Applications will open on Wednesday for Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal’s relief fund to help businesses that were affected by the looting and violence in July.
Applications will close on October 25. The R30 million is aimed at helping affected Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises in urban, rural and township areas.
The value of grants will range between R50 000 and R 1 million.
Sabelo Mbatha, who lost three garages in KwaMashu, Inanda and Bhamshela worth R40 million says he hopes there will be no red tape in the application for the grants.
Mbatha says, “We do appreciate every assistance that the government is bringing on board particularly for the young and upcoming entrepreneurs.”
“One has always been a little bit hesitant with some kind of assistance that has been brought forward. For example, when somebody wants to give you financial assistance but then give you too many red tapes around it then it becomes a problem.”
“We just need to remove the red tape because when people have been affected in this fashion you cannot be asking for them to be in good financial standing before you assist them,” he adds.
Application forms
Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal’s Claude Moodley says application forms will be available from the economic development units at municipalities.
Moodley says they are targetting companies that did not have insurance.
He says, “Companies that are insured they got avenues that they can apply for the funding so they will go to the relevant insurance companies including SASRIA and that’s where I would be would look at unlocking by the support that they have been paying for you know and they’ve been insured for.”
“This is meant solely for companies that are not part of that group. the companies that have not been able to afford to take insurance and in the main there are companies that have been affected by the civil unrest and need to get on board and this type of support is meant to actually get them back into the formal economy,” Moodley adds.
R 6 million
It says it has received about 13 000 claims from businesses. Over 300 people died while property and goods were vandalised during the riots in the two provinces.
SASRIA’s Cedric Masondo says there are also people taking chances by lodging fraudulent claims.
The video below is on the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal that took place in July:
