E Thabethe: South African Owner Drivers Empowerment Federation Women in
Transport Structure launch

20 July 2007

Chairperson/Programme Director
Councillor Duma Nkosi
Executive and members of South African Owner Drivers
Honoured guests

Welcome

Good morning to you all. I would like to thank the organisers for inviting
me, this is a good initiative for women business owners. Getting started in any
business is not an easy task, getting into "predominantly male" dominated
business is even more so. I therefore wish to wish the organisation every
success with this launch.

It gives me great pleasure to address you here today on this very relevant
topic of women's economic empowerment. It is heartening to note that the
organisers did not wait for August, the much celebrated national Women's Month,
to address this matter. It took 38 years for the women of the 1956 women's
March to achieve their political freedom, we would be doing a disservice to
their proud legacy if we took the same number of years for women to achieve
their economic freedom.

Access to finance and business opportunities for women seems to be a
universal problem, judging from issues raised by women at conferences I have
attended since becoming Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry. The challenges
are daunting but not insurmountable. In our favour as South African women is
the unwavering support from the Presidency, where President Mbeki and Deputy
President Mlambo-Ngcuka have shown their commitment to the cause of women.

As one of the two Deputy Ministers of Trade and Industry it is my
responsibility to attend to matters of women's economic empowerment as one of
the tasks delegated to me. To indicate the importance of this issue we have a
dedicated unit responsible for gender and women's empowerment in the Department
of Trade and Industry. This unit is one of the programmes established by the
current Deputy President while she was still the Deputy Minister of Trade and
Industry!

Accelerated and shared growth means ensuring an equitable share of our
economy between men and women. The Department of Trade and Industry has
dedicated itself to continue its efforts to increase the participation of women
in the South African economy through further implementation of the Strategic
Framework on Gender and Women's Economic Empowerment. The framework is a major
intervention led by the dti aimed at addressing the market failures of economic
policies and programmes in addressing gender equity in South Africa. It is
primarily aimed at fast tracking women's economic empowerment while ensuring
that the issue is institutionalised as a critical aspect of government's
national economic agenda. The strategy is further aimed at ensuring that
sufficient well-budgeted resources are made available for programmes relevant
to women empowerment.

One of the major interventions proposed by the strategy is the establishment
of the South African Women's Entrepreneurs Fund. The fund is to be launched
during this financial year and will provide loans and business support to
develop profitable women owned enterprises. A decision has been made to appoint
the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) as the institution to administer
this fund. The fund is geared towards addressing the funding needs of women
owned enterprises with loans ranging from R10 00 to R250 000 as one category
and loans from R250 000 to R1 million as another. The unique selling point of
this fund will be to provide these enterprises with special procurement or
tender loans to be able to render relevant services after being awarded a
tender deal.

The further strengthening of South African Women Entrepreneurs' Network
(Sawen) has also been identified as a major intervention of the strategic
framework. Sawen has created a solid foundation in establishing a national
forum for the engagement of women entrepreneurs. There is absolutely no doubt
that Sawen has become the beacon of hope for South African women entrepreneurs
who continue to find it difficult to access the dti independently. Moreover,
Sawen has continued be a viable strategic partner of provincial economic
departments in delivering some of their programmes for women. This has led to
some of the provinces co-sponsoring the establishment of provincial
offices.

During this financial year, the dti will review the status of Sawen. This
will include embarking on a process of ensuring that Sawen becomes one of the
dti-listed entities. The dti recognises the important role that Sawen plays as
a broker between dti delivery agencies and women entrepreneurs. The review will
look at the role that Sawen plays and how it can be enhanced to strengthen the
participation of women in the economy.

We also have the Technology for Women in Business programme, an initiative
of the dti. More commonly know as TWIB its mandate is to accelerate women's
economic empowerment and women-owned entrepreneurial development through the
facilitation of scientific and technology-based business applications and
systems. There is an annual competition open to solely/majority women-owned
businesses who have managed to bridge the technological divide in the running
of their enterprises.

To address the legacy of underdevelopment left by apartheid it has been
necessary for government to implement vigorous programmes that will start to
assist in bridging the divide between the first and second economy. In this
respect Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) has been one of the
tools decided upon to start fixing this skewed economic growth. As the
Department of Trade and Industry, we have released the BBBEE Codes of Good
Practice in our concerted effort to ensure that the historically disadvantaged
sectors of our communities now also have an opportunity to participate in
economic activities.

There is no doubt in every ones mind that small, medium and micro
enterprises (SMMEs) will play a critical role in our efforts to broaden the
base of our economic participation. In an endeavour to Integrate BBBEE and SMME
development, the codes of good practice will address the SMME. While the codes
try to protect enterprises particularly those that are very small and micro, we
also seek to ensure that those within the threshold of compliance benefit
through a number of measures encapsulated in the principles of Black Economic
Empowerment (BEE).

There might be an inverse relation between the requirements for BBBEE
compliance by enterprises suppliers and SMMEs, however family businesses and or
SMMEs are recognised and acknowledged as an integral part of the South African
Economy, among others because of the very high leverage factor this sector has
on job creation. In this regard, the Department of Trade and Industry will do
everything in its power to protect, grow and develop this sector. The
department will guide the private sector SME-implementation of the Broad-based
BEE Codes of Good Practice, with particular reference here to the enterprise
development aspects of the Code. In this respect, the BBBEE Codes will be an
important source of demand for emerging small enterprises and will be a driver
of transformation in our economy.

Of course no program is without its loopholes and challenges and I want to
urge businesswomen here today to be wary of 'fronting'. Get what is due to you
from deals you enter into in partnerships offered to you.

The Department of Trade and Industry has numerous incentive schemes and
non-financial support services run by the various dti agencies that can be
accessed by SMMEs and also big business. Amongst these are:

* South African Micro-finance Apex Fund (Samaf), Apex Fund
* Industrial Development Corporation (IDC)
* National Empowerment Fund (NEF)
* Khula
* Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda).

Ladies and gentlemen, South Africa is alive with possibilities, the most
significant event to come to our country being the World Cup in 2010; is this
not a vote of confidence in our ability as a country to host the second biggest
world sporting event. Yet, I find that this confidence has not rubbed off on us
as South Africans. Landing at our international airports there is very little
sign of this momentous event coming to our country. We should be telling the
world that we were chosen, we are good enough, and we are capable! Where are
the t-shirts, caps and flags or the vuvuzelas saying, "World Cup 2010 Proudly
South African", where are the signs on our taxis, busses and trucks saying
this?

We are looking at how our businesses, especially SMMEs can benefit. How we
can ensure strong and meaningful BEE participation, achieve greater geographic
spread of economic activity and ensure an outcome of a sustainable legacy from
the event.

Notwithstanding the challenges, there is institutional support and more
importantly, political support to assist you to become successful
entrepreneurs. Where we are failing in our duty to you, let us know. We have a
historical obligation to see you succeed, the 20 000 women in the 1956 march
through that singular action, demands that we meet that obligation. The future
direction for developing women entrepreneurs is indeed firmly rooted in the
past!

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
20 July 2007