Plan for more BEE funding

Minister to boost retail and industrial firms

PLANS to give black retailers and industrialists more opportunities across a broad front were announced yesterday by Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel

Among plans will be an investigation by the Competition Commission on ways to open up the retail sector.

The investigation will include a study of the way in which retail space in shopping malls is allocated.

The government was also setting aside R23-billion over the next five years to support new black industrialists, Patel said in his budget vote debate in parliament.

The money would be paid to new businesses owned and controlled by black people. Additional grants of R 9billion over the next five years would also be available for women and youth industrialists.

The minister said that former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo’s investigation into the healthcare industry had progressed to the point where public hearings would soon take place.

Patel said the government was becoming loath to announce tariff hikes to protect manufacturers from international competition.

“Tariffs will, in future, only be raised if the relevant industry heightens productivity,” Patel said.

The government was making progress with industrialisation, he said.

For instance, five years ago no modern minibus taxis were built locally. Last year, 32 000 minibuses were assembled in South Africa.

The presidential infrastructure coordination commission also oversaw the creation of 220 000 employment opportunities, adding to the country’s growth rate.

But according to the opposition, the picture Patel paints is just a bit too rosy.

DA MP Kobus Marais said the state would not be able constantly to increase its public sector wage bill beyond the current R 400billion.

“This begs the question: where will the jobs for the more than 7.3 million unemployed South Africans come from?” Marais asked.

“Today, 1.4 million more South Africans are unemployed since Jacob Zuma became president in 2009.”