The Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW) participated in a series of stakeholder engagement sessions and assisted small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to meet the minimum registration requirements for doing business with the Western Cape Government during April and May 2022. Provincial Minister of Mobility Daylin Mitchell spoke at a related SMME networking event on 18 May.
The first stop for DTPW’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) team was the Perdekraal East Wind Farm SMME Development Programme Entrepreneurship Day event on 8 April. SCM team members explained that prospective service providers had to be registered on the Western Cape Supplier Evidence Bank (WCSEB), the Central Supplier Database (CSD), and the Western Cape Government e-Procurement System (ePS).
“In order to do business with the Western Cape Government, service providers must be actively registered on the CSD, the WCSEB and the ePS. SCM promotes the benefits of compliance with these and other compulsory requirements which could lead to business opportunities for service providers,” said SCM’s Renecia Marks.
“There are so many SMMEs that are not tech-savvy and that do not have access to adequate resources to complete the registration process. We actively assist them with the completion of the WCSEB forms and ensure that the forms are submitted to Provincial Treasury for processing which saves the service provider courier costs and minimises the risk of incomplete forms,” she added.
The Entrepreneurship Day programme also included speakers from the Department of Labour, Witzenberg Municipality, the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
On 12 and 13 May, the SCM team visited the Witzenberg District Municipality where they assisted prospective service providers to fill in WCSEB registration forms and complete online CSD registration.
On 17 May, SCM officials engaged with about 40 SMMEs at the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone (SBIDZ) Access Complex about compliance and compulsory requirements when conducting business with the Western Cape Government.
Daylin Mitchell, Minister of Mobility and the SCM team spoke at the Western Cape Business Opportunities Forum (WECBOF) session at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town on 18 May. WECBOF is a networking platform that also provides access to opportunities, information, and training. SCM’s Anthea De Bique and Renecia Marks presented the compulsory requirements for conducting business with the Western Cape Government and responded to an array of questions from participants including:
- The process a service provider must follow when disputing an award.
- How safe is the service provider information on CSD?
- How tax clearance certificates can be obtained from the South African Revenue Service