Marlene van Staden, mayor of the Modimolle-Mookgophong local municipality, welcomed Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams (minister for Small Business Development) and the other dignitaries in a jam-packed OR Thambo hall in Modimolle.
Fellow mayors from the Waterberg district — Tokkie Swanepoel (mayor of Thabazimbi), Gloria Seleka (mayor of Bela-Bela), and Tulani Tauetsoala (mayor of Mogalakwena), also attended the roadshow to show their support for this initiative.
The development and support of small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMME’s) are critical because SMME’s are the key drivers for job creation in a recovering economy that has lost almost two million jobs due to the Covid-19-pandemic.
“We decided to embark on these roadshows because we get a sense that there is something we are not doing right; that we are somehow missing the target. We have all these great plans and strategies in place but we still have high unemployment rates in the country. We still see many small businesses that do not get the opportunity to participate and contribute to the economy. If this continues, it means South Africa will not create the 11 million jobs that are envisaged in the National Development Plan”, said Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, Minister for Small Business Development.
The minister also said: “As the department that is responsible for creating an enabling environment for SMME’s, we ought to make proper interventions on issues that have been raised by entrepreneurs in this roadshow.”
Issues raised by local small business owners include the complicated financing application process as well as the administrative red tape that hinders businesses. The high cost of vendor licensing was also mentioned during the engagement sessions.
According to Van Staden the new bylaw pertaining to informal traders and hawkers should be promulgated in July this year. This will form part of the municipality’s local economic development strategic plan to improve conditions for economic growth and employment generation in the new 2022/23 budget.
To assist small business owners the local municipality acquired the help of SANRAL to assist with the building of two sets of hawker stalls when the roadworks are underway.
According to Van Staden a company in Vaalwater agreed to assist with the upgrading of hawker stalls in town. A site meeting with all the stakeholders has been scheduled for Tuesday 24 May where after the timeline for the project will be confirmed.
The Modimolle-Mookgophong Entrepreneurship Academy started in October 2020 as a pilot project of the local municipality in conjunction with The Startup Tribe, an international non-profit organization with professional educators teaching online.
The local academy offers a variety of free practical short courses online for entrepreneurs of small startups and businesses.
Entrepreneurs will learn skills and obtain tools to grow their businesses and expand their client base with courses such as the 14 Day Start-up challenge, the 14 Day Entrepreneurship challenge, and Find clients and grow your business. Farmers find the basic course on starting a farming business, over 24 lessons, extremely helpful.
Kindly visit the website: www.thestartuptribe.org for more information regarding the short courses.
