Extent of looting and destruction of business in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng shocks committees

The Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development, the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition, and the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism, Employment and Labour expressed shock at damages to business properties, as well as the loss of stock and equipment as a result of the recent looting in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng, writes Justice Molafo.

The committees conducted a factfinding visit in KZN and Gauteng from 3 to 6 August 2021. During the first part of the visit, they visited some of the affected businesses in KZN, including informal traders and small, medium and micro-enterprises in eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, as well as the uMhlathuze and KwaDukuza local municipalities, which fall under the King Cetshwayo and iLembe district municipalities.

The second leg was conducted in Gauteng and in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality and the City of Johannesburg. This leg focused on small enterprises and informal traders. In both legs of the visits, the committees heard from various businesses that had lost stock, equipment and had their properties vandalised. The owners of these businesses experienced a significant loss of income and they had to lay off employees.

The committees regretted the loss of investment in property and stock due to the burning and vandalism of business properties and infrastructure, and the impact of this on access to food, medicines, and healthcare. In their view, the destruction of business properties and looting were pure acts of criminality. The law must now take its full course in order to bring perpetrators to book.

The committees reiterated the need for the various government departments and entities to work together to assist affected businesses to rebuild. They advised the affected municipalities to fast-track the process of issuing business permits to the informal traders so they can benefit from the business recovery programme of the Department of Small Business Development and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, along with the Development Finance Institutions.

The Department of Small Business Development’s business recovery programme is administered by department’s entities, namely the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda), as well as Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa). The committees advised Seda and Sefa that, while strict requirements are necessary for accountability in emergency cases such as these, there needs to be some flexibility to allow businesses to access funding without undue delay.

Lastly, the committees tasked the visited municipalities to share comprehensive reports about the damages with estimated costs of repair, impact on jobs, and impact on the municipalities. This information will form part of the committees’ report, which will also detail final observations and recommendations.