Parliament's portfolio committee on small business development on Wednesday lashed out at the Department of Small Business Development for repeatedly failing to appear before it over the outcome of a co-operatives incentive scheme.
The committee said it "did not take kindly" a request by the department, led by Minister Lindiwe Zulu, to be given more time to visit all co-operatives first.
"Although there are 400 co-operatives that were assisted, we expect the department to at least know how many of them will be ready to benefit from the 30 percent government procurement policy starting from 1 April, 2017.
"In our view, the department misunderstands its own mandate and is running without a clear strategy on how to develop co-operatives,” said committee chairwoman Ruth Bhengu.
"The committee maintains that the mandate of the department is neither dispensing incentive grants nor conducting monitoring and evaluation. It is to champion development of co-operatives for the benefit of communities in the economy."
Bhengu said the department should "get rid of the attitude of working in isolation", and work with local economic development offices in district and local municipalities because each of the co-operatives was located in a particular ward of a municipality.
The department carried on as if "business is usual" while co-operatives had a failure rate of at least 80 percent, which was a grave concern, she said.
"The department is obsessed with the use of consultancy and each time we need information, they tell us that they will first appoint consultants to gather information, analyse it and bring it to the committee.
"The other problem is that it does not regard itself as part of the entire government structure, including the provincial and local sphere.
"The committee has resolved to invite the Minister of Small Business Development (Lindiwe Zulu) to raise issues of concern in relation to the department’s failure to execute its mandate of contributing to the creation of 90 percent of the 11 million new jobs by 2030, as outlined in the National Development Plan."