Racial Equity Small Enterprise Recovery Project
This project is aimed at coordinating activities aimed at assisting businesses that have been affected by the civil unrest in KZN that caused substantial loss to businesses. The Racial Equity Enterprise Recovery Project, therefore, is based on three themes:
Economic recovery: The effects of the protests and looting are still very much prevalent, well beyond the looting itself. The focus now shifts toward assisting businesses and providing them with the means necessary to return, to as far an extent as possible, to their state before the unrest.
Job creation/retention: The economic impact of COVID-19 on its own has been severe. Our economy can only recover if people are working and are able to generate an income. A big part of the intervention, therefore, is to support businesses and lend towards creating sustainable livelihoods.
Community wellness: A concept that is central to this theme is the dignity of black people who are at the centre of economic exclusion in this country. The project will therefore aim to contribute toward a collective dignity, one in which each individual shares, and one which captures the spirit of each household and the community to which they are intimately connected.
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
The provinces of Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu Natal have recently been hit by a heavy wave of protests and widespread looting of local businesses which caused businesses to suffer substantial losses. The high incidence of looting reflects the deeper underlying socioeconomic issues in South Africa, with rampant inequality reaching fever pitch as a consequence of the increased lockdown restrictions that were recently imposed. These restrictions have led to the temporary closure of many businesses, preventing scores of already economically marginalised black South Africans from earning an income.
Many of the businesses affected by the looting are black-owned, with reports indicating that a substantial number of township businesses and those operating in the informal sector close to the city centres have been worst hit by the looting.
With the unrest slowly dissipating, the focus now shifts to repairing and rebuilding what’s been broken. For many, who have experienced immeasurable loss, this task seems impossible. For others, whose property has been damaged, who have suffered losses that are more readily quantifiable, there exists an opportunity for redress – an opportunity to restore, at least in part, what has been lost.
Impact
The overarching impact will be facilitating the survival of businesses that are, in many cases, the pillars of their communities as employers and institutions of commerce. For most South African black communities, opportunities for opening up businesses are hamstrung by layers of red tape and multiple barriers to access. For community members, poor job prospects underpinned by poor educational outcomes means that once a job is lost, it is unlikely to be regained. It is therefore important that we identify the few entrepreneurs that have – against significant odds – managed to open up businesses; and also assist those that had a form of employment, to regain that job if possible.
