South Africa is preparing to host BRICS Business Forum in Sandton while its own black entrepreneurs remain unfunded, unprotected and structurally peripheral to the very opportunity being celebrated
By Zola Phila :
I have worked inside government. I have written ministerial performance reports, strategic plans and budget vote inputs. I have prepared parliamentary questions alongside technical officials and directors-general who were custodians of public funds — where ministers presented political direction but had no authority to interfere with procurement, programme design or financial accountability.
I know what functional government looks like from the inside. And I know what it sounds like when it stops functioning. That was not a different country. That was a different standard.
This article applies that standard to the present. It does not demand the impossible. It demands what serious governance has always required: if a minister announces a programme, a fund, a deadline or a conference, the public is entitled to measurable evidence of delivery. Let us call a spade a spade.
A Department That Was Never Built
The Department of Small Business Development was created during the Zuma administration. Its first minister, Lindiwe Zulu, occupied the portfolio from 2014 until 2021. She announced programme after programme across successive budget votes:
Black Business Supplier Development Programme (BBSDP) — R245 million to R256 million per year
Cooperatives Incentive Scheme (CIS) — R75 million to R78 million per year
National Informal Business Upliftment Strategy (NIBUS) — R96 million to R99 million per year
Enterprise Incubation Programme (EIP) — R46 million to R49 million per year
National Gazelles Programme — only 40 to 80 companies supported at any time
R2.1 billion SMME and Innovation Fund — announced 2018, operationalisation promised for 2019
€52 million European Union (EU)-funded programme — launched April 2018
Business Rescue Strategy — R84 million set aside
30% procurement set-asides, Red Tape Reduction Programme, Centres for Entrepreneurship (CfE) in TVET colleges
A decade of announcements. But where is the institutional architecture to track, verify and report outcomes? Zulu’s own 2017 briefing acknowledged “significant implementation challenges” in NIBUS. The R2.1 billion SMME Fund was announced with disbursements planned for 2019/20 — then she was moved. No public accounting followed.
The department maintained unqualified audit opinions throughout. But clean bookkeeping is not the same as functional delivery.
What Stella Inherited — and What She Did With It
When Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams inherited the department, she inherited an institution that had never been properly built.
She did not build it either.
TREP — Zulu’s programme — remains the flagship.
The pattern continued: new names, new funds, new launches, same absence of public accountability infrastructure.
What was announced:
R500 million Spaza Shop Support Fund
R300 million Peo Pele Youth Fund
R300 million Imbali for Her Fund for women-owned enterprises
R150 million Creative Sector Fund
OneSEDFA digital platform
Business Licensing Bill
Expanded Township and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme (TREP)
What was delivered:
Spaza Shop Support Fund: only approximately R44.57 million disbursed. Less than 9%. The remaining R455 million sits undelivered.
Peo Pele Youth Fund: Not a single cent disbursed. Launched June 2026. Outcomes only expected months after the application window closes.
Imbali for Her Fund: No disbursement data published.
Creative Sector Fund: Not yet launched.
TREP: approximately 2,500 enterprises reached between 2020 and 2024. Repayment compliance between 20% in manufacturing and 50% in services.
OneSEDFA: announced twice. No launch date.
Business Licensing Bill: “finished consultations.” Not tabled. No timeline.
If the department can generate posters, speeches and social media packages, it can generate a public accountability register.
The ANC Does Not Remove. It Relocates.
This is not a new pattern. It is the culture.
Ndabeni-Abrahams broke COVID-19 lockdown rules in April 2020 by attending a lunch at former deputy minister Mduduzi Manana’s home. President Ramaphosa placed her on special leave — two months, one unpaid. She was charged, pleaded guilty, paid a R1,000 fine and received a criminal record.
She was then appointed Minister of Small Business Development.
Khusela Diko, who as Presidential Spokesperson issued the censuring statement, was herself forced into leave of absence three months later after her husband was awarded a R125 million PPE contract from the Gauteng Department of Health. The SIU found she had failed to disclose her financial interests. She was given a written warning and moved to “a different position in the public service.”
The ANC does not remove. It relocates. Scandals do not end careers. They reassign them. And the institution never gets fixed because the person changes but the pattern continues.
Parliament Failed Too — and Still Does
Under former Speaker Baleka Mbete, Parliament failed to hold the executive accountable. The Zondo Commission found Parliament “incapable of preventing another State Capture attempt.” Mbete testified she did not act on a document outlining Arms Deal corruption because “Parliament is very busy.”
The Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development has its own shameful record. Committee members have repeatedly requested lists of funding beneficiaries. The department has refused, citing the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
But the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) — a state entity under the dtic — publishes its beneficiaries by name, province, sector and funding amount. Dozens of companies are listed: Magna Sumus, Thamoga Oil, Rikatec, Procurex Advisory, South Hill Trading, Akwanez Enterprises — each with funding amount, purpose and repayment status. If the NEF can publish named beneficiaries, the Department of Small Business Development can too. The opacity is not a legal constraint. It is a political choice.
The NEF: What Is Possible — and What Was Wasted
The NEF, under CEO Philisiwe Buthelezi-Mthethwa — wife of the late former Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa — disbursed over R10.92 billion to 1,780 black-owned businesses since inception. Over R6.3 billion repaid. 143,307 jobs supported. Twenty consecutive clean external audits.
But the NEF also had a 32% impairment rate — nearly a third of funded businesses not performing. Mthethwa faced allegations of lavish spending at taxpayers’ expense, with DA MP Dean Macpherson (now Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure under the GNU) accusing her of running a “Gucci-style” operation while black entrepreneurs could not access funding. She was cleared. Her contract ended. She left on her own terms.
Meanwhile, the NEF received 8,162 applications worth R27.5 billion over five years and could not meet the demand. The state’s only development finance institution exclusively mandated to fund black-owned businesses was turning away the vast majority of applicants.
That is the reality behind the rhetoric of “black businesses are the engine of the economy.” An engine with R27.5 billion in unmet demand and a 32% failure rate is not an engine. It is a system in distress.
The R5 Million Question
Section 15 of the Immigration Act (Act No. 13 of 2002) is unambiguous. A foreign national seeking to establish a business in South Africa must:
- invest at least R5 million in cash or capital contribution, originating from outside the Republic, verified by a chartered accountant registered with SAICA, SAIPA or CIBA
- ensure at least 60% of staff are South African citizens or permanent residents, with proof submitted within 12 months
- register with SARS, UIF, COIDA and CIPC
- obtain a dtic recommendation on feasibility and national interest
- hold a valid business visa, issued for a maximum of three years, renewable subject to compliance
- submit proof of investment within 24 months and every two years thereafter
The law is clear. The question is whether it is enforced.
Only 33 business visas were approved in 2025/26. Yet over 42,000 foreign nationals applied to register businesses. In Gauteng alone, 7,071 of 12,737 operational spaza shops — 56% — are operated by foreign nationals, mainly Ethiopians, Somalis and Bangladeshis.
But here is the contradiction the government cannot explain:
The dtic’s own guidelines list “informal-trade and hawker enterprises (spaza shops, street trading)” as “undesirable” business categories for which business visas will not be issued.
Spaza shops are legally excluded from the business visa framework.
So under what legal status are 7,071 foreign nationals operating spaza shops in Gauteng alone?
If government knows this, why are they still trading?
The Cash Economy and the Tax Gap
SARS has identified 48,773 taxpayers who exceed the VAT threshold but are not registered for VAT. Only 11,988 were forcibly registered in 2025/26. R500 million was collected.
Then, in April 2026, the VAT threshold was raised from R1 million to R2.3 million — effectively removing thousands of businesses from the tax net.
Many foreign-owned businesses operate entirely in cash. No POS systems. No digital payment trails. No verifiable turnover records. Capital earned in South African townships flows out of the country through informal remittance channels with no regulatory oversight.
The state does not track it. SARS cannot verify it. The Reserve Bank does not monitor it.
This is not enforcement. This is retreat disguised as reform.
23 Children. No Prosecutions
Since 2024, at least 23 children have died from suspected food poisoning linked to products purchased from spaza shops and informal food outlets. The Public Protector, Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, found:
Gauteng municipalities functioning at less than 30% of required environmental health practitioner staffing capacity
Ekurhuleni: 5% compliance rate. Johannesburg: 14%. Tshwane: 30%
For every licensed spaza shop, almost three unlicensed ones operate without oversight
The African Diaspora Forum admitted some foreign-owned shops sold expired or inadequately labelled products
Inspectors found expired food on shelves, cockroaches in storerooms, food prepared in unhygienic conditions, and storerooms converted into sleeping quarters
Evidence of business fronting — South African citizens registering spaza shops in their names while foreign nationals actually operate them
DSBD’s own agency identified fronting, beneficiary mismatches, fraud and misrepresentation
Almost 18 months after the first child deaths — nobody has been prosecuted. All inquest dockets remain under investigation. The Ministry of Police says progress will be communicated “timeously.” The Ministry of Health has been silent.
The Inspection Architecture That Doesn’t Exist
The Standard Draft By-laws for Township, Village and Rural Economies were developed by CoGTA. As of June 2026:
Only 27 municipalities have adopted and gazetted the by-laws
99 municipalities adopted by resolution but have not gazetted — largely due to cost constraints
29 municipalities still in process
46 municipalities said they will not adopt
12 municipalities — information outstanding
The majority of South African municipalities do not have a finalised, enforceable by-law framework for spaza shops — two years after children started dying.
In 2025/26, 40,748 inspections were conducted nationally. 3,299 businesses closed. But against tens of thousands of non-compliant operators, this is barely a dent.
The DSBD announced a “nerve centre” with geo-mapping to centralise township economy data. No evidence it is operational. The Business Licensing Bill has not been tabled. OneSEDFA has no launch date.
The state has not built the system to regulate this sector. It has only built the announcements.
Davos: Photos in the Snow, Nothing on the Ground
In January 2026, the Minister travelled to Davos. She posted photos from the Swiss snow on her X account. She recorded a podcast. She gave interviews.
In her own words:
“We’ve got about an R2.9bn [budget]. If we have 2.5-million micro, small and medium enterprises and we’re talking about supporting 120,000 … that’s a tiny drop in the ocean.”
“We need the VCs, we need the angel investors. The government cannot do it alone.”
Seven months later: no outcomes published. No investors named. No projects secured. No enterprises matched. No report tabled in Parliament.
She became a social media meme — partly because of a 2020 TV blunder in which she said “I’ve never been to Switzerland. My husband has never been to Switzerland. We went to Geneva and New York…” South Africans were not laughing with her. They were laughing at the gap between a minister posting from the Swiss snow while domestic disbursement records remain opaque and children die from unregulated food.
The Distraction Pattern
The government announces a deadline. The media covers it. Citizens hear about compliance and consequences. Then a new scandal breaks — a commission, a reshuffle, a political crisis — and the previous announcement disappears from public attention.
The 20 June deadline passed. Silence.
The 28 February 2025 deadline passed. Partial data. No comprehensive enforcement report.
The Business Licensing Bill finished consultations. No tabling.
The Spaza Shop Support Fund announced R500 million. R44 million disbursed. No accountability.
The public is expected to forget. To face day-to-day survival. To stop asking.
That is not governance. That is managed amnesia.
Black Entrepreneurs Are On Their Own
South Africa has spent more than a decade telling black entrepreneurs they are “the engine of the economy.” But the engine has no fuel.
The state issues licences — including under the Ocean Economy programme — and then walks away. No developmental finance follows. No incubation. No bridge through shocks. When COVID-19 arrived, many black licence holders were told their sectors had collapsed, and funding was suspended. No relief. No alternatives.
Black entrepreneurs knock on the doors of state financiers until their fingers bleed. They get nothing. They survive without support. They face licence expiry without renewal frameworks. They watch new entrants being handed the same paper promises they once received. And now, some are looking to BRICS — to Chinese investors, to foreign capital — because the domestic system that was supposed to back them has proven unreliable, opaque and indifferent to their survival.
If South Africa’s own black entrepreneurs must look to BRICS investors for rescue because domestic enterprise systems remain incoherent, then the problem is no longer access to opportunity. It is the state’s failure to convert policy into protection, licences into enterprise, and prestige into capital.
November: Prestige Without a Pipeline
A positive and statesmanlike tone from the Presidency is welcome. But tone alone cannot substitute for disbursement records, compliance data, enforcement outcomes and a visible November plan.
In November, South Africa will host a Presidential MSME Investment Conference while also hosting or participating in high-level BRICS-linked business engagement in Sandton.
Where is the visible plan?
Where is the framework linking township and rural enterprises to BRICS market opportunities?
Where is the verified list of investment-ready South African enterprises?
Where is the public roadmap showing how South African entrepreneurs will move from domestic support into export, procurement and investment pipelines?
These tracks appear to be running in parallel. A serious country does not host Presidential and BRICS-facing business events in the same month without a clearly integrated economic story.
November Must Prove South Africa Is Serious
November must show:
alignment between Presidential and BRICS-facing business platforms
publication of funding recipients
publication of compliance outcomes
publication of health inspection results for all food-handling businesses
publication of the R5 million investment compliance record
a credible pipeline of market-ready South African MSMEs
a visible departmental strategy linking local enterprise to international market access
evidence — not atmosphere — that the department can convert a summit into transactions
No more podium first, paperwork later.
No more image before evidence.
No more parallel events without strategic alignment.
No more dead children without accountability.
No more licences without capital.
No more announcements without architecture.
No more cash economies without tax enforcement.
No more deadlines without consequences.
Publish the money.
Publish the compliance record.
Publish the health inspection results.
Publish the November plan.
Then invite the world.
Zola Pinda is a journalist, corporate affairs specialist and strategic communications professional with more than 30 years’ experience across government, business and public institutions. He has served in communications and information dissemination capacities within government, including work on ministerial performance reporting. He holds a BA in Journalism from Rhodes University and an MA in Professional and Business Communication from La Salle University, Philadelphia. He writes in his personal capacity. – @NewsSA_Online
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