Abstract
Micro enterprises, and more precisely spaza shops which in essence are ‘small convenience stores’, play an integral part in many township economies within low-income earning societies in South Africa as providers of basic groceries and home essentials to those societies. Recent studies and reports show that there has been a dwindling case of South African owned spaza shops and on the contrary, spaza shops operated and owned by foreign nationals are reportedly growing and increasing in volume in certain townships and areas. The purpose of this study was to explore how local government within the Local Economic Development (LED) agenda can assist South African owned spaza shops to be sustainable and to grow. The aim of this report, therefore, was to create a practical strategy for LED practitioners to enable competitiveness and sustainability of South African spaza shops in the Tembisa and Ivory park townships, within the Ekurhuleni and City of Johannesburg municipalities. Through corroborating insight, lessons and results of trade practices and the notion of coopetition by foreigner-owned spaza shops. For this study, a concurrent mixed-method design was deemed appropriate, using both a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to collect primary data. Key findings thereof showed that coopetition is a myth, and that social networks within ethnic enclaves is what foreign citizens are rather using to their advantage to run sustainable spaza shops and dominate the market...
M.Com. (Local Economic Development)