The Department of Small Business Development has been chastised by the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development for a lack of capacity and poor performance.
Committee chairperson Ruth Bhengu on Friday said that the department had failed to “champion the development” of small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) and cooperatives to place them in a position to create 9.9-million new jobs by 2030.
“The pro-poor agenda of radical economic transformation is being compromised by the Department of Small Business Development, Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) and Small Enterprise Development Agency,” Bhengu explained.
This followed a March oversight visit to Mpumalanga, which led to the discovery of alleged suspicious acts in the department’s Cooperative Incentive Scheme and Sefa’s funding.
The visit had sparked a further probe into the matter.
“Although both the department and Sefa had committed to institute internal audits in response to the recommendations of the committee, only the board of Sefa has conducted forensic investigation and will present the report to the committee next week Wednesday,” Bhengu concluded.