The Business Licensing Bill has been met with widespread opposition. Business, civil society and informal traders have said it would:
The Minister accepted that the current version of the Bill is too crude. It is promised the revised Bill would be a "significantly improved product" from the published draft.
A new model for the registration process will be proposed which will improve the previously stated onerous process in the Bill:
"We have a significant illicit economy which is damaging the prospects of small business operators, particularly in townships. This is the economy of illegal imports, of trade in substandard products, of people who don’t pay VAT, and then compete with people who observe all these requirements." Minister Davies [1]
According to Trevor Manuel, Government has initiated the start of single business register that will include information from the South African Revenue Service (SARS), the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) and Statistics South Africa combined into one database. There have been various instances where a need for a single business register has occurred. This incorporated system would require co-ordination of the three disparate systems of records managed by these entities. There are challenges faced for such a system, such as false business registrations and fraudulently applied directors’ records, and requirements of the new Companies Act but these challenges aside, the first phase of the system of a single business register was initiated on May 4. [3]
We welcome the fact that the Bill will be redrafted. The issues of onerous administration and overburdening municipalities have been noted and promised to be revised.
However the Bill can still be perceived as inhibiting business. This perception prevails as business activities need governmental approval before they can continue. With this in mind it appears that business which is not illicit or fraudulent will still be viewed as unacceptable simply because it is not licensed.
A second point is that nothing is mentioned about the power given to inspectors. This attracted much criticism, in the first draft, as it could lead to bribery and corruption. This remains an area of concern and is not being tackled effectively.
If the reason given for the Bill is to have a single business register, there seems to be a miscommunication as this is already being developed. Why then, this Bill?
[1] http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/2013/05/16/licensing-bill-to-be-redrafted-after-avalanche-of-disapproval
[2] http://solidariteit.co.za/en/davies-must-scrap-bill-not-redraft-it/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=davies-must-scrap-bill-not-redraft-it
[3] http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=15392
23 May 2013
Eythan Morris – eythan@hsf.org.za
Intern
Helen Suzman Foundation