Growth-Killing Business Licensing Bill to Be Withdrawn

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

The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) sustained pressure has led to a victory for small businesses as the Minister of Small Business Development Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams was forced to withdraw a Bill that would have added excessive red tape for entrepreneurs, and cost South Africa more jobs.

Minister Ndabeni-Adams has announced in Committee that Cabinet has decided to withdraw the draft Business Licensing Bill.

The DA has been clear from day one that this Bill would only worsen the problem, and that we would not support a Bill that made life harder for entrepreneurs, small businesses and informal traders.

We welcome the mobilisation of small businesses across South Africa to oppose this legislation.

The legislation would have duplicated many existing licensing requirements, which are already far too difficult to comply with adding more permits, more queues and more bureaucracy for people simply trying to earn a living.

An IMF study earlier this year noted that we have one of the most strictly regulated market in the world.

The cost of this regulation is not abstract – South African businesses are less productive and employ fewer people because they must spend such a large amount of time on complying with regulation, rather than growing their business.

The DA will continue to oppose job-killing legislation across government, whether in place already or in its draft phase. We must now go further in cutting red tape at local, provincial and national level, so that businesses can grow faster and employ more South Africans.