Sheval Arendse, Wolfgat Sub council chairman and councillor for Ward 82
“Unhappy buzz at hive” (Plainsman, November 29) refers.
The entrepreneurs involved in the pilot project are not being evicted, but most of them had either moved to better premises, with more (foot traffic) or decided that business is not their future.
Not a lot of people frequent the business hive and entrepreneurs are tasked with providing goods and services at minimal costs to the poor communities in the areas as the nearest retail outlets were approximately two to three kilometers away from the poor.
They need to either walk and face being robbed along the way or have to fork out more money to utilise public taxis services. The idea was to focus on surrounding entrepreneurs as they know the area and the market in which they have been operating for a very long time.
The pilot entrepreneurs were recruited from the surrounding area via a public advert which was placed in the newspaper. They were informed that it would be a pilot for a year, thereafter the City of Cape Town’s departments of Sport Recreation and Economic Development would assess them based on productivity, profit margins and efficiency to determine the viability of the site.
They also should not own or have any other business or businesses elsewhere and should only be using the hive as a small business. They can only display items made and not use the hive as a workshop or a storage unit. They received the space for free, and after a year they were supposed to be assessed by the line departments.
We had 24-hour security and even created a base station for the local neighbourhood watch to assist with safety and security.
The entrepreneurs met with the facility manager, ward councillor and the City’s Department of Economic Development. Some of the entrepreneurs did not adhere to the rules agreed upon; others decided to move because they were not making enough money; and they started using the space as a workshop on site, when they knew it was not part of the agreement.