Create climate for small firms to grow

“The state is dictated to by big businesses. As long as the ANC does not have the courage to break the monopolies, as long as there is this unethical relationship between politicians and big business persists, you can say all you want about small business, the space is not going to be created because the ANC government refuses to create space for new players,” he said.

Shandu said the telecoms space was an example, with four dominant players in the sector. He said the market was so huge that smaller players should be allowed in, but instead, four networks controlled a sector with one of the highest call rates in the world.

“The research is there that jobs don’t come from big business. They come from small business. Yet the sector goes unnoticed.

“Create real space for new small and medium players to participate. It’s in the government’s interest to create conditions for small business to thrive, create jobs and deal with poverty.

“I don’t understand this noncommittal approach to small business. Why does the government allow itself to be held to ransom by big business? To me, this is the mystery and, if we are serious about job creation, there needs to be a revolution in how we look at and approach the small, medium and micro enterprises space,” said Shandu.

Jones said training, support and development were needed in the small business sector. He called for collaboration between big and small business.

“Big business needs to analyse the value chain and say these are the areas we have committed to use a percentage of sufficiently skilled small businesses.

“Our government still thinks big business is the key to growing the economy. We need to narrow the gap from below by supporting and growing small business,” he said.

“To me, the most change can happen at the small business level. As they say, give someone a fish and you feed him for a day, but give them a fishing rod and they can feed themselves for a lifetime.

“We need to teach people basic skills, even at school level. We need to get them to understand the tax system and basic business and bookkeeping skills, because those skills are lacking,” said Jones.

Gigaba said work was being done to provide crucial funding to innovative small businesses.

“A fund with an allocation of R2.1 billion over the medium term is being developed between the departments of Small Businesses, Science and Technology and the Treasury to benefit small and medium enterprises in the start-up phase – an area that historically has had limited support because of the risks involved,” he said.

Gigaba said by enabling businesses with new ideas to emerge and thrive, government was “radically transforming patterns of production in the economy”.

“Another important constraint for small business is a lack of market access and barriers to entry.

“To resolve this, our competition authorities continue to do the necessary and important work of addressing barriers to entry and rooting out anti-competitive behaviour which slows economic growth and dynamism,” he said.

Durban tax expert and chartered accountant Professor Dilip Garach called on the government to amend labour law to allow conditions that favour small business owners.

He said labour law treated small and big businesses the same way.

“Our labour laws should allow people to be employed but not exploited. That is important. Sometimes, when people become employed they want to join a union. When only 10 people are employed, do they need a union?”

He said not much was being done to create entrepreneurs – a spirit of entrepreneurship would lead to employment, which would augur well for the economy.

His wish list was that South

Africa would stimulate growth, promote skills development and entrepreneurship; promote small business and foreign direct investment; create tax incentives that would boost job creation; and fight corruption.