Role of supporting and stimulating the township economy and informal sector in the Gauteng townships

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to look at different ways of supporting and stimulating the township economy and informal sector. There is a need to investigate whether township business sector and communities do benefit from interventions that are coming from different bodies, which are supporting the developments and the sustainability of township economies. However, township entrepreneurs are struggling to survive and grow their businesses due to the socio-economic challenges that are affecting negatively their daily entrepreneurial activities. These challenges creates obstacles that hinders entrepreneurship growth, entrepreneurial opportunities, creation of income and employment, and business survival. The study had the primary objective to investigate the role of supporting and stimulating the township economy and informal sector in Soweto Township under the Gauteng Province. The case study objective was based on outcomes of supporting and stimulation of the township economy and informal sector. For every input from any interventions, there is supposed to be expected results of delivery, achieving the intended purpose and corrective actions when there are deviations. Quantitative research approach has been followed in this study and the key findings of the study provides the information from Sixty eight (68) respondents sampled from the township of Soweto. Other supplementary information was researched from journals, observation and interviews with interested stakeholders on this particular research problem. The data was gathered by means of a questionnaire. This study has shown that there are many challenges and constraints facing township entrepreneurs that need to be overcome, challenges such as historical background of township location, aging infrastructure, lack of investing to townships, overpopulation, lack of resources, informality and regulation, non-compliance to payment of rate and taxes and low employment levels. Furthermore, the study identified that there is a need to create an enabling environment, economic infrastructure support, training and roll-out for enterprise development in the townships.