SMMEs question municipal efficiency
Some of the local entrepreneurs called to the Small, Medium and Micro Entreprises (SMMEs) public meeting by Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) are of the view the municipality is not doing Komani justice as far as managing the business sector in the town.
The meeting, which was held at Thobi Kula Indoor Sports Centre on Monday, was meant to take place with EMLM mayor Thembaka Bunu and Integrated Planning and Economic Development (Iped) portfolio head Sibusiso Mvana, who were not present.
This resulted in Iped officials grappling to respond to some of the issues raised by SMMEs.
The business sector felt that discussing policy issues was important and a subject that needed to be addressed and responded to by the absent officials in the public meeting.
Some of the SMMEs complained about hawkers not being well managed in town, the lack of transparency over getting plots in town and foreign nationals getting more preference for space to run businesses over local residents.
Entrepreneur Nyameka Twaku said communities need to be consulted before taverns were established in residential areas.
“Also, we never knew that stalls could be placed on the main road, but today hair is done in Cathcart Road.
“Streets have hair on the ground. The municipality used to supervise and made sure people were cleaning up after themselves, Twaku said.
“The way that the business sector is being managed does not reflect that there is a municipality in this town. Businesses cannot run without proper law measurements in place. We do not know how the people in Scanlan Street got the plots. There are also informal shelters being placed in the streets.”
Others complained about the issue of the Mlungisi small business area being without power.
Others had problems being asked to register businesses for them to gain recognition by the municipality.
EMLM Iped manager Nkosi Mzileni said the municipality wanted to manage the business for the economy to go in the direction they had agree about with local entrepreneurs.
He informed them the municipality faces a challenge of people placing containers wherever they wanted in the central business district, others stealing electricity, and street hawkers placing shelters which at times affected motorists.
“There are a number of policies which we have developed; among those is the procurement policy or government spending to profile every spending in EMLM.
“It is not that they are being referred by the municipality but by the property owner. These are the people who are placing them to run hardware stores in the CBD.”
He said property owners also had a right to remove people who were selling in the territory of their business because it was part of the property for their customers to walk into the store.
“But due to unemployment, we need to have an agreement where vendors can negotiate with property owners to operate in their areas for a certain period.”
The message that they were trying to get across, he said, was to reform and transform planning in Komani, including the traffic flow.
“If someone is doing hair outside, the one inside will not want to remain to rent property when someone is doing it for free outside. This is why it is important for us to have a management system. The first requirement is for all businesses to be registered. We have to have a criteria that for a person to run a business in Cathcart Road they should employ ten people.”
Hollywoodbets, Standard Bank and department of economic development and environmental affairs officials also made a presentation.