South Africa recently witnessed civil unrest that led to the destruction of infrastructure, looting and violence that severely impacted many small and medium businesses and informal traders in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Telkom has heeded the call to help clean up, rebuild and grow SA by launching the SME Relief Project.
The Telkom SME Relief initiative, currently valued at R10 million is aimed at providing aid to small business owners to rebuild their businesses and to urge South Africans and the private sector to rally behind SMEs.
More than 11,000 Telkom Business customers have been severely impacted by the unrest and Telkom is committed to helping these businesses rebuild and stay connected.
“Telkom customers in the affected areas will receive support in the form of payment holidays, rerouting their connectivity and the freezing of contract terms. These relief packages will enable our existing customers in the affected areas to continue to operate,” said Dumisani Bengu, Chief Commercial Officer of Telkom Business.
Telkom Business has earmarked to fix business premises of businesses in KZN and in Gauteng that have been ravaged as a result of the criminal activities that occurred during the protests. Each selected business will receive a contribution of up to R20,000 to help rebuild their business.
Telkom Business will conduct a vetting process to identify the SMEs in need of assistance to fix their business premises.
Dumisani Bengu said: “The looting and unrest came at a time when many SMEs are still reeling from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and some small businesses are uninsured. We understand the importance of backing small business owners during this time of distress and we will use our resources across our business units to ensure that small businesses get back up. Telkom aims to lend a hand to small businesses and informal traders. Telkom will make a branding contribution of over R5.6-million and LTE offerings to 1,200 spaza shops in affected areas.”
Telkom Financial Services will assist with mobile point-of-sale devices and loan propositions to businesses in the affected areas to allow them to resume trading.
FutureMakers, the enterprise and supplier development initiative of Telkom Foundation has pledged R1.5 million to support ICT SMME’s through grants to assist with rent, inventory and salaries. Through FutureMakers, Telkom will offer mentorship and training including extending the Township Incubator programme to affected areas.
What’s more, the Telkom Consumer unit will be collaborating with its brand ambassadors to help them identify a business which was affected by the social unrest in their community or industry, to adopt and support. Seipati Twasa Seoke and Zizo Tshwete will focus on Gauteng-based businesses while Dudu Khoza and Selby Mkhize will lend their help in the KZN province. They will support 20 businesses with 100GB of data over 6 months.
Restoring communities and businesses that have been impacted by the unrest is a collective effort and Telkom is committed to helping SMEs to clean up, rebuild and grow. We urge leading corporates, businesses and ordinary South Africans to make a pledge to help rebuild small businesses that have been devastated by the unrest.
Businesses in need of funding will be able to register on https://secure.telkom.co.za/today/campaign/TelkomConnectsSA while South Africans can also use this online portal to make their pledges to assist small businesses.
As violent protests swept through parts of SA, economic activity came to a standstill in the affected communities and small business owners were at the receiving end as many were forced to close while some were looted and destroyed, placing many jobs on the line. Small enterprises are crucial to SA’s economic growth and employ between 50 – 60% of the labour workforce.
Dumisani Bengu added: “In the aftermath of the unrest, government, businesses and communities are assessing the damage and are focusing on rebuilding communities that have been severely affected. We also urge responsible corporate leaders in SA to support affected micro and small businesses and help them weather this period; rebuild and grow.”
Telkom customers can also pledge by donating airtime or data. All the collected data and airtime will be redistributed to affected businesses.
To find out how you can help a small business owner near you, please visit https://secure.telkom.co.za/today/campaign/TelkomConnectsSA/
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