The DA was shocked earlier this week when the Department of Small Business Development proudly tweeted the following quote from Minister Stella Ndabeni Abrahams’s speech at their roadshow in Mpumalanga “[as] government, we have a responsibility to enforce regulatory compliance in the SMME sector and close businesses that are trading illegally.” With the South African economy still reeling from the unscientific ANC lockdown regulations, and the unemployment rate at a record 46.6%, the last thing SMMEs need to hear is that the Minister of Small Business Development will be leading the witch hunt against business owners who don’t comply with government red tape. This strategy is in stark contrast to remarks by the President, who when speaking at an engagement with SMMEs last year said that it is critical for the government to support SMMEs with new business processes that help them recover.
29 Januarie 2021 06:09 31-08-2020 NETWERK24 NUUS Onderhoud met die skrywer, Emile Joubert, oor sy nuwe bundel kortverhale getiteld, So Byna Blou. Foto s geneem by The Book Lounge in Roelandstraat, Kaapstad. Foto: Jaco Marais.
“A sign of a state being successful in its striving towards totalitarianism lies not so much in its implementation of laws and regulations deemed important to control its population as it does in its duping the populace into believing that this enforcement is necessary. As Iranian-American academic and author Azar Nafisi wrote: ‘The worst crime committed by totalitarian mindsets is that they force their citizens, including their victims, to become complicit in their crimes.’”