SMALL BUSINESSES: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE TO DRAFT DISPUTE RESOLUTION BILL

SMALL BUSINESSES: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE TO DRAFT DISPUTE RESOLUTION BILL

• 16 March 2023
• Small Business Development
• SA Legal Academy

The National Assembly Committee on Small Business Development has approached the House for permission to draft a Bill intended to address difficulties experienced by small, medium and micro enterprises supplying goods and services to the state and large private sector entities.

According to a committee report tabled recently in the House, this move is being made in the light of increasing numbers of complaints about the issues concerned. They include late or non-payment; red tape and allegations of ‘corporate bullying’. Apparently, many of the obstacles faced in this regard could be perceived to be anti-competitive.

Interestingly, the report refers to a Bill tabled in 2018 by former DA MP Toby Chance. At the time, the committee chose not to proceed with this piece of proposed new legislation. This is because members had been led to believe that an amendment Bill being prepared by the Department of Small Business Development expressly to address these issues was close to finalisation and therefore expected to be tabled soon in Parliament. Five years later, it has yet to materialise.

Against that backdrop, the committee Bill envisaged will seek, among other things, to provide for :

• a mechanism for resolving business-to-business and supplier-contractor disputes, and
• the establishment of a small enterprise appeals tribunal.

The report provides more detail on what is envisaged.

• committee report

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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