Last month I wanted to write Trevor Manuel a letter.  I wanted to tell him how much he’d hurt my feelings by joining the gravy train and buying himself the most expensive car possible for the execution of his new duties.  I, myself, I wanted to tell him, have chosen a much less expensive car: I still seem very capable of performing my duties, but it means I can earn a lower salary so that I can use the spare cash to employ more people within the Avo family and actually try to make a difference in this world.

He pre-empted my sad letter with a half-apology about an error in judgement, which I understand.  Who hasn’t, as a leader, sometimes been seduced by delusions of one’s own grandeur and the intoxicating trappings of power?

But this month, I am moved to write to him again.  This time, I think he’s the only one who can look holistically at my challenge.  In one word, my challenge is compliance.  Not personal compliance (before all my friends pack out laughing and remind me that my lack of compliance was not created by Trevor, but rather a stray gene gone wrong..), but company compliance.

We’re doing our damndest to meet all the compliance requirements that are heaped upon small business: our 3 main focusses are SARS, SETA, and BEE compliance.  I don’t want to tell you the long drama and saga of each of these journeys, suffice to say that, after spending many very frustrating and stressful months, absolutely unreasonable chunks of my own and my team’s time, and far too many thousands of rands, I am still at a total loss as to how we can actually get a tax clearance certificate out of SARS (we are now at the point where the departments are accusing each other of lying to us, and nobody is picking up our issue), we have been advised by our SETA consultant to lie about our assessment activities in order to be accredited there (after a 5 year litany of incompetence from their side), and we have slipped down 2 levels on our BEE accreditation because the burden of proof has become so cumbersome that we just no longer have the time or resources to gather it together!

I know all the issues about ill equipped civil servants - I know for sure that government is very committed to upping the game in service delivery.  But the impact on our small business is that working with incompetent, unporfessional people is eroding our energy, time and profits - all of which could be used so much more constructively in the conducting of our normal business of training South Africa.

Trevor.  Please!  I am a small business owner trying my best to create employment and education for the people of South Africa. As a company, we do more than our fair share of contributing to the upliftment of the community.  All I ask is that you call off your pit bulls who are ripping our sustainability to shreds and let us get on with the job of building South Africa, one person at a time.