Joburg to scrap bylaws blocking SMMEs

15 September 2015

 

The City of Johannesburg is to introduce a raft of radical measures – including the abolition of apartheid-era bylaws – in the short to long term to create conditions conducive for small businesses to thrive.

 

Speaking at a small business development workshop at the Metro Centre in Braamfontein on Tuesday September 15, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Economic Development Councillor Ruby Mathang said the City would do everything in its power to assist small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) operating in the city to grow and prosper.

 

The workshop was attended by scores of owners of SMMEs. Also in attendance were representatives of the Gauteng Provincial Government, banking institutions and other stakeholders. The aim of the workshop was to assist fledgling businesses on how to access markets and procurement opportunities.

 

MMC Mathang said SMMEs were the answer to economic challenges facing the city, the province and the country.

He said the City had, through its Growth and Development Strategy 2040 (GDS 2040), identified the importance of SMMEs in the city’s economic development and the role they could play in job creation and poverty alleviation.

 

“We’re in the process of amending some of the legislation and bylaws we believe are a stumbling block to the growth of SMMEs. We’re today still sitting with apartheid-era regulations and bylaws. In terms of some of the current bylaws, most township businesses are illegal. There needs to be a legislative shift,” the MMC said.

 

He made the example of a car wash operator who employed six people being told to close shop.

 

“The poor chap is trying to make a living and those six other people are putting food on the table for their families. Who knows, they could have turned to car hijacking and other serious crimes to survive but then the Johannesburg Metro Police Department pounces on them and tells them about a bylaw infringement,” the MMC said.

 

He said though legislation was important in that it regulated how citizens needed to conduct ourselves, it should be relevant and sensitive to the current situation.

 

MMC Mathang also announced that the awarding of tenders would be fundamentally overhauled.

 

“We’re going to unbundle tenders ... We’re going to break them up into small cakes. For instance, it will no longer be necessary for a R100-million tender to be awarded to just one company. We’re going to make sure we break it up into small pieces so many people can access that pie. Someone deserving from Ivory Park, from Orange Farm, from Diepsloot or Soweto will have a chance to get a piece of that pie," he said.

 

He also announced that his department would soon set up a number of SMME hubs to assist businesses to write business plans, access funding and draw up marketing plans. He appealed to SMMEs and cooperatives to come together and speak in one voice.

 

“Those who are in farming should form an organisation that will speak for them. Same with those involved in construction, catering, textile. In unity there is strength,” he concluded.