Cape Town – A Democratic Alliance (DA) bill to cut red tape could be the exact recipe President Jacob Zuma needs in his quest to cut red tape and review laws standing in the way of small business growth.
Zuma made it clear in his state of the nation address this year that small businesses needed the space to grow.
“Such an initiative requires that government removes the red tape and reviews any legislative and regulatory blockages,” he said.
“We have established an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Investment Promotion which will ensure the success of investment promotion initiatives.”
Henro Kruger, a DA member of parliament who heads up its small business portfolio, told Fin24 that he had introduced a bill in February that would achieve these goals.
The Red Tape Impact Assessment Bill will be aimed at assessing legislation in order to identify and reduce the regulatory burden it places on small businesses.
It will address the absence of red tape impact assessments, the lack of cost calculations of red tape to business, a regulatory environment that is not “business friendly” and fraught with inconsistencies and it will probe the limited co-ordination across the different spheres of government.
“By providing for the mapping and assessment of regulatory measures in legislation, the Bill seeks to create a business friendly environment by reducing negative unintended consequences and their cost on business,” Kruger said.
“It’s a nice buzzword in South Africa, but one actually knows what red tape is,” Kruger told Fin24. “We need to define red tape. Then we need to quantify red tape. Then we need to reduce it. This needs to happen on all three levels of government and self-regulatory bodies.”
WATCH: DA MP Henro Kruger on why he tabled the bill
READ: The Red Tape Impact Assessment Bill