On the 6 of March 2025, MEC of Finance and Destea in Free State Toto Makume held a township revitalization programme at Destinate Car Wash and Grill in Bloemfontein, Mangaung.
Part of the engagements was to bring all small businesses together, to engage on issues affecting the growth and sustainability.
“Small businesses avoid and struggle to do competent compliance, which result in many failing to access opportunities to funding, we would really appreciate if small businesses can come up with ideas, to grow the economy of Mangaung and create jobs for others”, said Makume.
“We consistently realized, the other big elephant affecting the growth of black businesses in the Free State broadly is lack of Unity, that on it’s own create a serious challenge and other people who receive funding use it for the purposes it is not meant for. We are appealing to all business people to start supporting one another to create a system of supply and demand, as that on it’s own can be a sector that can create jobs if we have our own production and distribution centers”, concluded Makume.
He further said Bloemfontein on its own is an economic hub, but business people fail to identify someone of the key aspects which are solely in the tourism sector mixed with heritage sites to have a consistent participation of small businesses tapping into that untapped sector.
