Before the declaration of National State of Disaster, Cabinet approved the Township and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme (TREP) on the 4th of March 2020 as a programme to support township and rural entrepreneurship. After the National Treasury reprioritised the national budget to fund the priorities that directly assisted the country to respond and mitigate against the impact of Covid-19 pandemic both on health and livelihoods of South Africans, the Department like most others was required to reprioritised its revised allocation in line with priorities focus areas. The Department in its priority interventions included the TREP as a priority programme that is funded through the adjusted Budget. The following interventions under TREP were implemented jointly with the agencies (Seda and sefa):
In addition, the department also implemented the Informal Business Support programmes that prioritised businesses located in townships and rural areas, such as:
Therefore, the suspension of the Township Entrepreneurship Fund has not suspended the Department’s support to township and rural based businesses in a form of a dedicated programme.