The need for constructive and effective sustainable community development in South Africa
is recognised as a cornerstone for national development. Having a clear understanding of
sustainable development and sustainable community development is a prerequisite in
developing sustainable communities. A current rate of unemployment and low skills level
pose a threat to sustainable development within the communities. There is growing interest
within businesses and organisations to contribute towards corporate social responsibility
(CSR) programmes and initiatives. However, this is an enormous task to address socioeconomic
challenges in South Africa due to limited resources and high expectations. The
businesses should implement well-structured plans for corporate social responsibility.
Furthermore, planned initiatives generally tend to appropriately promote social harmony
within targeted community. Skeptics of CSR often claim that business should focus on profits
and let the government or non-profit organisations deal with social and environmental issues.
The Eskom’ power stations under this study do make some contribution to social and
economic development in South Africa, which is realised through corporate social
responsibility (CSR) policy within the areas of Ermelo and Balfour. Most people in these
communities feel they have been neglected for a long time as their social concerns have not
been resolved. The community have recently pressurised these power stations to become
corporate citizens; to take on CSR and work towards sustainable community development in
their areas. There is a perception within the community that the management of Camden and
Grootvlei power stations is not actively involved in executing CSR programmes; hence the
intention of the study is to present an interesting analysis of these perceptions by exploring
the experienced outcome of CSR initiatives around Ermelo and Balfour in improving the
livelihood of the people, inter alia: unemployment and education.
The case study research design was adopted for this research and employed a qualitative
approach to understand the individual perceptions about the phenomenon under study. The
data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and electronic email. The
responses from the participants were analysed using ATLAS.ti software to identify codes and
patterns in primary data. The total selected sampling was 25, but those who participated were
only 17.
From the key findings, it was evident that these power stations do make some contributions
towards CSR within their community. However, this study revealed a gap in the way CSR is practiced and implemented: social responsibility and real sustainable development do not
reach the community. The findings also brought to light vast differences in the perceptions of
various stakeholders regarding available programmes that support sustainable development
within the community. These vast differences could mean that this study represents the start
of a long-term process. Moreover, the study suggests some critical underlying factors that
should be dealt with to close this gap: communication, awareness of available programmes,
budget challenges and commitment, and identifying who should take responsibility for
various aspects of development. The outcomes of this study are based on how stakeholders
view community development needs and challenges by means of three cases that emerged
during data analysis: case 1) community; 2). CSR project manager; 3) Top Management.
Overall, this study contributes to the applied research area of; proper community engagement
programmes, management engagement, employment, training and development, and
education. / Business Management / M. Tech. (Business Administration)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/21920 |
| Date | 09 1900 |
| Creators | Botshe, Andrew Ramabele |
| Contributors | Rankhumise, E. M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (x, 131 leaves) : illustrations (some color) |
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