Tag: Department of Small Business Development (DSBD)

There are two customary rules in South African law-making that are adhered to almost to a T: The law must make matters worse, or the law must miss the point. Rarely, if ever, does legislation that comes out of the South African Parliament or the provincial legislatures make things better for citizens and consumers. The new National Small Enterprise Amendment Bill, 2020, is no exception.

The Minister of Small Business Development has been parading a draft National Small Enterprise Amendment Bill. The period for allowing interested parties to submit comments about the draft Bill to the department has just ended. This ill-considered proposal would authorise officials to break contracts deemed 'unfair', no doubt causing commercial uncertainty and thereby discouraging larger businesses from contracting with small enterprises. The Bill defeats its own purpose.

South Africa’s medium-sized businesses have generally proven to be more resilient to the prolonged weakness in the economy, and now are more likely to weather successfully the fall-out from COVID-19 lockdown, than their smaller or larger counterparts.

The Covid-19 crisis has brought much of the world economy to a sudden stop. Millions upon millions of people are in lockdown across the world, preventing them from working, buying, producing and selling goods and services. Global and local supply chains are interrupted, and small and large companies see a collapse in income. Households are under similar pressure.

South African small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) are struggling with weak economic growth, load shedding and crime. The regulatory burden also continues to hamper the growth of these businesses and their employment creation abilities.