Parliament, Sunday, 8 August 2021 – The Portfolio Committees on Small Business Development, as well as Trade, Industry and Competition and the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism, Employment and Labour expressed shock at damages to business properties, as well as the loss of stock and equipment as a result of the recent looting in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng.
The committees conducted a two-legged fact-finding visit in KZN and Gauteng from the 3rd to the 6th of August 2021. In the first leg, they visited some of the affected businesses, including informal traders, and small, medium and micro enterprises in eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, as well as the uMhlathuze and KwaDukuza local municipalities which fall under the King Cetshwayo and iLembe district municipalities.
The second leg was conducted in Gauteng and in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality and the City of Johannesburg. This leg focused on small enterprises and informal traders. In both legs of the visits, the committees heard from various businesses which had lost stock, equipment and had their properties vandalised. The owners of these businesses experienced a significant loss of income, and they had to lay off employees.
The committees regretted the loss of investment in property and stock due to the burning and vandalism of business properties, as well as infrastructure and the impact of this on access to food, medicines, and healthcare. In their view, the destruction of business properties and looting were pure acts of criminality which require for the law to take its full course in order to bring perpetrators to book.
The committees reiterated the need for the various government departments and entities to work together in assisting affected businesses to rebuild. They advised the affected municipalities to fast-track the process of issuing business permits to the informal traders so that the affected can benefit from the business recovery programme of the Department of Small Business Development and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition along with the Development Finance Institutions.
The business recovery programme of the Department of Small Business Development is administered by department’s entities, namely the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda), as well as Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa). The committees advised Seda and Sefa that, while strict requirements are necessary for accountability in emergency cases such as these, there needs to be some flexibility that would allow businesses to access funding without undue delay.
Lastly, the committees tasked the visited municipalities to share consolidated and comprehensive reports about the damages with estimated cost of repair, impact on jobs, and impact on the municipalities. This information will form part of the committees’ report which will also detail final observations and recommendations.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, MS VIOLET SIWELA, CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TRADE, INDUSTRY AND COMPETITION, MR DUMA NKOSI, AS WELL AS THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND INDUSTRY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, SMALL BUSNIESS DEVELOPMENT, TOURISM, EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR, MR MANDLA RAYI.
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