Emadlangeni Municipality hosted an SMME Empowerment Workshop in an effort to empower local SMMEs with necessary knowledge on the various support provided by government and other stakeholders to ensure that their businesses are able to conduct business with the Municipality and other government departments.
In his welcoming address, His Worship the Mayor, Cllr ML Buthelezi outlined the aim of the workshop and committed that the municipality will create an enabling environment for business to flourish. The mayor emphasized the importance of gaining knowledge as a step in developing their businesses.
The Municipal Manager Mrs. GN Mavundla outlined the purpose of the workshop which was aimed at addressing issues of Tender Submission, General Compliance, Pricing Projects, Technical Requirement, Financial Access and Preferential Procurement Regulations. She explained some of the challenges that most business owners encounter such as underquoting with the intent of being awarded which at times leads to failure to delivering services as quoted. She also stressed that numerous businesses are not compliant with SARS or CSD which disqualifies them from being able to do business with government. She mentioned that this is a competitive sector and hopes that these workshops will assist the suppliers and encouraged business owners to seek mentors who will be able to support and guide them.
The participants received presentations from SEDA, SARS, KZN Treasury, KZN EDTEA, Ithala Bank and Mariva Advisory.