Germiston business gets grant from Trust

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

A Germiston steel fabricator, Sm Systems (Pty) Ltd, is one of the four community-based small business concerns that recently received grants from the Ekurhuleni Peermont Chambers of Commerce Trust (EPCoCT), a BBBEE vehicle within the Peermont Hotels, Casinos and Resorts group.

Sm Systems, established in 2003 by Phillip and Mpho Mnisi and registered with the CIPC in 2012, received a R134 695 grant to augment funding the company received from the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) to purchase machinery and technology to produce spiral tubes enhancing its extraction system manufacturing capabilities.

Apart from manufacturing, SM Systems also designs and distributes extraction systems and supplies a wide range of products from galvanized and stainless steel sheets to extractor canopies / extraction hoods; extractor fans, ducting and flu pipes, gutters, spaza fryers and many other sheet metal products as per customer specification.

Among the company’s big clients are Standard Bank, Transnet and Shell House which, with the new equipment, will certainly expand.

“One of the main aims of the EPCoCT and the grants we allocate is to create jobs and make a positive impact on the lives of the people of Ekurhuleni. By assisting Sm Systems we believe we have done this as this small business already employees 10 people and with the new equipment and possibility of more business this number should increase.

“In addition the support given to Sm Systems will assist the company to grow and be a significant player in South Africa’s leading manufacturing hub, the Ekurhuleni region,” says the Trust’s Administrator, Makomane Ntabo.

Apart from this concern the Trustees of the EPCoCT have granted funding of a further R432 000 to three other community-based small business projects which fall in the Emperors Palace catchment area, during the past year. Furthermore the Trust has given R3-million in funding to the EMM-EPCoCT Business Facilitation Network (BFN) over the past two years as part of its five year partnership with the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) in the BFN project.

This brings the total funding provided by the Trust since inception to R25-million with 55 small and micro businesses assisted.

BELOW: SM Systems co-owner, Phillip Mnisi (blue cap) explains what the machine can do to EPCoCT Trustees, Bafana Smith, Sheila Sekhitla, Themba Xaba and Trust administrator, Makomane Ntabo (third left) during a recent Trustee visit to the business. Pictured working on the machine is technician Arthur Siyali.