The Small Business Institute (SBI) has implored government to urgently revise regulations that are preventing small businesses from operating during the continuing Covid-19-related lockdown.

In an open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the SBI says the harm being done to the economy as a result of the regulations cannot be justified; that there is no discernible link between many of the regulations and the stated aim of protecting people from transmitting the Covid-19 virus to each other and keeping hospitals from being inundated with Covid-19-positive patients.

The institute says that while it acknowledges that leaders in all tiers of government are having to make difficult decisions, its duty as an organisation is to speak out on behalf of its members – business chambers, informal business organisations and small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs).

The SBI says it believes that within certain guidelines and within reason, this constituency should be allowed to open and run its businesses so that they and their 3.9-million employees can earn a living.

It notes that SMMEs make up 98.5% of the number of firms in the economy, and further, owing to their size, are well placed to manage physical distancing and practice hygienic care.

“With fewer employees than large corporations, they can better communicate, train and ensure good habits of hygiene and physical distancing to protect themselves and the customers they serve. At the very least, they should be allowed to pivot their businesses, where possible, to trade online without further delay,” avers the SBI.

“Certainly the micro and small businesses, the most vulnerable in the economy, should be allowed to reopen – as well as the many, if not more, informal businesses of the same size.

"The business owners we hear from all express a willingness to work within the confines of rational regulations designed to protect our health and the capacity of our health system,” the SBI notes.

It adds that, even prior to the lockdown, the country had fared poorly in the ‘ease of doing business’ and other indices, attributing this to “unnecessary or misguided regulations”.

“Give small businesses (and their customers) sufficient information to assess and mitigate their own risks, staff their operations accordingly, put health and safety concerns above all others. Let people work. Let businesses get on with the important work of driving the economy.

"If we unlock small businesses now, we will [avoid] the catastrophic damage to our economy of a prolonged lockdown,” the SBI says.