The Mayor of Ekurhuleni Mzwandile Masina on Tuesday said the city has set aside R12-billion to ensure youth owned businesses and small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) position themselves as capable and preferred service providers to government.
“The money will be ring-fenced to create procurement opportunities for local entrepreneurs, service providers and enterprises, especially businesses run by young people, people with disability and women,” said Masina.
“Out of this R12-billion, the City of Ekurhuleni has made a commitment to ensure that not less than R1-billion will be spent per annum on 500 youth owned enterprises, R500-million per annum on 100 emerging construction companies and over R500-million on Black Industrialists.
“The remaining R10-billion will be used for general strategic procurement from emerging black businesses and community enterprises as part of the policy to transform economic participation.”
Masina said the city was mindful of the reality that many emerging companies continue to experience challenges in surviving the business market because of structural constraints in accessing capital and sustainable markets.
He said the municipality systems were now being upgraded to ensure payments to SMMEs are done within 15 days from the day all documentation has been submitted.
“We have made it our business to ensure that small businesses are paid far quicker because if that is not done, we risk collapsing them due to lack of capital. We have seen how many businesses went under in the past due to non-payment and we are not prepared to repeat such trends.”
