Gauteng Business 2018-19 edition

Entrepreneurship
flourishing
FOCUS
Black Management Forum Gauteng Provincial Chairperson,
Langa Manqele, believes the Small Business
Expo 2018 will help SMMEs break through.
The spirit of entrepreneurship is flourishing across
South Africa, including in the townships and rural
areas. This is according to the chairman of the
Black Management Forum (the BMF) in Gauteng,
Langa Manqele.
Langa, who is himself an entrepreneur and businessman
in the fintech sector, pays keen attention to patterns in the
national economy. He says, “A trend we’re seeing emerging is
for entrepreneurs to launch small-scale manufacturing and
agro-processing operations around the country.” Studies
suggest that such enterprises have the potential to create
many jobs and national, provincial and local government
policies are supposed to be aligned to support these
businesses through their procurement budgets.
“Unfortunately, though, many start-ups are failing to break
through into big business,” says Langa. In addition, “many
are failing to comply with testing and safety standards. This
may be partly due to a lack of awareness and information
and also because the infrastructure around safety and
standards is out of the reach of rural business, as well as
being prohibitively expensive.”
This is one of the reasons why the Gauteng BMF is
endorsing the Small Business Expo 2018, an annual
showcase and knowledge-sharing platform for local small
and medium-sized businesses. It is presented by Reed
Exhibitions in partnership with the Eskom Development
Foundation and supported by the Randburg Chamber of
Commerce and Industry. The expo will take place from 6-8
September 2018 at the TicketPro Dome.
The information sharing, skills development and
networking available at the Small Business Expo are the
sorts of things that may help small businesses achieve the
sort of break-through that Langa describes.
“This is why the BMF is endorsing the Small Business Expo,”
he says. “Because of its focus on the development of black
Langalethu Manqele,
Black Management
Forum Gauteng
Provincial Chairperson
business in particular, along
with its three days of indepth
workshops and opportunities
to network, we believe it’s
an invaluable platform for
small businesses to gain
the knowledge and social
capital they need to grow.
Capacity-building is a major
challenge, and the number of
startups able to be absorbed
by incubators doesn’t meet
the national needs; therefore
events like these fill the gap
for critical business skills
development.”
75 GAUTENG BUSINESS 2018/19