SA will miss growth target – Zuma
President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address yesterday announced that South Africa will not reach its growth target of 5% per year, which the National Development Plan stipulates is what the economy needs to grow by annually to make a meaningful dent in inequality, unemployment and poverty.
The World Bank has meanwhile adjusted the necessary growth rate upwards to more than 7% in order for the country to make significant strides in poverty reduction.
“Given the economic conditions I have painted, it is clear that we will not achieve that growth target at the time we had hoped to achieve it,” Zuma said. (Fin24)
Show love to entrepreneurs this month
In light of Valentine’s Day later this week, Gugu Mjadu, spokesperson for the 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year competition, says that South Africans should consider channeling some of their love towards family, friends and associates who have taken the inspiring leap into entrepreneurship.
“Societal attitudes indicate how entrepreneurship is regarded in an economy, and can, in turn, impact potential entrepreneurs’ ambitions in the future. This month of ‘love’ (February), as commercial as the day may be, offers the ideal opportunity to celebrate with an entrepreneur you may know, and provide the reassurance and acknowledgment that their hard work and contribution is appreciated and isn’t in vain. By doing this, we are ensuring that those around us, especially future generations, see entrepreneurship as an inspiring and celebrated career option.”
Small Business Development programme to open doors for informal traders
This week 116 informal traders from the Western Cape were handed certificates by Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu for completing wholesale and retail for infrastructure development programme.
Informal traders from Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Villiersdorp, Paarl East and Worcester took part in a two-month project that introduced them to primary business skills.
A thousand informal traders were recruited across all nine provinces through the Informal Traders Upliftment Project (ITUP) as a pilot. The project goal is to identify, train, mentor and provide infrastructure support to informal traders including capacity building for Informal Trader Organizations in all nine Provinces. (Cape Talk)
Startup Rush announces it has exceeded 1 000 deliveries
Rush, an ecourier which allows customers to book a courier in real-time using a smart phone says it has completed over 1 000 successful deliveries since it’s launch three months ago.
Powered by WeChat, Rush is hoping to disrupt the courier industry in South Africa.
Says CEO Glenn Whittaker, “Rush lives up to its motto of ‘your courier, your choice’, by offering customers the convenience of being able to choose their courier by service, by price, delivery time and even reputation. Simply download WeChat from the iOS or Android app store, follow the Rush official account and use the app to book, pay for and track deliveries.”
Whittaker adds that Rush expects even greater uptake of the service as more customers become aware of WeChat Wallet.
The startup also announced Road Trip and RTT as the latest additions to its platform which includes The Courier Guy, Courier IT, Skynet and Globeflight.
