Johannesburg - Bed and breakfast businesses and spaza shops as well as retail shops across all Gauteng townships are set to receive a major financial boost and managerial support with the aim of incorporating them into South Africa’s mainstream economy.
This was the pledge made by the Gauteng MEC of Economic Development Parks Tau moments after tabling the Township Economic Development Bill at the provincial legislature – which received unanimous approval by majority of the parties.
Tau said the Township Economic Development Bill was a game-changer that should be supported since it facilitates a multi-dimensional way for the Gauteng Provincial Government, to change how townships were regulated and governed so that they become areas of employment-creating commercial activity.
“It is a progressive bill to set up better procurement rules that allows government and contractors to buy from large groups of township-based firms.
“It is a progressive bill to deploy a dedicated financing mechanism to establish an SME Fund to provide wholesale and blended finance to intermediaries that can de-risk lending to township-based firms.
“As we have always emphasised, the government needs tangible and meaningful industry support in order to build an inclusive consumer economy in township areas so that we collectively generate thousands of new employment opportunities even in the gig economy.
“We urge the private sector to partner with the government to develop the commuter taxi economy that services around 6 million commuters every day.
“We encourage the private sector to come on board to explore and maximise opportunities in the backyard shacks economy which is home to 4 million people so that they can build flats and small businesses that eventually become township high-streets,” Tau said.
Welcoming the Act, ANC caucus chief whip in Gauteng Mzi Khumalo said it provides a regulatory framework to enable people in townships to establish viable and sustainable businesses in their communities, and to reserve certain economic activities in townships to South African citizens.
“The Act promotes the diversification of the economy through regulation of participation of township based enterprises in certain sectors.
“Investment in the local economy is vital for sustainability, caucus welcomes the establishment of specific procurement rules and support to enable procurement of goods and services, from township based enterprises.
“Many people in the townships are employed in the second economy as the township economy is often referred to, which overlaps to what is termed the informal economy.
“The nature of the jobs in the second economy are mostly survivalist in nature,” Khumalo said.
DA MPL Makashule Gana also welcomed the Act saying Gauteng townships have endured great hardship due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has been worsened by the July unrest.
He said as a result of the pandemic, the DA in Gauteng has thrown its weight behind the Gauteng Township Economic Development Bill .
“The passing of this bill is a step in the right direction and will greatly assist in helping to revitalise the township economy in our province.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused great disruption in our already strained township economy and the passing of this bill by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature is in the best interest of our residents and township enterprises.
“The DA firmly believes that the bill will help transform the currently neglected areas in our township to bustling economic hubs, which will contribute to job creation and economic development in the entire province,” Gana said.
The Freedom Front Plus, however, vowed to ensure that even whites who live in poor communities benefit from the Act.
FF+ spokesperson Anton Alberts said his party had ensured that although the law is aimed primarily at black residents of such settlements, it still makes provision for all poor persons to benefit from the legislation, which aims to assist poor entrepreneurs in establishing successful businesses in informal settlements and stimulate the economy there.
But those in the liquor industry in the townships were unhappy about their alleged exclusion.
National Liquor Traders Association head Lucky Ntimane said his association feels that the the provincial government continues to ignore the role that liquor traders play in the township economy, saying “if anything, you can’t talk about township economy and not mention liquor traders and taverns (shebeens), these are the engines of employment and township economy for decades.”
“The statement is a further testament to the disdain in which government continues to treat liquor traders where we continue to be treated as second class citizens who by design do not quality to apply for government funding or even the basic small business assistance which was extended during the height of Covid-19 to everyone but not liquor traders,” Ntimane said.
He said their response to the provincial government was that they needed to stop playing politics and hide behind a rhetoric of economic advancement when they know full well that they do not support township businesses at all and if anything they were the stumbling of economic recovery in the province with the liquor traders being at the coalface of this caring administration.
Political Bureau