Brain drain bleeding Eastern Cape dry

Malungisa Soga* dreamed of becoming a successful entrepreneur and job creator in the Eastern Cape when he registered his company in 2014. Starting out as a supplier of goods and services to provincial government departments and municipalities, he expanded into construction three years later. Business was thriving and he planned to expand further.

As invoices remained unpaid for months, Soga was forced to use his own money to keep the business alive. Eventually, he started laying off staff, many of whom were the sole breadwinners in their households. “The delay in payment of suppliers and contractors in the Eastern Cape is one of the serious challenges that face emerging businesses.

“Sometimes we had to wait for over six months and more to receive payments, and that created a lot of challenges. “I could not pay suppliers on time. I could not pay rent.

[paywall]

I could not pay salaries on time, leading to my operations being compromised,” Soga said. He shut down his business, left the Eastern Cape and relocated to George in the Western Cape.

[/paywall]