Cape Town - The ANC in the Western Cape has said that if the province wants to make a success of its township economies while fighting unemployment, inequality and poverty at the same time, it should look to and borrow from the Gauteng Township Revitalisation Plan.
Sponsoring a debate about how to revitalise the township economy, ANC provincial Finance and Economic Opportunities spokesperson Nomi Nkondlo said Gauteng had a Township Economic Development Act, which focused on 12 sectors within the township economy.
She said these sectors included retail, manufacturing, tourism, transport, ICT and even the creative industry.
Nkondlo said the most important cogs in the functioning of the township economy included the multibillion-rand taxi industry; the spaza shops sector; burial societies and funeral insurance and stokvels, which she said played an important economic role in the townships.
Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger said recently published statistics estimated that there were about 30-40 businesses per 1 000 people in townships, which translated into about 800000 to 1 million businesses across South Africa.
Wenger gave examples of successful township businesses such as the Department of Coffee and Estratweni Mobile Foods and said they provided products and services tailored for the needs of the local communities they served as well as immediate accessibility.
She said this was why her department supported small businesses in townships across the province and the dedicated Red Tape Reduction Unit was working to remove barriers.
EFF MPL Melikhaya Xego said: “Whenever people from the townships try to operate small businesses, their stock gets confiscated by the law enforcement officials due to lack of operating permits, and whenever they apply for those permits, they come across red tape.”
ACDP MPL Ferlon Christians said small businesses in townships were the solution to unemployment, but faced threats from robberies, vandalism and load shedding which could cripple them.
