reduced to 40. The department did not pay in full for the work that I did. I defaulted on my contractual obligation to repay the loan, and Sefa blacklisted me and handed me over to the lawyers,” said Ms Gloria Mampotla.
She also told the Committee that the sheriffs, on behalf of Seda, have already attached her valuable vintage car. Touched by her pain, Committee Members advised Sefa representatives to treat the matter with urgency and escalate it to the relevant authorities, who should instruct the lawyers not to proceed with any further attachment of her personal properties.
“Although we appreciate that Sefa operate like any other financial institution, we disagree that it could suffocate an emerging female constructor whose payment default is not due to her negligence. Sefa is aware of all the challenges in relation to Ms Mampotla’s failure to repay the loan, and as the Committee, we view the action taken by the agency as brutal and unwarranted,” said Mr Xtlhangoma Mabasa, Acting Chairperson of the Committee.
On the same day, the Committee also visited three other SMMEs in Xhariep District Municipality, including KeNako Water Purification cooperative in Trompsburg, Ekasi Kitchen in Jagersfontein and Areiketsetse cooperative in Edenburg.
At all three, the Committee observed with concern the lack of cooperation between different spheres of government and departments. Their common need is land. The Committee appealed to the district municipality as well as relevant government departments to work together in finding lasting solutions to all the challenges raised by the SMMEs.
Justice Molafo
15 August 2017
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