The Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development has welcomed the improved performance of the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) in the 2025/26 financial year, while calling for greater focus on whether government interventions are producing sustainable economic outcomes for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and cooperatives.
In a meeting on 7 October 2026, the committee heard that the department achieved 93% of its annual performance plan targets during the financial year, thereby improving from 88% recorded in 2024/25. The department has also used 97% of its allocated budget.
The committee welcomed the improvement in programme performance but noted that this progress was not matched by the department’s audit outcome. The department regressed from a clean audit to an unqualified audit opinion with material findings on compliance with legislation.
The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Masefako Dikgale, said the improved performance was encouraging, but should be accompanied by stronger governance, reliable reporting and measurable outcomes for the businesses and cooperatives that government programmes are intended to support.
“Improved performance against planned targets is important, but the ultimate measure must be whether these interventions are changing the economic circumstances of MSMEs and cooperatives,” said Ms Dikgale.
According to the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), there is a persistent weakness in the department’s use of indicators that primarily measure output volumes, such as the number of beneficiaries trained or people attending workshops, without adequately measuring whether such interventions result in increased revenue, improved profitability, business survival or growth.
The committee also noted AGSA’s concerns regarding the reliability of reported programme impact, particularly at the department’s entity, the Small Enterprise Development Finance Agency (SEDFA). AGSA said that reported developmental impact indicators, including jobs created or sustained, could not be verified reliably because of weaknesses in post-investment monitoring.
Ms Dikgale said this highlighted the need for the department and SEDFA to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems and to track beneficiaries beyond the point at which support is provided.
“We need to know what happens after government support is provided. It is not enough to report how many people attended a training programme or received assistance. We must be able to demonstrate whether businesses survived, grew, created jobs, increased their revenue and became more sustainable,” she said.
Lastly, Ms Dikgale said that small businesses and cooperatives have an important role to play in expanding economic participation and creating livelihoods, thereby making it even more important that public resources allocated to this sector produce measurable and sustainable results.
Justice Molafo
7 October 2026
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