Finance and Economic Oppor-tunities
In relation to the Red Tape Reduction Unit:
(a) How many of the businesses assisted by the Red Tape Reduction Unit in the past three financial years are (i) women-owned, (ii) black-owned and (iii) owned by members of previously marginalised groups and (b) what steps has her Department taken to make sure the services of the Red Tape Reduction Unit are accessible to these businesses?
(a)
[1] The Case Management System (CMS) is a software platform which enables the Red Tape Reduction Unit (RTRU) to allocate cases and enquiries made by businesses to officials within the Department for investigation and resolution. The CMS further acts as a knowledge management platform storing rich data and information related to enquiries by businesses in the Western Cape. In August 2021, the RTRU implemented enhancements to the CMS, with a field for gender introduced. Therefore, as of August 2021, to date, we can report that 126 cases were logged as ‘Female’ on the Case Management System. Of these 126 cases logged as ‘Female’ within the Gender category, 56 businesses were assisted with information related to business support, 11 businesses were assisted with information related to permits and licences, 31 businesses were assisted with the Temporary Employer / Employee Relief Scheme (TERS), while 6 businesses were assisted with information related to tenders and procurement. The remainder of categories related to the green economy, skills development, business infrastructure and land use management. However, it is not possible to distinguish from this data if the cases were logged by female owners or employees.
[ii] Data not available through the Case Management System. Moving forward, the RTRU will be investigating future system enhancements to the CMS to enable more rich analysis of data.
[iii] Data not available through the Case Management System. See above.
[b]
The RTRU has a Business Support Helpline Service with a dedicated website, contact form and contacts e-mail available to the public across the entire Western Cape. The Business Support Helpline Service receives requests from business via various sources, which includes the Premier of the Western Cape and the office of the Head of the Department for Economic Development and Tourism.
The RTRU has marketed the services of the Business Support Helpline Service through various forums such as Youth Café with the Department of Social Development, The Department of Community Safety’s Chrysallis Academy, the Department of Local Government’s Provincial Communicators Technical Forum, and the I-CAN Centre in Elsies River on the Cape Flats. The RTRU has also made use of social media promotion to citizens and businesses around the available service.
Furthermore, the RTRU also engaged various forums on request where the services of the Business Support Helpline Service were marketed and shared with businesses.
The RTRU has also updated its marketing collateral, translated into Afrikaans and isiXhosa. This will be placed at various grassroots structures in townships and business incubators in marginalised communities. The RTRU has also formed a partnership with the Department of Local Government’s Thusong Centre Programme and will be sharing the marketing collateral for businesses in rural areas in November 2022.
