By OBAKENG MAJE
The chairperson of Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development, Faiez Jacobs said they are grateful that, there is a progress by the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) in implementing the committee’s recommendations made concerning the Spaza Shop Support Programme (SSSP) and Intellimatch Financial Services (Pty) Ltd (IFS).
The committee raised concerned during an oversight visit to the North West, it was discovered that, although all the identified clients (spaza shop owners) received their R3500 COVID-19 relief grant between 2020 and 2021, a lot of them did not receive an additional grant of R7000, 00 which was disbursed in 2022.
Jacobs said the committee recommended that SEFA should follow up and provide feedback. He said according to SEFA, all outstanding beneficiaries in North West were traced and subsequently received their R7000.
“The agency briefed the committee that only 60 out of 5440 nationally are yet to receive their grant, which amounts to a 99% disbursement rate. SEFA said that efforts are ongoing to trace the remaining 60 beneficiaries nationally.
“Although there is still room to improve, the committee has welcomed the progress in implementing its recommendations. This progress has highlighted the importance of oversight, which results in meaningful interventions and policy change,” said Jacobs.
He further said they want to see spaza shops owned by South Africans and are looking forward to seeing the implementation of a national programme that will ensure bulk buying from manufacturers to create distribution centres that will supply South African-owned spaza shops in provinces and districts. Jacobs added that the government should also protect spaza shops from encroachment by multinational corporations.
“On the IFS, an agreement was made between SEFA and IFS for it to provide wholesale funding to clients in the manufacturing sector. It received R30 million from SEFA by March 2022, which was guaranteed by its holding company, namely Tautona Holdings.
“However, funds were misappropriated and did not reach the intended beneficiaries. The committee then recommended that SEFA make a follow-up and provide feedback,” he said.
Jacobs said against this backdrop, SEFA briefed the committee that legal proceedings have commenced to recover the whole R30 million against IFS and Tautona. He said that the committee welcomes SEFA’s interventions as it wants to see zero tolerance for corruption.
“There should be consequences for stealing from the state because we want to see clean governance and accountability.
“The committee will continue watching the space around micro-finance to ensure that loans continue to be disbursed at an affordable 5% interest. We encourage recipients to repay their loans so that other entrepreneurs can also benefit,” said Jacobs.
The Guardian 