Following pleas from business for the City of Johannesburg to simplify doing business with local government, officials from the municipality held discussions with organised business and SMMEs at Midrand Fire Station on Wednesday, 14 August 2019.
Mzolisi Mbikwana, the secretary of Region A Business Forum, said for the City of Johannesburg to realise its goal of growing the local economy by at least 5%, it needed discussions like these to unlock challenges SMMEs were facing when trying to do business with the City.
He referred to SMMEs as the main drivers of the economy. “The economy is a mess because there is too much of a gap between SMMEs and big business. The question now is how do we bridge the gap?
“Today’s conversations must provide answers and come up with ways of working with the government and big business so that we can grow the economy together,” said Mbikwana.
A City official from Supply Chain, Sabelo Tshabalala, explained the processes to be followed to be on the City’s database. The key message for SMMEs was to be compliant all the
times in order to be able to do business with the City.
Tshabalala said application forms must be completed in full and all the required and supporting documents must be submitted jointly with the form.
“The forms can be obtained on the City of Joburg’s website www.joburg.org.za. For assistance on how to complete the form or any other query related to the process, please contact the Supplier Accreditation and Registration Help Desk on 011 407 6342,” said Tshabalala.
City of Johannesburg’s Citizen Relationship and Urban Management Manager Pierre Nel thanked organised business and other stakeholders for continually engaging the municipality with a view of improving service delivery for residents.
“I’d like to believe that through these constant engagements between the City and business, we will certainly help each other navigate our way around to improve service delivery, help businesses grow, increase economic development and enhance the quality of life of the residents of Joburg,” said Nel.
