SMMEs scramble for Rupert billion
Applications to the fund created by the Rupert family to aid small and medium-size businesses in financial distress as a result of Covid-19 have been temporarily put on hold following a huge oversubscription from desperate SMMEs.
The applications rose to R2.8bn in a couple of days, much more than the R1bn the family made available.
The flood of applications the initiatives of the Rupert and Oppenheimer families received for aid to small and mediumsize businesses reveals the extent of lockdown hardship.
Business Partners, appointed by the Rupert family to administer the Sukuma Relief Programme, said it received more than 10,000 applications.
“The volume of applications we have received opens your eyes to the suffering and destruction that our SMEs and microenterprises are enduring at the moment. Many small businesses just don’t know where the next pay cheque is coming from,” said Business Partners marketing executive Gugu Mjadu.
The company temporarily closed the applications portal as it tries to respond to applicants within seven days. Disbursements comprise one-off nonrepayable grants of R25,000 per business plus interest-free unsecured loans of between R250,000 and R1m not repayable for the first year. The loans are intended to tide businesses over for the period of the lockdown and its immediate aftermath and will be disbursed over three months, starting in April, to help SMMEs cover overheads such as rent and pay.
The Rupert family is creating a trust to house the programme, which will operate separately from the commercial activities of Business Partners. The family is still deciding what purpose the charity will serve after the pandemic; it may remain an emergency fund for small businesses during economic downturns.
The R1bn donation from the Oppenheimer family is being administered through the newly launched SA Future Trust (SAFT), which is working through the four largest banks.
In two working days — Friday last week and Monday — the trust received 10,000 applications, putting it on track to begin disbursing R250m in loans “over the next 48 hours”, it said on Monday.
The trust, which is a publicbenefit organisation and can therefore accept donations from third parties, will make interestfree loans available to SMMEs for the express purpose of paying a portion of workers’ salaries, equivalent to R750 per employee per week for a period of 15 weeks.
The loans are unsecured, interest-free and repayable over five years. Any money repaid will flow back into the trust and be used to facilitate the growth of SMMEs in future.