Abstract
Background: Small business in the new South Africa is constantly and consistently touted as the panacea for the endemic problems of inordinately high levels of youth unemployment and general joblessness, particularly among previously disadvantaged Black South Africans. Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) are meant to thrive and in doing so, employ more and more people. The South African government has, over the years since the democratic transition, increasingly provided support to SMMEs with the intention of fulfilling its developmental goals, especially the equitable distribution of economic resources to all of its citizenry. Municipalities have been tasked with reaching these SMMEs directly, using a hands-on approach through developmental programmes drafted under the Local Economic Development (LED) agenda.
Aim of the study: This study aimed to determine whether or not the developmental support provided by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) offered any meaningful impact on SMMEs within the municipal area. Furthermore, the prospect of these SMMEs creating employment opportunities has also been examined.
Research design, approach and methodology: A quantitative approach using a survey questionnaire as the research data collection tool in attempting to determine what the impact of the EMM’s LED support on small businesses was. A descriptive statistical analysis was employed to present the outcomes observed from the data collected from 117 SMME business owners and managers. The population sample was selected using non-probability, purposive sampling in order to select SMME owners who had received support from the EMM in the form of LED small business training programmes. The data collected was sorted and studied to maintain a high level of reliability and validity. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 26 was used to analyse the collected data in order to extract and code statistical results. The results were presented in tabular and graphical format and presented a wide range of statistical tools.
Results: The findings presented indicate that there is no correlation between an SMME undergoing a business developmental programme as presented by the EMM and that
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SMME’s ability and/or willingness to employ more people is not enhanced through participation in these programmes.
Conclusion: It has been concluded that SMME businesses within the EMM municipal area are not placed in a better position, financially or otherwise, to justify employing more resources. It can therefore be inferred that the efforts of the EMM to develop and enhance the functionality of SMMEs are not significant to those SMMEs creating employment opportunities for jobless South Africans. A major limitation of this study is that the results obtained are endemic to the Ekurhuleni municipal area only and cannot be generalised to other parts of South Africa. It is, therefore, recommended that further studies are conducted across the country to ascertain whether job creation can be considered a realistic outcome of municipal LED business development support programmes.
Keywords: entrepreneurship, Local Economic Development, business development support, enterprise development, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality.