​Tendani Sibuyi
The Gauteng Provincial Government has recently hosted the second successful virtual Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) summit. The two-day summit, which was held on 25-26 February 2021, saw various corporates such as Vodacom, Microsoft, PPC Africa, Cash Build, Coca Cola, Accenture, Digify Africa and Heavy Chef come on board and gave insightful presentations on opportunities available, partnership and collaboration, digitisation, building effective strategies, access to information and market opportunities, among others.
The two-day summit, which was held on 25-26 February 2021, saw various corporates such as Vodacom, Microsoft, PPC Africa, Cash Build, Coca Cola, Accenture, Digify Africa and Heavy Chef come on board and gave insightful presentations on opportunities available, partnership and collaboration, digitisation, building effective strategies, access to information and market opportunities, among others.
This year's summit with the theme "Building resilient SMMEs in South Africa," provided a platform to give direction on how SMMEs can overcome the financial burden that has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and to build a stronger and more inclusive economy. It also aimed at helping create access to information, financial assistance and ultimately access to markets for the township-based enterprises.  
The inaugural Gauteng SMME Summit, which was held in December 2019, laid the ground for the co-operation between established businesses and government in supporting SMMEs and removing barriers to market access. Since its inception, the summit has linked some township businesses with corporates so that they could benefit from supplier development programmes. For example, Basil Read has identified mining equipment manufacturers at the previous summit.
Furthermore, government continues to work with corporates to support SMMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, digital marketing trainings were offered to the SMMEs to market their products and services on social media platforms.
Echoing Premier David Makhura's sentiments about the nature and extent of challenges faced by government, particularly on an estimated 500 lost jobs and around 42% of SMMEs that had to close shops due to COVID-19 pandemic, MEC Parks Tau called on the government, citizens and business community to come together and increase the level of employment and enterprise development in the province. He said:
"The Gauteng Provincial Government continues to facilitate and promote economic growth and development in the province, with a targeted commitment to focus on enhancing inclusivity of the economy, whilst improving its competitiveness. Central to this, is the ability to create an enabling environment for jobs to be created in the province by making interventions in 10 high growth sectors."
MEC Tau further highlighted the importance of the GGT2030, which not only sets down specific and bold actions to empower Women, Youth, SMMEs and black businesses, but also recognises that government should aggregate its efforts across spheres as well as with the private and non-profit sectors in pursuit of specific goals.
MEC also pointed out key programmes focusing on economic acceleration and investment in Gauteng, including the following:  
Reindustrialising Gauteng for the 21 century through Multi-tier SEZ and High Growth Sector Programme 
Bring opportunity to the many and confront inequality at the spatial level through the Township Economic Revitalisation Programme  
Creating the enabling conditions for a high-growth economy through a Catalytic Infrastructure programme   
Systematically confront youth economic exclusion through the Tshepo 1Million and Youth workforce development programme
Restructuring the Gauteng economy for long term growth
Engaging the private sector and social partners to join the effort through structured Social Compacting. 
Dr. Ayodele Odusola, Resident Representative from the UNDP reiterated the challenges faced by South Africa and Africa as a whole such as lack of information, funds and market access, skill mismatch, re-active businesses, market control by big business and the impact fuelled by COVID1-19. He emphasised on the important role of the SMMEs as an engine of growth for inclusive economy and accelerated growth and the ease of doing business, skilling and reskilling, digitisation, protecting importance of partnerships.
Delegates who attended the summit raised their concerns regarding the viability of their businesses as they try to recover from COVID-19 pandemic. They called for government to ease barriers to access to information, market and finance opportunities. At the same time, delegates also appreciated huge efforts made by the government and its partnerships for a successful informative summit.
The summit culminated in partners pledging their full support for sustainable development in the SMMEs.