CDE Submission | CDE calls for withdrawal of the Business Licensing Bill
- The Minister of Small Business Development has published a draft Business Licensing Bill to replace the 1991 Business Act. If passed, the Bill would be the most anti-business law since the end of apartheid.
- The Bill would empower government to designate a near-limitless set of business activities as requiring a licence.
- Unconstitutionally, it proposes that all municipalities would be required to have similar sets of licensing requirements.
- Municipalities will employ inspectors who would be empowered under the proposed Act to enter any dwelling in which they suspect there is unlicensed business activity occurring, issue compliance notices and administrative fines, and seize goods and equipment.
- This is a system tailor-made for corruption.
- There are indications in the Bill that the drafters intend that non-citizens will be targeted disproportionately.
- The Bill must be withdrawn. It should be replaced by a bottom-up consultative process to identify regulations that hinder business entry and growth in South Africa.
