Removing stumbling blocks for business is great, but let’s make sure the solution doesn’t trip us up, writes Nicola Mawson.
I recently had to brave the thought of dealing with what many people consider the ignominy of transacting with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA).
And I was pleasantly surprised when I realised I could resolve most of the pain online. However, it wasn’t as easy as it looks, or should be. That’s where our government departments are failing citizens and small businesses: red tape.
The last time I had to deal with Home Affairs was three years ago, and involved taking two separate days off work just to get a smart ID and my little one’s birth certificate.
I spent one day queuing to simply hand in the application, pay and go through biometrics, and went back a while later to collect - spending another day in a queue and taking a day off.
So, I was very pleased to be able to deal with all of these issues online. Except, it’s not that straightforward.
The internet has plenty of news about banks easing Home Affairs’ burden and streamlining processes for South Africans. Do you think I could find a link to the e-site without asking my bank for help?
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Once online, thankful I can now do this admin in my spare time and not take time off, I was impressed at the security.
It’s very clear that the South African Revenue Service - brought in to help Home Affairs after it cancelled a contract for its modernisation programme with Gijima - had left a footprint. The look and feel is much like that of e-filing.
Except, the integration is not quite there. There is, for example, a button to print your application, but you can’t. You can pay online, but only when you go through more hoops and call centres to find out where the &^%$$ approval button has been hidden on your online banking site.
And then, you need to print a form to take with you. Which is all and well, except my built-in Adobe Acrobat is apparently incompatible with the one DHA wants me to use inside Chrome. So, to save more grey hairs, I resorted to Internet Explorer - yes, I know. A few hours of a Sunday lost, but - in a way - cheap at the price.
PPPs
This isn’t the only public-private partnership between banks and government that seeks to make our lives easier. Take, for example, the much-vaunted tie-up between the Companies and Intellectual Property Office and FNB - and other banks to follow.
I was at the FNB launch. It promised to be groundbreaking, speedy, accurate and make life easier for anyone who wanted to register a small business.
So, I tested it. It wasn’t quick. It was painful. I eventually - even though I still have a bank card in that test company’s numerical name - gave up. Someone else I know had a company registered; except it was in someone else’s ID number, in his name the mind boggles.
Someone else I know is arguing with the City of Johannesburg over an electricity bill that can only be justified through his running a foundry in his backyard. (And that’s after the multi-million SAP implementation was already a few years old, and the issue apparently sorted.)
Except, that doesn’t explain the fact that the meter readers and the city have two different sets of readings, and miscellaneous credits have been lodged against the account - which he didn’t pay.
If we, as a country, want any chance to encourage a thriving small and medium enterprise sector, and entrepreneurs, which will create jobs and help grow our economy, we have to go back to basics.
Yes, implement online systems, systems that people without internet can access at a help centre. Yes, remove red tape. Please do, but do it properly. Test it first. On everything.
Don’t build it so that people get frustrated and don’t renew a passport and miss that meeting. It’s a small part of growing our economy, but we need to build things that allow businesses to work properly, because that’s what will entice investment.
Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report. Follow her on Twitter @NicolaMawson or Business Report @busrep