Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism
- (a) What percentage of the provincial gross domestic product is contributed by SMMEs, (b) what sources of data are used to generate the response and (c) from which sectors of the economy does that contribution come;
- (a) what is the target growth of SMME in the G4J Strategy in (i) numbers and (ii) sectors of the provincial economy and (b)(i) what are the plans to achieve those results and (ii) which department or departments are responsible for implementing, coordinating, reporting and measuring this target?
- a) Western Cape-specific figure for the contribution of SMMEs to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is not reported in readily available sources. However, this information is reported for South Africa as a whole. According to the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD), South Africa’s SMMEs contribute 40 per cent towards the country's GDP.
- The source of this figure is the DSBD's final 'SMMEs and Co-operatives Funding Policy for South Africa', published in the Government Gazette on 13 February 2025.
- The DSBD further explains in the document that the vast majority (84 per cent) of MSMEs (as they refer to them) operate in either the personal services (e.g. hairdressing, landscaping, auto repair) or wholesale/retail trade sectors of the economy.
2) a) (i) The target growth for SMMEs in the G4J Strategy is best reflected by the PFA 7 goal of increasing the entrepreneurship rate by 5% by 2030. (ii) The Strategy is sector-agnostic, meaning it does not prioritise specific sectors. Rather, it aims to create conditions that enable growth across all sectors of the economy.
(i) PFA 7 of the Strategy aims to increase entrepreneurship and, thus, grow the number of SMMEs.
PFA 7's entrepreneurship pathway has two theme outcomes: 1) Enhanced positive entrepreneurship culture and small and micro-business start-up guidance, and 2) Improved sustainability of small and micro businesses (formal and informal). There are seven specific interventions for these themes, which are outlined in the Implementation Plan, under the section on the entrepreneurship pathway. An example of one of the planned interventions is improving access to and take-up of procurement opportunities for SMMEs.
The G4J Strategy envisions that the Western Cape is seen as the best location to inspire and develop new businesses and grow and sustain existing SMMEs, as stated in PFA 7. This speaks to the principle of creating an enabling environment that underlies the Strategy, wherein government is an enabler of the economy, creating a conducive, enabling environment supporting private-sector growth and providing support in the realisation of private-sector-led opportunities that ultimately generate jobs. The Strategy is explicit in saying that private-sector involvement includes entrepreneurs; small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs); and the informal and township economies. In this way, the whole of the G4J Strategy and all of the PFAs support the growth of SMMEs.
(ii) The interventions aiming to increase entrepreneurship are primarily led by DEDAT, with support
from the G4J cluster, with Provincial Treasury co-leading on the intervention regarding procurement opportunities for SMMEs. As the lead for PFA 7, DEDAT is also responsible for reporting and measuring the target of increasing the entrepreneurship rate by 5% by 2030.
