Brand SA’s pay-off line – Inspiring new ways – is well known and inspiring. But when it comes to the development of entrepreneurs, the opposite of the tagline seems to be correct. Entrepreneurship and development in SA is not inspiring new ways at all.

Despite having numerous institutions tasked with supporting and developing entrepreneurs, SA still fails to produce a measurable number of successful entrepreneurs. This is because these institutions fail to carry out their mandate because of red tape and nepotism.

There have been serious allegations of nepotism and financial misconduct against high-ranking officials at the National Youth Development Agency and the National Empowerment Fund. Sadly, money is channelled to the wrong people who are connected instead of it being used to develop deserving upcoming entrepreneurs.

This wrongdoing, coupled with the stringent requirements which have financial implications that an entrepreneur needs to comply with to get assistance, make it almost impossible to start and grow a business in present-day SA.

In our quest to root out poverty and create an enabling environment full of opportunities for young people, let all institutions charged with entrepreneur development be fair and unbiased when allocating the funds.

This is the only way we can say we are making progress. Other than that, it will take a long time before we can confidently say we are moving towards a rewarding phase.

Thabisile Mnisi, Bushbuckridge