Businesses swamp Rupert’s relief fund
● SMEs have turned to government, private firms to get their money back
The more than 10,000 small to medium business owners who have swamped Johann Rupert’s Sukuma Relief Fund since the weekend are not only looking for money from the fund, but are pleading for the private companies and government departments to pay them what they owe for services rendered.
“That is our appeal to the private sector and government,” Business Partners marketing GM Gugu Mjadu said.
“Pay SMEs [small and medium enterprises] what you owe them.
“Process those invoices, even now during the lockdown period, to ensure SMEs survive this disruptive time.”
Business Rescue Limited, one of Africa’s leading risk finance companies for SMEs, was appointed administrator of the fund, established with a donation of R1bn from the Rupert family.
They have promised to transfer funds to successful applicants within seven days of their application.
Applications poured in from all provinces, with most from Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
Business Partners MD Ben Bierman said the number of applications in just three days was indicative of the Covid-19 crisis’s “crippling impact”.
“This exceeds the available donated capital of R1bn almost three times over.
“As such, we have decided to suspend access to the application portal with immediate effect,” Bierman said.
“Should we find that there is still capital available, either because some of the applicants were not verified and approved or because we have managed to secure additional capital, we will open the programme for applications again.
“We realised when engaging with our clients that the situation is dire, but we have been surprised by the sheer number of SMEs that are in desperate need of assistance.”
He has called for more donors to come forward, but at the time of writing, that had not happened.
“SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy. Now is the time to get involved and support each other.”
Mjadu said the company would use the coming week to assess the applications received and provide feedback to the applicants.
She was unable to say which sectors featured most strongly in the applications or reveal any details of the financial trauma the applicants shared in their applications.
“But based on our experience in the sector, we expect business owners will be mostly looking for funds to pay salaries, rent and other overheads,” she said
The most that will be provided to formal sole proprietors is a R25,000 grant per qualifying business.
For close corporations, companies and trusts, the maximum they can receive is an unsecured loan of R1m per qualifying business, coupled with a grant of R25,000.
Business owners owning close corporations, companies and trusts have a repayment holiday of 12 months, and there is no interest charged on the loan portion, also for 12 months.
Repayment and interest charges resume from month 13, when it is hoped the business is back on its feet.
“The repayment of the loan portion is an appeal to the beneficiaries of the initiative to ‘pay it forward’ and allow the continuing support of SMEs into the future,” Mjadu said.
“This capital will be available to assist SMEs in providing relief when new and other challenges, such as Covid-19, need to be confronted in the future.
“It will never be repaid to the donors.”
As for whether the muchtouted “force majeure” applied as a corporate tenant’s defence to being evicted for not paying rent, Galetti Corporate Real Estate CEO John Jack said that could come into play.
“It really depends on whether or not your lease agreement contains a force majeure clause, or whether you will need to rely on common law,” he said.
“Force majeure looks to exceptional events or circumstances that are out of our control.
“Tenants could receive some reprieve under this particular clause, as long as the events and timeline are well-defined.” —