Following the Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s budget speech on Wednesday, many small business owners feel left out.
Mboweni tabled his budget which saw relief in Income Personal Tax and no increase in VAT, that could help on the small businesses.
However small business owners in Soweto say they don’t have confidence and trust in the South African government.
The owner of Sakhumzi restaurant Sakhumzi Maqubela says South Africa has the best policies in place but the government is not implementing them adequately.
Maqubela explains that the government has preferential procurement, arguing that the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy to redress the inequalities of Apartheid is one of the examples where the name exists but the majority of the people are left out.
Other Soweto business owners say they didn’t even bother to listen to the speech as it is the repetition of the previous year’s promises.
Hope seems to be fading from those who kept the Vilakazi Street moving. The street is best known for being homes of two Nobel Peace Prize laureates and also for its vibrant environment.
Lerato Ndlovu, who is also a business owner, specialising in art, says nothing has improved; they are still suffering.
She says the crippling economy of the country is making things worse, as tourism is also suffering.
“Tourism on its own has dropped, and I think I will be better off in another country, than my own.”
Complete Budget Speech by the Finance Minister:
![[File image] Unemployed men wait on a street corner in the hope of getting casual work in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa June 28, 2017.](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Unemployment-2-R-750x423-2-120x86.jpg)
