JOHN DLUDLU: Small businesses need more than just loans to bounce back
Less red tape, prompt payment by the state and stable electricity supply would make a huge difference
It would be churlish to dismiss as insignificant the government’s latest version of a credit loan guarantee scheme — colloquially known as the Bounce Back initiative — to assist SA’s struggling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which were brutally hit by Covid-19, last July’s mayhem in two provinces and, lately, the floods that ravaged KwaZulu-Natal and parts of the Eastern Cape last month.
Last Tuesday the National Treasury announced that it had set aside R15bn to backstop loans for businesses with a maximum turnover of R100m that have been adversely affected by the floods, the earlier riots as well as the coronavirus pandemic. ..
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