Minister, I must say it is a fresh breeze having you in this Ministry so I really hope that you are going to be
successful in addressing the challenges we are facing in the country.
And one of the big things that you need to address is to ensure that across government departments we make it easier for businesses to function. The uFiling system that has been rolled out by the Department of Employment and Labour is an absolute nightmare for small businesses. It was difficult to get registered, and then the system went offline and now the small businesses that are being visited by the Department of Employment and Labour officials that are being held accountable for not being on the system and then when they ask these officials, "please come and assist us," these officials say, "but listen, they haven't received training even." There is this one business in Colesberg that was referred to me that had to pay R10 000 to get somebody to register and get everything on board. Now this is a lot of money for small businesses and this is killing our small businesses.
What are you doing in engaging with these colleagues to ensure that stuff like that do not happen and do not risk our small businesses? And what can be done by these businesses to recoup their losses they suffered because of a failed implementation policy by government?