The small business community has no confidence in the willingness of the political parties contesting the upcoming elections to create a more conducive environment for small, medium and micro enterprises to thrive and grow, and believes all promises were likely to again be empty.
The ANC’s own economic blueprint, the National Development Plan, contains optimistic estimates that said that SMMEs would produce 90% of all new jobs by 2030. Ferreira acknowledged that Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters railed for a black-owned economy, while the Inkatha Freedom Party wanted to build an inclusive economy that focused on SMME development and unemployment.
“While the onus is on the government to lead the overhaul of the current business environment, political parties also need to come to the party. He cited a baseline study conducted by Small Business Project on SMMEs that said 98.5% of all businesses in South Africa are SMMEs and yet they create only 28% of jobs; while the international norm is between 60 and 70%.