Abstract
This study mainly focussed on investigating the inclusion of township economy in Local Economic Development of Polokwane Municipality. Therefore the objectives of this study were: To determine the impact of township economy to eradicate poverty and unemployment among the youth in Polokwane local municipality; To review policies that guide the intervention of township economy in local economic development of Polokwane local municipality; To assess the contribution of the township economy towards job creation and economic empowerment at Polokwane local municipality; to carefully asses the challenges encountered by both small and medium business enterprises in townships areas; To determine the inclusion of township economy in local economic development of Polokwane local municipality. A variety of data collection methods were used in this study such as documentary analysis, semi-structured questionnaires and observations. This study has shed light on how SMMEs interact with the overall economic development process in Polokwane; as such, it has revealed that the full integration of small, micro and medium enterprises (to be referred to as SMMEs) in township economies is limited by a number of factors and the one protruding factor in them all is limited access to monetary support. Subsequent limiting factors entail government regulations, out-dated technology, poor management, limited skills, poorly trained staff, and limited access to markets. Although SMMEs greatly benefit the economy by creating jobs and mitigating poverty they still face these unwonted constraints. However, combating these factors through support systems such as government institutions, private sectors, parastatals and NGO’s has been a challenge to the South African government because under careful analysis the study established that local entrepreneurs in Polokwane Townships find it difficult to access them due to limited knowledge about the support systems.
M.Eng. (Town and Regional Planning)