Cape Town - The ANC had cultivated an “anti-small business” environment in favour of politically connected big businesses, DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said on Monday.
Addressing a press conference to launch the DA’s plan to build a nation of entrepreneurs, Mazibuko said SA’s failure to grow the economy and create jobs was, in part, a failure to cultivate a nation of entrepreneurs.
While countries with growing economies and decreasing unemployment levels had all unleashed the entrepreneurial spirit of citizens, the entrepreneurial spirit of South Africans was being crushed by red tape and bureaucracy, with SA ranking 44th in the world for “ease of starting a business”, she said.
Mazibuko said SA’s ranking by the World Economic Forum of 112th in terms of the “burden of government regulation” and 114th in terms of “favouritism in decisions of government officials” had the effect of protecting a small group of large firms. “The ANC has created a class of tenderpreneurs – people who work purely to get big state contracts based on their connections in government,” she said.
Mazibuko said it took 19 days and five procedures to start a business in SA, whereas in New Zealand it would take one procedure and one day.