municipalities to support SMMEs
23 May 2006
Municipalities need skills to support Small Medium and Micro Enterprises
(SMMEs) and to attract investors, said Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The Deputy President was answering questions in the National Council of
Provinces in Parliament.
The appointment of the 90 professionals as part of the Joint Initiative for
Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA), focuses on addressing the skills problem
through Project Consolidate which has a common purpose with JIPSA. The aim is
to focus on addressing the skills problem facing municipalities. The Project
Consolidate has identified serious capacity constraints in many of
municipalities arising from a shortage of properly qualified managers,
professional and technical personnel. The Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) process has also mandated the Department of
Provincial and Local Government (DPLG), in consultation with the Department of
Trade and Industry (dti), to improve the capacity of local government to
support local economic development.
âMany municipalities have poor citizens who depend on grants. Municipalities
need to engage in the creation of jobs and sustainable economic development,
which impacts on growth and sharing thereof. Economic development needs
well-run municipalities,â said the Deputy President.
The project, managed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), will
deploy a minimum of 90 expert staff, with the first 30 deployed in May 2006.
The targeted skills are in the main financial, economic, and technical and
engineering related fields.
Regarding the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA),
discussions with various departments, including labour, the private sector and
state-owned enterprises are in place on an initiative to attract and develop
the priority skills required for acceleration of growth. Other JIPSA
initiatives that will benefit municipalities include:
* JIPSA has identified city engineers and town planners as a priority skills
area, to plan and manage the spatial development of our cities and towns and to
ensure effective service delivery
* JIPSA's focus on intermediate artesian and technical skills is also a crucial
element of developing and maintaining municipal infrastructure and ensuring
service delivery. Partner initiatives, such as the Old Mutual/South African
Management Development Institute (SAMDI) programme to train 100 municipal
project managers, will also directly benefit municipalities. That will be
launched on 1 June 2006.
âThere are several interventions designed to support small businesses. One
is the acceleration of the Apex and Mafisa micro-loan programmes, another is a
new product developed by Khula for loans between R10 000 and R250 000, another
is through support for co-operatives especially in the rural areas through the
âJobs for Growthâ project, and yet another is the accelerated roll-out of new
services centres and products by the Small Enterprise Development Agency
(SEDA),â said Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka.
âAlso key for small businesses is the implementation of Cabinetâs decision
to remove unnecessary regulatory obstacles to small medium and
micro-enterprises. These include cumbersome taxation burdens, poorly designed
or implemented labour regulations, unfavourable municipal legal environments
and industry sector regulatory environments that are unnecessarily biased
against SMMEs,â confirmed the Deputy President.
AsgiSA, the Deputy President said, was a national shared growth initiative,
rather than âgovernmentâs programmeâ. It involved all spheres of government,
business, labour, civil society and all South Africans. One of the cornerstones
of AsgiSA was to get all role-players and social partners jointly to commit
energy and resources to the achievement of the national objectives.
Enquiries:
Thabang Chiloane
Spokesperson of the Deputy President
Cell: 082 888 8783
Issued by: The Presidency
23 May 2006
