Cut the red tape and support small businesses, Minister Zulu

28 June 2014

Note to Editors: This is an extract of a speech delivered by the DA Parliamentary Leader, Mmusi Maimane MP, during a by-election campaign stop in Ward 58 Johannesburg

A survey of established small businesses showed that small businesses spend on average, 8 days a month dealing with red tape. Red tape is the enemy of economic growth and employment. 

But there is hope if our government implements the NDP now. Today!

If the NDP is implemented now and in its entirety, then 90% of the 11-million new jobs in South Africa will come from small businesses.

This is why the new Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu, must urgently present a plan to cut red tape and align her new Department with the NDP from day one.

I challenge Minister Zulu, on behalf of all small business owners, to make South Africa an easier place to run a small business within one year from today. 

It is possible.

Premier Helen Zille is already doing this in the DA-run Western Cape where there is a dedicated Red Tape reduction unit. In addition to this Premier Zille committed the Western Cape government to ensure that any new measures introduced by the provincial government will not increase regulatory obstacles to doing business in the province. 

But she didn't stop there. 

The DA's resolve to cut red tape is so strong that Premier Zille pledged to challenge any new legislation or policies introduced by other spheres of government that make it difficult for businesses to start, grow and prosper. 

If Minister Zulu doesn't act swiftly and match the resolve of the DA in the Western Cape, then the NDP's vision of 11-million new jobs by 2030, will remain tucked away in the pages of the plan. Poverty will remain and we will be no closer to addressing the problems of inequality in South Africa.

The time to implement the NDP is now.

Here, in Gauteng, small business owners are also faced with e-tolls. Small business owners come to me and say that they have to make the difficult choice between employing more people or paying e-tolls.

The people of Gauteng must vote in a referendum, against e-tolls. The people of Gauteng do not want e-tolls, and they cannot afford them.

Ever-changing regulations and the time spent complying with them, make the difference between a small business thriving - growing the economy and creating jobs - or closing its doors, and thus closing the door on job creation for many of the young South Africans who sit on street corners without hope.

Small business owners should be growing the economy and employing people, not standing and queues and filling in forms.

The Democratic Alliance will continue to put pressure on the government and fight for small businesses and the unemployed. 

In the next five years, we must see change in the form of employed South Africans participating in a growing economy. We need an economic revolution that is led by small businesses, and the blue print to that revolution is found in the National Development Plan.

Issued by the DA, June 28 2014

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