Deputy Minister Jane Sithole, Cutting Red Tape for Small Businesses

Statement by Henro Kruger MP – DA Spokesperson on Small Business Development:

The DA will support a decisive effort to cut red tape for small businesses. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Small Business Development, Jane Sithole in Parliament today.

Small Business can and must be an engine for job-creation in South Africa, but buckling under oppressive government red tape, our small businesses have been condemned to failure for too long under ANC Ministers.

Now with a DA Deputy Minister in the Department of Small Business Development there is a different agenda on the table that is a game changer.

Deputy Minister Sithole today announced these marked changes in how government can cut red tape, and the DA warmly supports these:

1.. Pressure must be on Local Governments: Municipal Managers and officials should be measured and held to account on their turnaround times to issue:

• trading permits,
• business licences,
• rezoning,
• land-use approvals,
• informal trading applications,
• complaints resolutions, and
• supplier payments.

These measurements will be put onto a municipal red-tape scorecard, with publicly-viewable dashboards, so that local government is under pressure to cut red tape and deliver on approvals.

2.. A National Red Tape Portal will allow small businesses to anonymously report unnecessary permits, duplicated forms, harassment, conflicting by-laws, delays, and the names of officials and politicians seeking rent or bribes to speed up permits and licenses.

3.. A fleet of National Government Mobile Business Support Units must roll out in townships, rural areas, and informal trading spaces to support those businesses to overcome hurdles.

4.. All spheres of Government must be forced to honour a “Thirty-Day Payment” rule, on penalty of real pain if they fail to pay. In fact, government must adopt a “Pay Small Business First” model, before big business.

These four interventions championed by Deputy Minister Jane Sithole today are groundbreaking for small business in South Africa and the DA strongly supports them.