Chairperson, the ACDP notes the allocation of R3.12 billion to Small Business Development in the 2026/27 estimates of national expenditure. This is a significant amount but the Portfolio Committee has warned that the SEDFA agency must not hide persisting problems.
The ACDP said last year that the Asset Assist Programme was failing. The Department relaunched it late last year, but the R1 trillion SMME credit gap is still not solved, where neither beneficiaries nor impacts are clearly accounted for. The Department must exercise proper oversight and secure effective stewardship of this programme or it will remain another failed intervention.
The claim that about 165,000 SMMEs were supported is still not clear, and many question if the numbers are true or whether they reflect genuine, sustained support rather than just overlapping registrations.
The Committee has asked the Department to cut red tape and make things easier for business, particularly small business, and we heartily agree. Entrepreneurs still face too much form-filling and delays.
There are over 140,000 spaza shops and informal outlets that are valued at a staggering R200 billion annually, employing millions of people and growing faster than supermarkets. Yet, just 6 per cent of spaza shops are believed to be owned by South Africans.
Spaza shop ownership for South Africans is surely the heart of small business development yet, despite new digital mapping initiatives to digitise and monitor the spaza shop sector, it still leaves Parliament without the ownership data needed for proper oversight.
The ACDP repeatedly urges government to exercise proper recording oversight. When statistics are lacking, comparative analysis is impossible and accountability by Parliament is undermined.
The ACDP cares greatly about small businesses. It is not only about money. It’s about Kingdom-building—giving families work, restoring dignity and showing justice and stewardship in our economy.
Lastly, the ACDP urges government to emulate what countries such as Botswana and Zimbabwe have done by reserving some economic sectors, such as street trading and spaza shop ownership for local citizens which we believe will greatly help to reduce the high unemployment we are facing in our country.
The ACDP further calls on government to introduce more health inspectors to ensure that those who rely on spaza shops, particularly in the townships, have access to clean, healthy food. Shops that sell expired food should be banned and should lose their licences. Fines do not work because those with money will simply pay the fine and then continue selling expired foods and rotten food to our people.
We love our people, we care about their health, and government must do more to protect them.
I thank you.
