27 Mar 2019

Minister of Small Business Development, Ms Lindiwe Zulu will be supporting the Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA)’s initiative to encourage Big business to partner, procure and support small to medium enterprises by introducing them to their enterprise and supplier development value chain.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will launch an incredible platform to transform the economy and create lasting entrepreneurial benefits to SMME’s and Cooperatives through a BLSA initiative called BLSA Connect on the 28th of March 2019 in Sandton, Johannesburg.

“At the heart of transformation, lies procurement and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act remains an instrumental interventionist tool to change the economic landscape by propelling black entrepreneurs into the mainstream economy. We can only achieve this, if Big business come to the party” said Zulu.

The BLSA Connect seeks to create a reliable and sustainable platform for our SMME’s to access procurement opportunities through business linkages and networking platforms between Big business and Black Owned Suppliers (BOS). The ultimate objective is to ensure that Black Owned and in particular Small suppliers are part of the value chain of Big business both inbound and outbound.

“The B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice advocates for supplier and enterprise development but this initiative by BLSA is truly a pragmatic intervention to be embraced” concluded Zulu.

Enquiries:
Mr Noko Manyelo – Spokesperson
Department of Small Business Development
Cell: 060 972 5221