Having a long-lasting beneficial effect on the lives of ordinary people was the key role of small businesses at a local and community level, said businessman Cyril Ramaphosa at a South African Breweries (SAB) award ceremony for small businesses with innovative ideas that contribute to community improvement.
Ramaphosa is chairman of the board of trustees of the SAB Foundation — a part of SAB’s broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) transaction, SAB Zenzele.
Intimating that he was no more than an ordinary person, Ramaphosa said jokingly that he was referred to as chairman but all he ever did was “sweep floors and clean the windows”.
“You have proven that you are much more creative than me today by having reached the level that you have reached,” he said to the finalists of the SAB Foundation innovation awards.
Meanwhile, a new initiative giving big business an opportunity to showcase their leading black-owned suppliers kicks off on 13 November at Smart Procurement World’s Enterprise Development Expo 2012.
The Expo offers the public and private sector an opportunity to introduce to the market their brightest, best and, importantly, ready-to-contract black-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The Expo is a collaboration between Smart Procurement World, Supply Chain Network and Absa Enterprise Development.
Over 120 black-owned SMEs, highly-rated by their clients, have an excellent opportunity to show-case their businesses at the event and be discovered by other big businesses, said event organiser Debbie Tagg, COO of Commerce Edge South Africa.
“The Expo acknowledges and seeks to build on the efforts of Global Entrepreneurship Week, which has attracted more than 10-million people from 102 countries who have participated in entrepreneurial-related activities,” explained Tagg.
The Expo will be hosted alongside Smart Procurement World each year.
