1. How would you describe yourself?
I am a determined person. I endeavour to give everything I do my all.
2. What drew you to a career in politics and how have you found the experience as a fairly young, yet prominent individual?
Growing up in Alexandra and experiencing the injustices of the time drew me to political activism.
3. As a child, what did you wish to become when you grew up?
The legal field has always intrigued me. It is something that I have always wanted to do. Time and other priorities permitting I think this is something that I would like to invest my energies in.
4. What does your current position as MEC of your department involve?
The biggest task is to make the economy work better so that we overcome the challenge of inequality. Our task involves policy formulation in order to make the conditions conducive for investment so that we create jobs and eradicate poverty. We also look after tourism, environment, agriculture and rural development. All of the responsibilities of the department are about the people and the economy.
5. What does good leadership mean to you?
Good leadership means being at harmony with the decisions of the collective. This is a principle that was inculcated in me from an early age in the ANC and the broader mass democratic movement. Leadership is also about service and always having your fingertips on the pulse of society. It demands a constant interaction with the people, even in times where you face their wrath and criticism. I must also add that leadership is defined in the terrain of struggle. This means that it is neither ordained nor permanent but earned and tested from time to time.
6. If you didn’t do this job, what would you do?
I would have probably pursued a career as a lawyer. I still intend to do this some day.
7. Why Township Business and why has it taken so long for government to realize the importance of these second economies?
Well, firstly it is not true that townships have been ignored by government. If you look at the social investment that has been made in our townships over the last twenty years, you would agree with me that government has made an immense contribution in changing the social and economic landscape of townships. The massive roll out of housing, water and electricity, tarred roads and other social amenities has also had an impact on the business orientation in our townships. It has contributed to decreasing the cost of doing business as well as attracted many business owners and patrons to the township space.
The democratic government has created a range of institutions aimed at bolstering entrepreneurship and township businesses have benefitted immensely from this. The challenge is we have invested so much in townships as social spaces, the economy of this country and its beneficiaries are located outside these spaces. This is a contradiction since the majority of South Africans reside in townships and informal settlements.
So townships have largely served as labour reservoirs and points of consumption with no productive capacity, no industries and very few businesses, which are not trading in the retail space or serve as intermediaries. Township businesses have no stake in the value chains of many industries. In addition, human settlements patterns continue to subordinate the townships.
Secondly, we cannot really call the township a second economy because what happens in the townships from an economic perspective is intertwined with the South African economy. The subordination of the township economy serves the interests of few monopolized industries. Almost all the South African economic sectors and their value-chains are dominated by a few monopolistic businesses, which create barriers to entry for new enterprises.
On the retail side, townships are increasingly dominated by major supermarket chains, which have crowded out local production and distribution. One only has to look at the decimation of township petty traders, producers and general dealers to see the impact of these economic developments.
8. What does the Township Economic Revitalisation programme mean for business owners?
We believe that successful township enterprises can play an important role in government’s programme to transform, modernise and re-industrialise Gauteng. To achieve this we have to transform townships into productive sites. We have committed ourselves to growing the township economy and increase its contribution to at least 30% of the Gauteng economy by 2030.
Township businesses face a number of challenges. There are many entrepreneurs whose aspirations to develop their businesses from home-based and back yard operations into more viable and more productive enterprises is stifled by the scarcity of industrial space in our townships. We are currently working to coordinate access to state land and partner with the private se to ensure that available land is set aside for industrial development in townships.
We will also be creating industrial hubs, enterprise hubs and business parks that will be used as shared facilities for township entrepreneurs. This will not only be newly built infrastructure but will involve the renovation and refurbishment of old and unused infrastructure. We also intend to mobilise resources for township businesses by exploring various avenues such as recapitalizing the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller or creating a State Bank for Gauteng to support the township economy.
We are also exploring the possibilities of a Township Economy Bond and provincial incentives for township based industries. Market access was consistently cited as a prerequisite for a vibrant small business sector in the interactions we had with township entrepreneurs. We must support township businesses to produce quality goods that can be consumed by the government and the private sector.
As a start we will use government procurement to do this but because the intention is to build self sufficient and enduring enterprises, we must also ensure that various businesses that supply goods and services to government are also engaged in township supplier development.
Another important aspect is entrepreneurship development in areas such as skills training in invoicing, productivity support, bookkeeping, sourcing as well as interpersonal and customer relations. Lastly, we are also looking at incentives to build manufacturing and production capacity in our townships. This is important in light of the imperative to move township businesses from strictly intermediary economic activity to being producers and manufacturers in their own right and gaining a foothold in the value chains.
These commitments are contained in the Township Economic Revitalisation Strategy that was adopted in the summit held in October 2014.
9. How do we continually measure the success of the programme and account diligently?
The commitments and decisions we made towards transforming township economies require close monitoring to track implementation and progress. All spheres of government will be continuously engaged in increasing interaction with township enterprises and co-operatives.
Beyond this we will also establish dedicated capacity for township economy within the Gauteng City Region and a high-level inter-government working group to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the Strategy. I am convinced that with unity of purpose and collective effort we will achieve the objectives of our campaign.
KASIBIZ MAHALA STAFF WRITER
