Jonathan Oppenheimer, scion of the family that built Anglo American and De Beers into global mining powerhouses, urged the South African government to “get out of the way” of entrepreneurs.

While small and medium-sized companies make up 91% of formal businesses in South Africa and account for more than a third of gross domestic product, weak economic growth and high running and compliance costs threaten their survival. More than half the country’s small businesses risk shutting down within a year under current cost-inflation conditions without outside help, an index compiled by Absa Group and the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry shows.

“The most powerful thing the government could do is get out of the way, particularly in the entrepreneurial space,” Oppenheimer, the executive chairman of investment and philanthropic group Oppenheimer Generations, said in an interview in Johannesburg Wednesday. “I’m not advocating a completely anarchic libertarian approach by any measure, I truly don’t believe that. But, the government needs to be very deliberate in understanding that time, particularly for small business, is incredibly precious.”

His comments echo those made by the World Bank. The Washington-based lender has urged South African policymakers to cut excessive red tape, which it said weighs heaviest on smaller companies that lack the resources to navigate them and are contributing to the economy’s “signs of paralysis.” GDP has expanded by an average of less than 1% annually over the past decade.

The Oppenheimer family donated R1-billion in 2020 to set up the South African Future Trust, which supported small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. The public-benefit organisation extended those funds as concessionary loans to about 10,000 companies in 34 working days, Oppenheimer said. The trust plans to use all recovered funds to further stimulate small businesses, including through training programs, he added.

Nicky Oppenheimer, Jonathan’s father, has a net worth of $13.5-billion, mainly from the 2012 sale of his family’s stake in De Beers for $5.2-billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.