Durban - As the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) prepares for the R13 billion N3 upgrade between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, small black business representatives have cautioned against being left out of the deal.
During a media briefing in Durban, Malusi Zondi, secretary-general of the Federation for Radical Economic Transformation (FFRET), said small businesses and local communities were not radicals or thugs, but sought the upliftment of small businesses and the communities.
He said because of the reluctance of “some parties” (big businesses) to come to the table, the federation had resolved to take matter into its own hands.
He said the federation’s goal was to see a clear strategy on radical economic transformation (RET) and said Sanral’s N3 Durban-to-Pietermaritzburg project would go smoothly - provided communities benefited from the project.
The federation and its affiliates apparently have no qualms about “bringing projects to a standstill”.
“The municipality and the government must have a clear strategy on RET, something both parties do not show an urgency to put in place. We want the enforcement of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act on all bid committees,” Zondi said.
The act provides for any company that wants to submit a tender to a municipality to have a minimum level 2 Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment scorecard. The 30% procurement policy of government contracts for SMEs must be reviewed in favour of an 80/20 split for black SMEs - direct sub-contracting with the municipality on 30% of projects, and not the main contractor, he said.
Zondi told the Daily News that without the implementation of the 30% Contract Participation Goal, the struggle for the upliftment of small black businesses would continue.
“We have noted with disappointment the government’s slow, if not zero, efforts in prioritising RET. The energy demonstrated by the government in introducing the Policy Framework Act was clear and concise as one that was to finally ensure the redress of the business injustices of the past and especially for young black people to gain access to mainstream economy.”
Zondi said eThekwini was the only municipality in South Africa to have implemented the radical economic transformation framework.
“If clients fail to implement this there will be problems because this act was passed in Parliament. Rich people don’t want peace and they forget that our people are poor. Transformation is not going backwards, it will continue moving forward. We’ve always indicated what we want in these projects and we understand that most of it happened before the introduction of the act. We don’t anticipate any problems in being included in the N3 project,” Zondi said.
The municipality’s acting head of communications, Mandla Nsele, said a meeting was held with the government and organised business to discuss the recent disruptions to economic activity in KZN. He said one of the decisions taken was to establish a task team resourced by business and the government. The meeting was chaired by Premier Willies Mchunu and included several MECs, mayor Zandile Gumede and heads of business .
Thami Ngidi, Mchunu’s spokesperson, said issues such as the invasion of development projects by the forum, among others, were discussed.
Ngidi said that “if you are an investor and you look at the instability caused by these invasions, you’ll be sceptical to do business with the city or any other person in a troubled area. The invasion of projects by these forums is not making things easy and foreign investors would think twice before investing in Durban”.
He said the government’s position was clear on RET. “There’s nothing in the act that says these forums should do things the way they do.
“That policy is quite radical, but if you’re engaging issues violently, that’s not going to work.”