Small businesses are essential for economic revival

Call them slashers or survivors, it adds up to the same thing. They are the tens of thousands of South Africans doing anything and everything to make ends meet.

"Some days we barely scrape enough money together for bread and milk," says Durban mother-of-three Genevieve Stander, who has one full-time job and three part-time enterprises.

A lifestyle Stander characterised as "soul-crushing" was too much for 53-year-old Susan van Rooyen. Reduced to despair by her failure to find a job or an income, 10 days ago she set herself alight on a Randgate street corner.

For all but the wealthy or lucky few, it won't be hard to empathise with Stander and Van Rooyen. Almost every adult with responsibilities has growing financial worries caused by expenses - unavoidable in many cases - continually outstripping income.

Ideas for turning the economy around are not in short supply, and there are success stories: more than 13000 jobs were created in a year in the Western Cape oil and gas sector, and Jumo, a Cape Town start-up, created 240 jobs in its first year.

But here is a chilling fact: in the first quarter of 2017 the unemployment rate reached its highest level for 13 years. From 21.5% at the end of 2008 it has climbed to 27.7%.

The International Monetary Fund has called for urgent changes to "reignite growth and render it more inclusive", including labour market reform that focuses on creating jobs especially for young people and especially in smaller businesses. It also wants improved access to finance for small and medium enterprises.

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba's 46-point economic revival plan last week mentioned small and medium businesses just once, dwelling mainly on state-owned enterprises.

There is little doubt which set of ideas the likes of Genevieve Stander and Susan van Rooyen would prefer.