Press release from Mr. Khaas: SMME Forum
"The SMME Forum welcomes yesterday’s announcement of the appointment of Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as South Africa’s new Deputy President and wishes her well in her new and demanding position. The Forum notes that the Deputy President has contributed immensely to SMME development ion her previous portfolio and would like to congratulate her for her BEE efforts.
The Forum is especially encouraged by President Mbeki’s appointment of Mr Davies and Ms Thabethe in their new roles and, like many others, trust that this signals a vigorous commitment to the issues of trade and development, especially as these affect SMMEs and the so-called “second economy”.
Notwithstanding our best wishes, the Forum would like to caution that the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) appointments will not in themselves translate to the obliteration of all the challenges faced by the DTI especially as they pertain to small business development. It is a well known fact globally that governments’ are more disposed towards the creation of new entities in the hope that this would serve a panacea to all the (small business) developmental. In other words, we need to realise the enormity of the challenges faced by the new deputy Ministers and ensure that business also gives them the requisite room to let the reality ahead of them to sink in.
The above notwithstanding, it is the Forum’s view that, inter alia, the major challenge immediately faced by these appointments would be the development and implementation of a coherent strategy on small business development. Key to attaining this would be the complete revision of government’s strategy on small business development even if this calls for the mothballing of some of the non-performing agencies within government.
In spite of all the hype elicited by the launch of certain agencies aimed at providing much needed assistance to SMMEs, small businesses are currently even more confused as they continue to be shunted from one agency to the other. In fact, some agencies seem to be so inefficient as to wonder if they or government could still justify their existence and efficacy.
The Forum trust that under the new stewardship, mediocre performance will not be rewarded and in fact under-performing officials and agencies with a seemingly morbid desire to frustrate SMME development will be called to account for their lack of delivery.
Re: Department of Communication’s (DoC) “Free SIM cards delay”
The Forum notes today’s newspaper reports that the much vaunted supply of free sim cards has been delayed “because of framework problems”.
It is the Forum’s view that the DoC should strongly consider abandoning this issue completely and let ICASA negotiate sustainable and innovative ways in which the GSM network operators could help bridge the digital divide, especially as it pertains to small businesses access to ICTs. Free sim cards will not achieve much by way of reducing the cost of telecommunication. In fact, one can acquire a sim card today at Woollies for a mere R5.00."
"The SMME Forum welcomes yesterday’s announcement of the appointment of Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as South Africa’s new Deputy President and wishes her well in her new and demanding position. The Forum notes that the Deputy President has contributed immensely to SMME development ion her previous portfolio and would like to congratulate her for her BEE efforts.
The Forum is especially encouraged by President Mbeki’s appointment of Mr Davies and Ms Thabethe in their new roles and, like many others, trust that this signals a vigorous commitment to the issues of trade and development, especially as these affect SMMEs and the so-called “second economy”.
Notwithstanding our best wishes, the Forum would like to caution that the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) appointments will not in themselves translate to the obliteration of all the challenges faced by the DTI especially as they pertain to small business development. It is a well known fact globally that governments’ are more disposed towards the creation of new entities in the hope that this would serve a panacea to all the (small business) developmental. In other words, we need to realise the enormity of the challenges faced by the new deputy Ministers and ensure that business also gives them the requisite room to let the reality ahead of them to sink in.
The above notwithstanding, it is the Forum’s view that, inter alia, the major challenge immediately faced by these appointments would be the development and implementation of a coherent strategy on small business development. Key to attaining this would be the complete revision of government’s strategy on small business development even if this calls for the mothballing of some of the non-performing agencies within government.
In spite of all the hype elicited by the launch of certain agencies aimed at providing much needed assistance to SMMEs, small businesses are currently even more confused as they continue to be shunted from one agency to the other. In fact, some agencies seem to be so inefficient as to wonder if they or government could still justify their existence and efficacy.
The Forum trust that under the new stewardship, mediocre performance will not be rewarded and in fact under-performing officials and agencies with a seemingly morbid desire to frustrate SMME development will be called to account for their lack of delivery.
Re: Department of Communication’s (DoC) “Free SIM cards delay”
The Forum notes today’s newspaper reports that the much vaunted supply of free sim cards has been delayed “because of framework problems”.
It is the Forum’s view that the DoC should strongly consider abandoning this issue completely and let ICASA negotiate sustainable and innovative ways in which the GSM network operators could help bridge the digital divide, especially as it pertains to small businesses access to ICTs. Free sim cards will not achieve much by way of reducing the cost of telecommunication. In fact, one can acquire a sim card today at Woollies for a mere R5.00."
