Johannesburg - The culture of tenderpreneurship has pushed this country backwards by denying proper small businesses space to derive economic benefits.
Oscar Siziba, Absa managing executive for Gauteng North, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, told tender beneficiaries to rid themselves of their tenderpreneurial mentality yesterday at the Tshwane SMME Fair 2016 at the CSIR in Pretoria.
The metro’s Economic Development Agency hosted the two-day conference for a third year in a row.
Participants were mainly township small business owners.
The key focus was on enterprise development programmes to assist small businesses with financial and non-financial support.
Criticising tender practices, Siziba said tenders were not actually proper business but just activities. As soon as the contract has come to an end that type of business stops.
He told the audience that Absa didn’t fund tenders; but businesses.
Small business operators had to craft proper business plans for viable entities capable of creating employment, he said.
“Money is not an issue; the issue is about whether we have the entrepreneurial spirit in our communities. Do we have people with skills to create jobs and big businesses?” he said.
Subesh Pillay, MMC for Economic Development and Planning, said young people should not look down on business opportunities in the green economy.
“Dumping sites are gold mines. Think critically about the opportunities you want to pursue. How can you begin to have a footprint in this sector?” he asked.
Subesh said the responsibility of the city was not only to procure goods and services from small businesses but to also create access to markets for them.
He lamented the fact that many malls in the townships were run by foreigners and not locals.
“What has compounded the stranglehold for local entrepreneurs is the proliferation of shopping malls in the townships replacing old township general dealers, grocery shops and bazaars as well as informal food and grocery outlets” he said.
Strong economies and successful nations were developed over a long period through sustained investment in people, productive capabilities and ensuring the greatest degree of participation by people in all forms of economic activities, he said.
“The perceived potential of small businesses to create employment has caused governments in many countries to pay more attention to this sector,” he said.
Edwin Sibiya, founder of Lesira-Teq Intelligent Metering, talked about how he started a small business 19 years ago by installing some technology into a water meter to reflect the amount of money owed by a customer.
Before his initiative, water meters used to show meaningless numbers on the meter readings to consumers.
Sibiya said that developing a flourishing business didn’t happen overnight. “It took a lot of passion and commitment to keep it afloat,” he said.
THE STAR