The July 2021 unrest and the floods in KwaZulu-Natal in April this year have seen the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) and its entities make available R3.5-billion in support.

The dtic on Tuesday briefed the Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry and Competition on the support package to aid economic recovery given the impact of the unrest and the floods. They shared that R2.4-billion - or 80% of the R3-billion approved by the department and its entities - has been disbursed to businesses affected by the unrest.

Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Fikile Majola explained that while the physical damage of the unrest was limited to Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, its economic impacts were widespread.

As a response, the dtic and its entities developed an Economic Support Package of R3.75-billion. The package is funded through the reprioritisation of budgets within the dtic to the value of R700-million. National Treasury had made an allocation of R1.3-billion. The Industrial Development Corporation, an entity of the dtic, reprioritised and allocated R1.5-billion, and the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) allocated R250-million.

The Solidarity Fund later provided the NEF with an additional R273-million.

The support has been made available in the form of grants and concessionary loans or bridging finance to cover cash-flow challenges until the payouts from claims with the South African Special Insurance Risk Association (Sasria) are finalised.

In its presentation, the department indicated that R3-billion had been approved for the applications made, and R2.4-billion has been disbursed so far. In some cases where construction is undertaken, or new equipment and machinery are ordered – payment is made after the completion of work. The disbursements, therefore, are expected to increase throughout the year.

A total of 2 400 enterprises were supported – and over 2 600 sites were covered as, in some instances, individual firms had several of their sites affected. Over 45 000 jobs had also been supported.

Businesses across different sectors such as manufacturing, retail, construction, agriculture and agro-processing, transportation, information and communication and the automotive industry benefitted from funds from the IDC.

Several small-scale and large retailers were supported. Among those include rural and informal traders and small businesses who benefitted from R154-million grant funding. Over 1 800 business entities were supported, and about 7 100 jobs were saved. The IDC also provided grants of R7-million to 142 sugarcane growers in KwaZulu-Natal and over 6 500 jobs were saved.

Over R12-million was approved for a black-owned company Wired Hardwares, which is a franchisee of Build-IT. Two Build-IT hardware stores in KwaZulu-Natal – one in KwaMashu and another in Inanda, that employed people from surrounding settlements - were looted, damaged and destroyed. However, thanks to the support provided, the Inanda store began trading again in March 2022, and the one in KwaMashu started trading again in late July. All 50 jobs were retained.

A woman-owned business, Wildfire Trading, which owns an Engen franchise in Alexandra, Gauteng, was looted and damaged. A total of R2.5-million was approved to renovate the site, which had been vandalised. A total of 29 jobs were saved.

Businesswoman Kedibone Lebethe, who owns 30 KFC outlets, having started off as a fryer, benefitted of R40.5-million needed to repair nine outlets across Gauteng that were damaged, looted and, in some cases, completely burnt down.

In total, 14 outlets were affected. Her company KPML Group employs over 1 000 staff, mostly women and youth. The support helped the group reemploy 550 workers. The department has also supported infrastructure rebuilding programmes which covered six shopping centres, such as Protea Glen Shopping Centre in Gauteng and KwaMashu Shopping Centre in KwaZulu-Natal. Six other industrial sites also applied for funding. Close to R200 million was approved.