| dc.description.abstract | The Magopa village community - better known by its own people as Bakwena ba Magopa - is the unit of study. The aim of the study attempted to review how globalisation has touched on post-apartheid Magopa. The population includes three levels, i.e. (i) the community leaders, (ii) community partners, and (iii) entrepreneurs from the community. Questionnaires were distributed to seven community leaders, two community partners, and eleven entrepreneurs. The study explores whether the Magopa community will be able to get to grasp globalisation and the new economy. Accordingly, the study addresses the following sub-objectives: Firstly, attitudes, conflict and relations among the different groups within the community me explored.
It Is essential to grasp that Magopa did not start with the forceful removal of a "black spot?" during apartheid, but uprooting families and destroying homes during that time have its effects on the community to this very day. Magopa is still extremely poor today, maintaining a low standard of living, having to resort to waste materials to build houses and business premises. Secondly, the study focuses briefly upon the community capital in the form of natural, physical,
technological, economical, human, social and cultural capital. The sustainable development is discussed, as well as two broad concepts namely the business corporation development and its contribution to the community at large and its role in globalisation. Thirdly, the role of
entrepreneurship to uphold the sustainable development of Magopa is explored. Magopa entrepreneurs are all sole proprietors running small businesses in the informal sector of the economy. The informal sector comprises a heterogeneous set of activities, ranging from selling
vegetables, running tuck shops and sewing parlours, sometimes operating at street corners or even from a bedroom in a dilapidated home. A significant minority of the Magopa entrepreneurs does not have basic literacy skills and the need is high for skills pertaining to start-up or expansion of businesses. Fourthly, the study seeks to identify the main current community,
individual and corporate business development activities and support within the community as well as the contribution of the different stakeholders. Magopa realises that ever-increasing competition is part and parcel of its future and sustainable development. They express the need for government to once again become involved with training and funding. Women are
encouraged to become self-employed and it is socially acceptable to have the same skills and knowledge as the men of the village. Magopa is not directly involved in globalisation, but controversially influenced as follows: • There is German participation through a solidarity group since 1983, headed by a theology lecturer, Ulrich Duchrow and his views on globalisation which are from a neo-liberal capitalist perspective. The relationship is important and influentia1 and cannot be ignored.
• Etruscan Resources Inc., through Etruscan Diamonds Pty Ltd, a Canadian based company which employs more than 80 individuals From the Magopa community, continuously invest company money in skills training (specifically junior managers), and sponsored various Magopa community as well as entrepreneurial projects. Presently, one could state that Etruscan enjoys the positive effects of globalisation more than the Magopa community although there are promises of more social investment in Magopa in the future. The new economy is non-existing in Magopa, because: the new economy describes contemporary developments in business and the economy. To conclude, the recommendation is that to be globally competitive in a globalising world African nations must recognise the
contributions of natural capital to their economy and make offsetting re-investments. They need to train their local labour force. Ensure that local companies are, to a larger extent, owned by the local people and managed by competent hands; ensure that profits are re-invested at home rather than expatriated; innovations in technology should be vigorously developed rather than imported. In addition, all of these need to remain fair and just to the individual as well as the community. | |
