SMD

Annual Report 2023/2024

2. Through the Co-operatives Development Support Programme, we will assist 40 clients with machinery, implements and stock during 2024/25 financial year. An amount of R 73 million is available for this purpose. 3. Seda’s next report to the Portfolio Committee will also indicate the number of Co-operatives, informal businesses and SMMEs that were supported by the entity. The Department started from quarter two (2023/24 financial year) to provide the disaggregated data in its quarterly reports, providing the equity information, outlining the designated groups supported. Going forward, working with the sefa and Seda that

Matters raised by the Portfolio Committee Department’s response

The breakdown of sefa ’s funded clients by their legal status is attached. This information relates to the 2022/23 financial year (Annexure A) Seda acknowledges the request to distinguish between SMMEs and Cooperatives. Seda for the past five years has been reporting on both SMMEs and Cooperatives as a single indicator. The organisation has put the following measures in place: 1. Distinguishing between SMMEs and Cooperatives by setting targets for Co-operatives.

are the Department’s implementing agencies, the Department will improve from just providing the equity information to providing the type of enterprises assisted, and/or distinguish co-operatives, informal traders, spaza shop owners from typical small enterprises registered under the Companies Act.

clear picture of how resources are distributed equitably among regions. sefa has begun to perform a terrific job in this area.

The Committee records that when the Department appeared before it on 29 April 2022 to present its

2022/23 annual performance plan, it had directed that in all quarterly and annual reports, the Department

and entities must disaggregate the type of enterprises assisted, and/or distinguish co-operatives, informal

traders, spaza shop owners from typical small enterprises registered under the Companies Act. This guidance

was for the Department and agencies to execute with immediate effect. However, in the annual reports under consideration, the Portfolio continues to put emphasis

on the number of “competitive SMMEs and Co-operatives supported” without providing the Committee with a thorough breakdown as asked.

The Committee believes that this type of reporting methodology conceals the narrow and asymmetric

distribution of resources between small enterprises, which are mostly private businesses registered under

the Companies, and social enterprises registered under the Co-operatives Act, and informal traders registered

under the Municipal Bylaws. Furthermore, aggregating beneficiaries in terms of the provinces rather than regions or district municipalities does not provide a

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Department of Small Business Development • GOVERNANCE • Part C