‘Empty promises left me broke’

BUSINESSPERSON: GRANT NOT ARRIVED AFTER A YEAR

‘I get no answers as to why the money can’t be released and have to lay off staff.’

When his Black Business Supplier Development Programme (BBSDP) grant was approved in December last year, a Port Elizabeth businessperson thought his engineering company had finally received the financial boost it desperately needed.

But more than a year later, all Elridge Hendricks’ close corporation received was an approval letter from the department of small business development – and he is left with a shattered dream, over R1 million debt and forced to lay off staff.

“The most painful part is that nobody is giving me answers as to why I cannot be paid,” the frustrated manager of Bhayipax, an engineering company, said. “I am being sent on a run-around, told to provide the same documentation over and over again. All I have heard since the approval letter are empty promises.”

BBSDP is a cost-sharing grant offered to black-owned small enterprises to help them improve their competitiveness and sustainability.

Hendricks applied for the grant in May 2017. To qualify, the company had to demonstrate that it has purchased machinery and would then receive 40% of every R600 000 spent.

Hendrick went into debt to finance the equipment, which was verified by the department officials and his grant was approved in December last year.

“After that there was a scandal and people were suspended. Things started to fall apart and I was forced to lay off three of the five people we employed. We are supposed to be creating jobs but this has crippled our business and spirit.”

Hendricks claimed small businesses were unable to raise funds anywhere because they are told they should benefit from black business empowerment programmes, but the money is “squandered by crooked officials lining their own pockets”.

In March, the department suspended nine officials after serious allegations of corruption within the unit responsible for the BBSDP incentive scheme.

A forensic report fingered officials in maladministration, misrepresentation of facts, collusion and contravening guidelines and standard operating procedures.

Priscilla Monama, the department’s spokesperson, would not answer specific questions on the matter, saying they were bound “by judicial consideration from further disclosure in respect to fair judiciary process”.