Programme Director,
Umkhanyakude District Municipality Mayor, Cllr Jeff Vilane
Hlabisa Local Municipality Mayor, Cllr VF Hlabisa
Members of the elected and traditional leadership
Distinguished guests
Members of the media present
Ladies and gentlemen
All protocols observed
Last week Monday I was officiating in the initiation process of the electrification project in Jozini. Today I am here in KwaHlabisa where we have gathered to mark another milestone in our crusade to bring about sustainable in our rural communities. This illustrate that this district is awash with people that are prepared to work hard to improve their lives through partnership with government. The skills training project we are celebrating today, we believe would be a critical ingredient in the process of empowering our people with necessary means to engage meaningfully in the entrepreneurial activities.
This event is indicative that government acknowledges that it’s not enough for people to have business ideas if they could not transform them into action. But to be able to activate one’s business thought the requisite technical and business skills are critical, especially that we have witnessed many small scale enterprises not surviving beyond the conceptualisation phase to contribute to the socio-economic transformation of the local communities.
Many emerging businesses often do collapse because those behind them are not endowed with essential capacity to pursue healthy trading operations and as the department responsible for promoting economic development in the province we are taking skills training very seriously. This sentiment has been fuelled by a not that glossy experience when we witnessed most of the small scale enterprises that we had funded 2 either as SMMEs or cooperatives were struggling to keep their heads above the wave of challenges associated with running a business in a highly competitive environment.
This sad history has confirmed the fact that flushing funds to respond to attractive business proposals that often promise to create more profit to be able to grow hasn’t worked all the time. It is therefore our belief and observation as government that those with big and promising business propositions have to be equipped with necessary skills to be able to survive the rigours of running their dream business operations.
As we want to see each part of our province growing to be able to push back the frontiers of poverty and joblessness we are continuously investing in programmes directed at providing basic business skills to our people – and rural areas are our priority as we want our people to develop wherever they are instead of them having to flood to urban areas hoping for a better life in there.
Opportunities could be successfully explore right in our rural localities – by capitalising on economic sectors that have potential for growth.The cooperatives, with their capacity to create space for more people and requiring not that vast raw materials have proved all over the world that they could be effective instruments to draw our communities to the mainstream of our economy hence we have been encouraging our people to form these kinds of social enterprises to be able to pool their meagre resources and skills to ensure that their business are strengthened through the combination of ideas.
However, as said above, we have identified lack of appropriate technical and business skills as the missing link between the conceptualisation of many enterprises and the success in the competitive terrain. Here in KwaHlabisa we have joined forces with members of the community that are determined to fend for themselves through engagement in small scale business operations that believe could be the first step to real big business pursuits.
After raising their hands in a call for empowerment with the most critical elements of business, skills development, we responded with excitement because we believe that if it comes from within the people themselves that they want to be trained to build capacity and confidence in what they do, we would be assured of successful and sustainable growth in this rural district. Today we are here as government to collectively celebrate the noble move undertaken by those that have acquired necessary skills to run well-grounded business initiatives.
One would wonder why government was bothering itself with attending to failing businesses instead of motivating those that were making progress to do even better. The answer is simple! The world over, agrees that the small business sector has proved to be an important role player in the development and growth of the economy – generating new business and employment opportunities that couldn’t have been realised through the endeavours of big businesses alone.
The recent economic indicators reveal that at least 30% of gross domestic product in the country is derived through small scale enterprises. As the department, we are therefore striving to create a competitive small business sector hence the provincial government allocated additional funding to promote the development of SMMEs and cooperatives during the last financial year.
This has been of course a continuous trend as we plough substantial amounts of funds to assist emerging entrepreneurs involved in various business sectors each year – and such intervention features skills development besides general seed fund to start new or grow existing business operation. In recent years we have forged partnership some high street financial institutions that share our vision of growing our economy through the establishment of a strong and sustainable entrepreneurial culture. We are pleased to note that even rural communities such as this one are determined to join the bandwagon through the acquisition of key entrepreneurial skills that would ensure they could stand the test of time in the competitive market place.
To ensure that our support mechanisms for small businesses were sound and effective, we have developed strategies that include the Integrated Small Enterprise Development Strategy. This is government’s new approach towards the support of small businesses in the country as this strategy is based on three pillars of support that are aimed at unlocking the potential of entrepreneur. These are inclusive of the promotion of entrepreneurship, creating enabling environments and enhancing the competitiveness and capabilities of the existing enterprises.
This further seeks to create more effective integration between:
- The first and the second economies of South Africa,
- The private and public sectors and their respective involvement in small enterprise support.
- Different levels and institutions of the public sector
- Different programmes already existing and those being added
- Different financing sources to cover the cost of the enterprise support.
Furthermore, the recently approved KwaZulu-Natal SMME Strategy highlights six economic pillars or developmental programmes such as the:
- Integrated Institutional Framework,
- Research and development ,
- Human resource and capacity building,
- Marketing support,
- Financial support, and
- Infrastructural and technological support
Over the past five years the department has maintained a cordial and good working relationship with all Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in the province. This collaborative arrangement has matured which has resulted in further partnerships on a number of programmes like the SMMEs Training and Capacity Building project that supports and develops small enterprises in the across the province.
Through this collaboration more than 5 000 small entrepreneurs have received skills training in the wide range of areas that include basic business management, computer literacy and technical skills. As we meet today, it is because KwaHlabisa is amongst the municipalities that have benefited from our skills development programmes. About fifty (50) entrepreneurs have been exposed to our training initiatives since 2011 and again last year we exposed 463 emerging entrepreneurs to our training programme and this was a partnership with Umfolozi and Mthashana FET Colleges.
This gathering is therefore a practical testimony of what we have been doing the past few years in our drive to match funding with requisite business and technical skills development. I want to congratulate all those that sacrificed their valuable time to attend this skills training programme and we have no doubt that their engagement with business wouldn’t no longer be the same as they will begin to realise that the capacity they have would mean sustainable and self-supporting business operations rather than perennial dependence on government to provide operational capital.
However, it takes someone courageous to admit that there was a need for skills development and the government can only work with such people that raise their hands and call for a helping hand to get the necessary means to stand on one’s own in business.
The certificates that we are presenting today are reminiscent of the fishing rod that we should issue to those prepared to traverse the treacherous waters in search for self-fulfillment in business as opposed that are forever gulping for fish to be provided to them without having to sweat it out.
We therefore believe that by providing the desperately essential business skills to those receiving their certificates today, we have empowered them with life-long tools to cash all kind of fish of their choice instead of issuing them with vouchers to stand on the queues for social grants whereas they have no distinct evidence incapacity that they couldn’t support themselves.
Social grant packages are meant for those that couldn’t fend for themselves such as young children, infirm and aged. Those with functioning bodies and minds should join the ranks of those prepared to work hard to improve their lives and those of their families.
For those with entrepreneurial attributes, the sky is the limit if you have been given life skills such as the training you have amassed and it’s time to flex you muscle and seek your space in the business arena that requires passion, commitment, innovative and creative thinking which is enhanced by possession of necessary skills such as those you are wielding today.
However, as we are all aware, business is always dynamic and thus continuous learning of new business tricks should be your life-long commitment so-that your product or service offerings remain competitive and relevant to ensure growth and sustainability.
Once you have proved your dexterity in this highly demanding and competitive business environment, accessing financial support to enable growth and creation of additional business and employment opportunities becomes less difficult as your record would ensure that funders develop confidence in the prospect of your business having to repay the loans.
Meanwhile, as indicated earlier on we have drawn a number of financial institutions towards the funding of emerging entrepreneurs with impressive business plans and record of running healthy business operations.
Through the KwaZulu-Natal SMME and Cooperatives Funds we are collaborating with Ithala Development Finance Corporation, Standard Bank and ABSA while SEDA is instrumental in assisting ambitious emerging entrepreneurs with distinct business ideas 6 that could translate into growth essential in creating more business and job opportunities
.
Currently jointly with SEDA we are running a Small Enterprise Pre-Finance Support Programme which is directed at improving the quality of business plans that should receive favourable response from financial institutions that support business development.
The street lingua says `ungayitholakanjani uhlezi ekhoneni’, and it’s you as an ambitious entrepreneur that should get out in the hunt for skills development which would embellish your business proposal since potential funders are more likely to invest in enterprises that are run by a skillful business people.
Well done Hlabisa!
I thank you.
