It goes without saying that entrepreneurs everywhere in South Africa has a big role to play not only in our economy but also in protecting and maintaining our environment. We all need to take more responsibility to make sure that our businesses do not thrive at the detriment of our clients and the environment where they and us live and work in.

Your comments please?
-----------------------------------------------------------

In a recent talk Gauteng Local Government MEC Qedani Mahlangu has urged small businesses, particularly in townships, to set competitive prices for goods and improve the environments they function in.

"Today...we hear that people, spaza shop owners, are saying that the construction of shopping malls in the townships is killing their business.

"Most of the shopping centres in our townships are dead ... not because of the proliferation of shopping malls but because of our environment and pricing," Ms Mahlangu said Monday, at the conference of the Gauteng wing of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc).

The MEC said small business owners should be weary of the prices they set because most of these were "exorbitant" as compared to the market prices offered by larger retail stores.

"It is no secret that spaza shops' prices are very high and you are pricing yourselves out of the market," she warned.

Ms Mahlangu said the environment in which these businesses were run "leaves much to be desired" leading to a perception that business owners did not care about them.

"We should take pride in the business space we are occupying, hence we have agreed with the Nafcoc leadership that we will embark on a campaign to clean our cities, towns and townships.

"We must take pride in ourselves and make sure that the towns are better maintained than before," she said.

The MEC said the Gauteng government had created a conducive environment for small and medium enterprises to grow and thrive.

To this end, she promised the federation that the department, together with municipalities, would assist in ensuring that shop-owners in the townships get title deeds for their properties.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright © 2006 BuaNews Tshwane