Today I am going to focus on township businesses.
When the capitalists realised that apartheid was falling, they formed an employers’ union with the plan to retrench as many workers as possible. It was a strategy to sabotage the future democratic government.
I don’t think that we can trust them now to create jobs for the victims of apartheid. Capitalism strives from the poverty of the masses. Although the rate of unemployment rises every day, the capitalists and small foreign businesses have flooded the townships where the poor live and have taken over the economy.
I think the best way to create jobs is to promote entrepreneurship among the poor. I will divide entrepreneurship into self-employed and entrepreneurs.
There are few types of street businesses but they almost all sell food just to put food on the table. Others walk long distances selling food on the streets.
Vilakazi Street is Mzansi’s heritage Street. I think it would be proper and more suitable for its history if the street is turned into an economic empowerment centre rather than an entertainment zone in front of churches and schools. Local businesses don’t have access of goods to sell (only basic food) and therefore cannot compete with big businesses and small foreign businesses who have plenty of goods.
To economically empower small local businesses, I think we need entrepreneurs who will search, find and create profitable materials for the self-employed to sell.
Entrepreneurs must be helped to raise funds for their projects. They can be required to submit two business plans.
It will be a self-employed plan (that needs small start-up funding) to raise funds for the entrepreneur's projects, or they can be given government tenders, or helped find contract work from big companies. I think in this way they will learn to be more economic.
The Star