Stop Reinstatement of Old Era Apartheid Law
We have sent a petition of 1105 signatures to the DTI to meet the 30 April 2013 comment deadline objecting to the sinister Licensing of Business Bill. Now we are growing this petition so that hopefully, when the amended bill comes under review, we can send a much bigger and more powerful petition to those who can make a difference.
How does the bill affect you?
A revival of this draconian law will not only force everyone to go through a
lengthy and costly process to set up a business – from a lemonade stand upwards
– but, terrifyingly, allow ANY government official to search your house if they
THINK you might have set up a business illegally, however small it is or poor
you are, and put you in jail for up to 10 years. The Apartheid government used
this law as an excuse to raid whomever they pleased, whenever they pleased.
This sinister bill revives an old law that forces all individuals to get government permission to start a business. Rob Davies, communist and ANC die hard, tried to slip this bill under the radar. He almost succeeded - we only found out about this bill hours before the commenting deadline, barely enough time to warn people and get this petition started. In effect, this bill will allow the government and literally any government official the right "to inspect the books, search the premises, shake down the owners and shut up the shops of “undesirable elements”. In other words, anyone the government does not like and would like to threaten, they would use this law as a flimsy excuse.
Even if the government never uses this bill for intimidation tactics (and how
likely do you think that government officials who have this weapon won’t use it
to promote their own agendas), it will make life nearly impossible for poor
people and in fact any entrepreneur. No person would be allowed to set up a
business, however small, without an expensive and lengthy bureaucratic process
to get permission to start it.
According to the respected journalist Ivo Vegtor of the Daily Maverick – “For
the first time since the end of Apartheid, businesses will have to ask the
government’s permission to operate. The wealthy elite can thank Minister of
Trade and Industry Rob Davies for a new age of protectionism. The poor can
thank him for a new age oppression, exclusion, corruption and unemployment."
You can read his full article here: http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-04-16-the-big-business-bribery-bill/#.UW40r4Ib5cx.
Rob Davies has, since 18 April, tried to defend the bill. His defence is logically decimated here: http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-04-30-business-licensing-bill-an-indefensible-defence/#.UX95p4Ib5cy
The livelihood and safety of South African citizens are in danger.
Keep the momentum going by mobilising your networks to sign this petition, so that when the right time comes we have a huge portion of the country - perhaps even international support - enforcing our individual right to economic freedom: the right to start a business if we want or need to. Be part of keeping this country a place of economic freedom!