JOHANNESBURG - In last year’s State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged a R20-billion-a-year Transformation Fund over the next five years to support black-owned and small business enterprises.
Ramaphosa also committed to fast-tracking regulations under the Public Procurement Act, 2024 (Act 28 of 2024) to improve access to government contracts for women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
Fast forward to this year, and just a couple of days before his annual address, the Black Business Council (BBC) says nothing has changed in the past 12 months.
"Unfortunately, nothing has been done regarding these regulations, and no one from National Treasury has said anything about this important matter for black business," said the BBC’s Masedi Sesele.
"Even though there has been some discussion about the fund, it is not in place as we speak."
According to Sesele, the regulations for the Public Procurement Act have not been published, leaving black businesses without guidance on how to access government contracts.
"Black businesses continue to struggle to access funding and procurement opportunities," Sesele said.
Sesele stressed that support for black-owned businesses is critical to South Africa’s economic growth and job creation.
"We can never sufficiently grow our economy when 93 percent of the population owns less than 5 percent of the economy and is, for all intents and purposes, excluded from participating in their own economy," Sesele said.
"Thriving black businesses will create much-needed jobs and will also generate more consumers for products and services produced by other firms."
Sesele also criticised government for favouring "big businesses" over black-owned enterprises.
"That is not supporting black entrepreneurship. They even fail to pay black businesses on time, causing more to close down," Sesele said.
On urgent steps the government should take in the next year, Sesele was clear: "Government should stop sloganeering and implement its own commitments, as can be seen by the two SONA promises -- the Public Procurement Act regulations and the Transformation Fund -- which are still not implemented."