World Cup - Public Viewing Areas

Zinhle Sokhela:  PCB Director

A few weeks ago, I wrote of the establishment of a Public Viewing Area (PVA) at the Indumiso sports grounds which will enable local people to watch the FIFA World Cup soccer matches to be played on 11^th and 16^th June.    When the Chamber received this information (shortly before my article was written), we immediately asked for the details regarding business opportunities for the provision of services etc at that PVA.  After several weeks, on the 17^th May in fact, further information was supplied, but it really didn’t help us understand how small businesses could exploit the opportunities available.  We were told that the tender for the supply of the technical equipment had been advertised in the press the week before and that six stalls would be available for local traders, mainly those who wish to sell food and refreshments.    As I write, the Chamber, wishing to provide information to its members, is still none the wiser.    Various officials in the DEDT and the Umgungundlovu District Municipality, whose names were supplied as the responsible people, were approached by email with the request that they provide information to the Chamber, but none has responded.

On 17^th May, the PCB made the point that this lack of critical information was unacceptable.   Business cannot be conducted on an ad hoc basis.  It requires planning and strategy.  Few established businesses, let alone struggling emerging ones, can provide a decent service at an event of this nature with less than a month’s notice.   Consider what has to be done to provide a catering service at the PVA.   Established businesses will have the equipment and the staff.  They might be accustomed to providing the required service at short notice.   They have sound credit records with suppliers.  Their experience allows them to estimate the demand and cater for it.  Emerging enterprises will have to plan carefully and this will be difficult because they may not have catered for a crowd of this size before.  They will not be able to afford to buy too much stock, nor can they take the risk of running out.    They may have to hire equipment and will probably have to engage temporary staff who will need to be trained.   They will have place their orders and, probably, pay up front because they have no credit facility.   They are likely to be cash-strapped and will need to make some financial provision for the time between obtaining the supplies and selling the food.    It is likely that in the short time available, entrepreneurs will bid for one of the spaces out of a sense of desperation and, in the end, not do justice to it because they have not had adequate time to plan and prepare.

The Chamber believes that this state of affairs reflects two things: inefficiency on the part of officials and a lack of understanding about business.   Indeed, in many of its projects and programmes, government approaches micro and small business issues as if they are rooted in the so-called second economy and will never ascend from there.    Successful business requires, generally, a professional approach to things and not one that is mainly ad hoc and last minute.    The banks know this and that is why their loans are hard to come by.    They are not short of money, nor are they risk averse.   They know of the failure rate of small businesses, however, and will not risk what is actually other people’s money in a lost cause.    Poor business ideas and makeshift business plans written by so-called consultants who use common templates which reflect little commitment on the part of the entrepreneur him or herself, are not worth supporting financially, no matter how pressing the case is for entrepreneurial development.    That so many aspirant entrepreneurs have an unrealistic perception of business ownership is understandable when government at various levels makes it sound easy and then fails itself to observe the standards that marks good, sustainable first economy business from the erratic, cash-strapped ad hoc business of the second economy.     

Perhaps the vendors for the PVA have already been chosen, but if that is the case it has not been done in terms of a transparent, fair process.    And that’s another consequence of inefficiency – too little time to do it fairly.    

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