Cape Town - Brand Western Cape is aiming to be the place to do business for investors and entrepreneurs.
That’s the message coming loud and clear from provincial minster of economic opportunity Alan Winde, who spoke to Fin24 in an exclusive video interview this week.
Winde’s ministry incorporates the provincial department of economic development, agriculture and tourism.
Winde seems to dance between his two loves: cutting red tape and fixing legislation to make the province business-friendly, as well as encouraging tech entrepreneur partnerships and development.
Raising hell over red tape
Winde said the red tape to red carpet project started three years ago and now has a call centre, website and email management system.
“Their job is to take that issue and go wherever – local, provincial or national government level – and say: ‘here’s the issue, can we get this sorted and speeded up?’
“Our team goes in and finds out where it [red tape] is and unblocks it and raises all sorts of hell.
“When people phone and say: ‘well, I’m going to report you to the premier [Helen Zille], because you’re digging in my department’, then I know things are working and the premier always gives me cover, so that’s all right.”
So far, the red tape reduction programme has resolved 90% of the approximately 3 600 cases it has received.
The programme has two functions: statutory, which aims to reduce legislation, regulations, permits, licences and standards (and the costs involved) which present an unnecessary burden to business; and systematic, which aims to make bureaucratic procedures and reporting more efficient, especially reducing the time it takes to complete mandatory processes.
The third stage is proactive, said Winde. “It is much more difficult, because you don’t know [what to resolve]. It’s assuming something is going to be in the way.”
WATCH: Studio interview with Alan Winde
Collaborating with innovators
He conceded that government could be slow at times, saying: “Any big organisation is a slow organisation, but that’s why we need innovation. That’s why we need innovators, like the Bandwidth Barn.”
He said the Bandwidth Barn in Woodstock is “an amazing exciting place. If you really want a day that invigorates you, then go spend a day at the Barn, because you come into contact with those kind of techie entrepreneurs and they... blow your mind with some of the things they’re doing.”
They are now building a network of incubators between Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius, as well as the newly-launched Barn Khayelitsha.
“They’re all sharing solutions,” he said. “They become the natural spaces for entrepreneurs to work together.”
Watch: Part 2 of the interview with Alan Winde
Watch: Part 3 of the interview with Alan Winde
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