Free SA has launched a national campaign opposing the proposed Business Licensing Bill of 2025, which seeks to centralise and control who can do business in South Africa, how they may operate, and where they are allowed to trade. The civil rights organisation has called the Bill a dangerous move toward economic authoritarianism, warning that it will suffocate entrepreneurship and deepen unemployment.
The Bill, currently under review by Parliament, proposes sweeping regulatory powers for the Department of Small Business Development, including:
- The ability to determine which businesses require licences;
- The designation of restricted trading zones;
- Expanded authority for inspectors to enter premises and confiscate goods without clear judicial oversight;
- And the erosion of municipal and provincial authority over local economic activity.
“This Bill turns the fundamental right to trade into a government-granted privilege,” said Reuben Coetzer, spokesperson for Free SA. “It replaces local empowerment with national control, and entrepreneurship with bureaucracy. If passed, it will be devastating for informal traders, township businesses, and every South African trying to earn a living outside of the political elite.”
An Assault on Freedom and the Constitution
Free SA argues that the proposed legislation violates the spirit of South Africa’s Constitution, which protects decentralised, cooperative governance. The Bill undermines municipal powers by granting the national government the ability to override local decisions, thereby stripping cities and towns of the flexibility needed to respond to local economic realities.
“In our constitutional democracy, decisions about markets, trade, and small business development belong closest to the people affected, not dictated from Pretoria,” said Coetzer. “This Bill is not cooperative governance. It’s economic central planning in disguise.”
A Bureaucratic Blow to Job Creation
Rather than removing barriers to entrepreneurship, the Bill creates new ones. By replacing simple, localised licensing systems with an opaque and nationalised compliance regime, the government risks pushing more businesses into informality or out of existence altogether.
“South Africa does not suffer from too little regulation, it suffers from too much, badly implemented,” said Coetzer. “We don’t need more red tape. We need to cut it.”
Free SA’s Demands
Free SA is calling on Parliament to scrap the Bill in its current form and commit to a truly consultative process that respects constitutional boundaries and economic freedom. Specifically, Free SA demands that:
- Business licensing systems be simplified, not expanded;
- Ministerial discretion be constrained by law and subject to oversight;
- Municipal and provincial authority be preserved;
- And the right of every South African to trade freely be protected.
Free SA has also urged business associations, local governments, informal traders, and citizens to oppose the Bill and join its campaign to keep South Africa open for business.
Join the Campaign
A public petition is now live, and Free SA is encouraging all South Africans to sign and submit comments to government by the deadline of 28 November 2025. This petition can be sent through Free SA’s official website here.
“This is not just an economic issue,” said Coetzer. “It is a democratic one. If we don’t stop this Bill, we allow government to decide who gets to dream, who gets to trade, and who gets left behind.”