Since the Corona Virus Lockdown twelve days ago, I have received a flood of What’s App messages, having been added to a restaurant group (Hospitality Leadership) by a restaurateur. I have observed the concerned restaurant owners move from jumping to turn their businesses into take-away food delivery operations, until that door was closed to the industry; to keeping their staff paid and covering their own expenses by applying to the UIF and other Corona Financial support packages announced by the government; to looking into the future and making plans for their businesses reopening, even though not many are optimistic that it will happen on the 17th of April.

One of the pieces of information which the What’s App group members received was a summary of relief funding for small and medium enterprises. The details follow below.

A survey conducted by Phaphamasedi amongst 233 entrepreneurs around the country showed that small business owners are predominantly female, employ 6 staff on average, and that the majority do not receive a Government grant. Almost each one of the entrepreneurs surveyed cannot afford to pay staff, half do not think that their businesses will survive the Corona Virus Lockdown, and almost all have no alternative or additional income.

An Infographic summarised the relief available to businesses affected by the COVID-19 Lockdown, subject to conditions, which includes the following:

#  Tourism Relief Fund : R200 million to assist SMMEs in the tourism and hospitality industry

#  COVID-19 TERS: Emergency relief for employers to pay staff temporarily laid off

#  Spaza Shop Support Scheme: seed capital for bulk buying

#  SMME Relief Finance Scheme: ‘soft-loan’ funding

#  Tax System Relief: delays in tax payments allowed.

#   South African Future Trust: interest-free loans to staff, employers having to pay back the loans

#  Sukuma Relief Programme: R25000 grants for sole proprietors, Loans and grants for close corporations, companies and trusts.

#   Banks: Payment holidays for 3 months for small enterprise customers.

Packages are available for NGOs too.

However, it was found that the majority of the respondent entrepreneurs are not aware of where to go for emergency funding. Almost half would qualify for COVID-19 Disaster UIF funding, and about a quarter for Tourism Relief funding.

Barriers to funding for local small businesses are the tight requirements, the differences between grants and loans are not always clear, foreign-owned businesses employing locals do not qualify, and the time lag between application and receipt of the funding.

Based on its survey, the company conducting the survey made the following recommendations regarding funding small businesses during the Corona Virus Lockdown:

1. Relax eligibility requirements
2. Funding should be as accessible as possible
3. Funds should be available within seven days of application
4. More grant funding should be available
5. Small businesses need a collective voice.

 

This afternoon I will be joining a SA Tourism Zoom conference on ‘Unpacking SMME Relief Packages, Focus on SA Tourism Fund’, and will report on it by means of a Postscript to this post.

 

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein