Development finance and SMME support

Small businesses are thriving on the Wild Coast.

the eThekwini Furniture Cluster. The programme has resulted in 45 black-owned SMMEs signing commercial agreements with leading manufacturers, delivering R3.6-million in new market opportunities and 250 new jobs. The intention is to be supporting 2 000 SMMEs by 2025, with 200 new contracts in place with the formal manufacturing sector.

The Enterprise and Supplier Development programme of the Wild Coast Sun is having a big impact.

Self-taught graphic designer Siphokazi Nogojela has seen her business, Poshy A Printing and Branding, grow tremendously since she teamed up with the hotel who provided her small business with an industrial printing machine and access to training. She now employs five staff members between her offices at Msizazwe and Wild Coast Sun.

Having worked at Wild Coast Sun as a seamstress, Pamela Gumede submitted a business plan to the hotel in 2021 and now GPN Amangunie Trading Company employs four seamstresses from a rent-free space within the complex. Her latest order is for 700 sheets and 1 700 pillows.

Since an SMME conference was hosted at the Wild Coast Sun in 2022, Sun International has put about 15 new SMMEs on its books as new suppliers and businesses which it supports.

At Africa’s Travel Indaba in May 2022, 22 local SMMEs were invited to display their offerings to 3 700 South African, African and overseas delegates and guests.

As part of the cluster initiative of the eThekwini Municipality, there is a specific SMME programme called Business Accelerators. These are sector-specific and run by the Durban Chemicals Cluster, Durban Automotive Cluster, KZN Clothing and Textiles Cluster and

The provincial government’s Sukuma 100 000 surpassed its target by creating 137 000 job opportunities in 2021, with all government departments participating in focussing on opportunities for youth employment. Examples of companies that received support under the project are Gelanison Agric, an agricultural initiative that produces high-value crops using the hydroponic system, and AdNotes, a telecommunications company which is 100% black and youthowned. The company received funding from the KZN Youth Fund and provides Internet services in the Ugu and King Cetshwayo Districts and eThekwini Metro.

Funding options

Operation Vula Fund is an SMME grant funding scheme run by the

KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DEDTEA). A total of 1 016 applications worth R339.2-million were approved for funding in the first window in various sectors of the economy.

In the year to 31 December 2022, the Ithala Development Finance Corporation disbursed R146-million to 293 SMMEs and co-operatives. This created 1 297 job opportunities.

For the 2023/24 financial year the Youth Fund will deploy R100million to support businesses that are seen to create jobs. The provincial government is teaming up with Sumitomo to create smart centres and co-operatives to be run by young people. The intention is to promote local economic growth in the tyre sector.

Funding from the National Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s (dtic) Black Industrialist Programme and from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) secured 70% of Newcastlebased Boschpick Engineering for entrepreneurs Bongani Khumalo and Phillip Majali and their company Lipsobex. The IDC provides finance across a range of sectors, from agriculture to tourism.

The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) is active in supporting entrepreneurs. Seda gives non-financial support through training, assistance with filling in forms, marketing and creating business plans.

In KwaZulu-Natal, Seda runs 12 Incubators which either help new businesses get started or with the rehabilitation of existing enterprises. Three models are used: Technology Demonstration Centres (demonstration and training); Technology Incubators (where the focus is rehabilitation); Hybrid Centres, which combine elements of the other two models. The KwaZulu-Natal incubators include ICT and construction (three centres each), furniture and hi-tech (two each) and chemicals and essential oils.

Digital know-how is potentially going to make a big difference for the business that Zamalinda Mbatha runs. Her skincare products are made from natural products found where she lives in KwaDukuza but unemployment in the area is high so local sales are limited. With a SETA-accredited ICT certificate in hand, she intends to build her own website for her skincare products business and grow her market online. The one-year course from which Zamalinda graduated was run by the iLembe ICT project.

Sappi is helping honey-makers make money. A project run jointly by Sappi and the African Honey Bee programme is supporting about 100 beekeepers in Northern KwaZulu-Natal and encouraging them

Online Resources

National Department of Small Business Development: www.dsbd.gov.za

SA SME Fund: www.sasmefund.co.za

Small Enterprise Development Agency: www.seda.co.za to invest in sources of income such as vegetable gardens that can keep their families going between honey harvests. A benefit to Sappi is that fires which used to be used as a method of smoking out bees has largely been eliminated, reducing the risk to Sappi’s plantation assets.

The sugar industry’s R1-billion, five-year plan to transform the sector will have positive spinoffs for small-scale growers and distributors.

Contributions from millers and growers have allowed for sums of R165million (transformation) and R60-million (Value Chain Masterplan) to be allocated as the first part of the scheme. National government supported these measures with initiatives of its own, including providing input vouchers to small-scale growers. The aim is to reach up to 250 000 small-scale farmers (including the 21 000 contributing to the sugarcane value chain), in partnership with the private sector. ■