14/05/2021
Woolly thinking
An illustration of Ntshavheni’s woolly thinking on small-business support is that she celebrates the fact that the Department of Small Business Development helped 737 manufacturing SMMEs that generated R268 million in total revenue, through its Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA).
That is a measly R364 000 in revenue per company per year. Ntshavheni claims that all this ‘enterprise’ sustained 527 manufacturing-based jobs, and created another 1364 new jobs, presumably not based in manufacturing, for a total of
1891 jobs.
If all the revenue were paid out as wages, which it obviously isn’t, those jobs would pay an average of less than R12 000 per month. If you first subtract the cost of premises rental, electricity, raw materials, machinery depreciation and maintenance, computerised accounting and production information systems, insurance, taxes, and administrative overhead, you’re left with pay packets that cannot possibly be much above minimum wage. I’ll bet very few of those enterprises run at a profit.
And at what cost to the taxpayer does Ntshavheni’s department achieve all this proudly South African manufacturing enterprise? Let’s add up the minister’s numbers.
First, the SEDA Technical Assistance Programme spent R15 million to help 684 manufacturers with product and process technology. Second, the Small Enterprise Finance Agency paid R68 million to youth-owned enterprises, and another R167 million to women-owned enterprises. (Note the nod to identity politics.) Third, the Cooperatives Incentive Scheme supported 118 cooperatives with R34,5 million.
That adds up to R284,5 million, which exceeds the total revenue generated by all these enterprises. Of course, capital should not be mistaken for revenue, but government has a poor track record of picking entrepreneurial winners.
Small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni wants to enforce ‘local content’ in manufacturing by prohibiting the import of entire categories of products. That’s how you build really terrible stuff. For over thirty years, communist East Germany produced a car known as the Trabant. ...