How South African small businesses performed

GENERAL small business sentiment was ‘cautiously optimistic’ heading into 2023, with many small business owners looking to recover losses experienced during and as a result of the pandemic years. As predicted, the ongoing and deteriorating energy crisis has put a damper on these more positive prospects, with businesses scrambling to find ways to mitigate the effects of load shedding on their operations. The challenge with the movement of goods out of the Durban and Richards Bay ports has added another stress for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the retail, import and export industries.