Deputy Speaker, the Department of Small Business must be shut down. It is an unnecessary layer of administration. This department does not help small businesses. In 2016, baba ka Duduzane and Jamnandas, promised a new Public Procurement Bill which will assist to set aside 30% of small businesses and that was a lie, it was never an intention in the first place.
The failed National Development Plan, NDP, said that small business will prioritise promoting employment in labour intensive industries and that was also a lie. Instead, small businesses have failed under the leadership of hon Ginger. [Interjections.] Now unemployment is sitting at 29,1% and almost 10 million people willing and looking for jobs everyday cannot find work.
We made recommendations that should be at the core of the report, but were ignored. Instead, people are investing energy and time on meaningless and jobless fanfare called investment conferences. The government must instruct municipalities and state-owned companies to buy goods locally manufactured. If it is a hospital and its based
in Maritzburg, all its linen bedding and patients clothing and food for patients must come from farmers and manufacturers and the majority of them must be women and youth owned.
The majority of small businesses, especially manufacturers, can not get their products to the shelves in most privately owned. Government must start building malls to expand the shelves space for locally manufactured products. It must also build malls at municipal level.
Lastly, let's close the department and move back its functions to the Department of Trade and Industry and ensure that small businesses are at the centre of South Africa's industrial policy. The EFF, vehemently, rejects the Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report of Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development. [Applause.]