The efficacy of the South African COVID-19 pandemic government relief programs for South African SMMEs
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
The study examined the The efficacy of the South African COVID-19 pandemic government relief programs for South African SMMEs. The research objectives of this study are as follows to determine the impact of Covid-19 on SMMEs in South Africa and to identify and investigate the efficacy of the Covid-19 intervention programs for SMMEs that have been introduced by the government and financial institutions in South Africa. The sample of the study was 423 core individuals representing the SMMEs which operate within South Africa. Probability random sampling was used as the sampling technique which was used to invite individuals who are business owners regarded as the SMMEs owners to participate in the study. Survey Monkey was used to sample SMMEs on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The collected data was evaluated using IBM SPSS version 26 to compute descriptive statistics.
The study found out that SMMEs within South Africa were severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, some were affected more than others. Moreover, the intervention programs that were identified in this study are: i) financial incentives from government and/or financial institutions, ii) credit extension from government and/or financial institutions, iii) special credit for SMMEs with lower rate from government and/or financial institutions such as the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) funded loans, iv) SARS Tax relief measures and v) support from the government and/or financial institutions through business growth/resilience , Spaza support structure, Covid-19 farming disaster provision fund, tourism relief fund or loan
guarantee scheme. Nonetheless, the majority of SMMEs in this study indicated that they did not benefit from this intervention at all
Description
A research report submitted to the facility of Commerce, Law and Management , University of Witswatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Business Administration Johannesburg , (2023)
Keywords
COVID-19, government relief programs, SMMEs, UCTD
Citation
Govender, Hammaren. (2023). The efficacy of the South African COVID-19 pandemic government relief programs for South African SMMEs [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.