James Caan: offering to replicate UK’s small business growth story in SA

Published on:

18 Jul 2014, 7:00 am

By Alec Hogg

We hosted a special guest at Biznews yesterday. The only possible thing that could have have made it better would have engineered the simultaneous attendance the hard-to-reach Lindiwe Zulu, political head of SA's new Small Business Ministry. Our visitor was business television celebrity, British entrepreneur of the year, Dragon's Den star and best-selling author James Caan. A charming, engaging man, James is visiting the country to see how he can help Sa to replicate the success of the UK's ambitious SME programme.

Caan told me he's fallen in love with South Africa (aren't we all?) and is driven by a desire to contribute. Two years ago David Cameron's Government voted to invest £100m in developing entrepreneurship, entrusting Caan with the responsibility of making it happen. Under his guidance the project surpassed anyone's wildest dreams, establishing almost 20 000 new businesses and creating tens of thousand new jobs. Given SA's high unemployment and the ruling party's poor record on job creation, Caan's is an offer the ANC couldn't refuse. Could it?