I have always lamented the fact that while national and provincial governments conceive laudable programmes and projects to support small businesses and the economic sectors in general, not enough is done to ensure that these are rolled out and marketed outside of the main metropolitan areas and cities.
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Thus, I am constantly invited to ‘launches’ of often very well-designed interventions, but more often than not, these are held in Durban or Pietermaritzburg – excluding a large proportion of potential beneficiaries.
Online
In the roll-out phases, marketing efforts are again concentrated in the main economic centres, with the result that most beneficiaries are located in or around the big economic zones in the province.
Where the local and district municipalities are delegated the task of managing and marketing these schemes, their performance leaves a lot to be desired. A common response I get when raising this with department officials is that most of the information and application forms are available online.
However, this response belies the lack of access to the internet for most non-urban dwellers, and of course the prohibitive data costs from the cellphone networks.
Potential
I was therefore pleasantly surprised to be invited to an event showcasing the Black Industrialists Initiative at the Uvongo Town Hall last week. This was spearheaded by MEC Sihle Zikhalala who, it appears, is beginning to take note of the huge economic potential in the hinterland of the province.
In another positive sign, my recent engagements with bodies such as Invotech, the Moses Kotane Institute and Productivity SA point to an increased willingness and appetite to present their opportunities to a broader, more rural audience.
The Chamber, together with its partners such as the Ugu Association of Business, will actively pursue this more positive mood, to ensure that the business sector, particularly the youth and women- owned enterprises, increase their access to these support mechanisms.
After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, he joined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.
He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.
Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.
More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.
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