Small business pie-in-the-sky

AN enduring myth, among many surrounding the oil industry, is that it is a huge, filthy rich and a golden opportunity for small-to-micro enterprises, particularly those owned by the previously disadvantaged.

This myth has now spawned yet another conference, this time hosted by the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Sapref crude oil refinery and the eThekwini Municipality. Aching to be politically correct, desperate to curry (pardon the pun) favour with the Durban Municipality and all "stakeholders", as the saying goes, this conference aims to "to assist historically disadvantaged South Africans and small and micro enterprises (SMEs) (micro being enterprises that employ less than 50 persons) to access business opportunities within the municipality and the petro-chemical industry ( Spigot's italics).

Oh boy!While one appreciates that all this is due to the "The Liquid Fuels Charter and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, it is an absurd con trick to pretend that SMEs can ever make much of an impact on the procurement budget of the petro-chemical industry.

SMEs might be able to supply some stationery, cleaning and gardening services ( Sapref could certainly improve its gardens) pest control, monkey eradication programmes, catering and some deliveries.

The really big stuff like crude supplies, engineering services, plant maintenance, pipeline installation, and welding services are quite beyond an SME staffed with previously unemployed and unskilled HDSAs.

Spigot suspects this is all smokescreen for those HDSAs who might, just might, be able to get the financial backing to pay for a VLCC load of crude oil -- of say 300 000 tonnes -- which Sapref needs every couple of weeks, assuming they also have somewhere to store the stuff until Sapref was ready to process it.