Evaton and a quest for economic independence: A new dimension to entrepreneurship, 1940-1949

Abstract

In South Africa, commercial activity such as entrepreneurship was one of the socio-economic institutions manipulated by the white government to develop and maintain an unequal society. The aim of this article is to locate African entrepreneurship within the wider theme of social, political and economic change that impacted on African economic independence in Evaton. Its main objective is to question whether the white government presented a favourable political environment for Africans to be economically independent in the 1940s. If so, what form of official support did they provide? If not, what type of policy measures were implemented by the government to discourage Africans from operating businesses? The article also examines how these policies met resistance from local traders.