Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-143). / South Africa is faced with many developmental challenges such as poverty, unemployment and inequality. The post-apartheid government has tried to face some of the injustices inherited from the apartheid era, but the choice of a neo-liberal economic approach seems to have worsened the situation. There is therefore a significant need for a social development approach in South Africa. Social development aims to link social welfare to economic development. One way of doing this is to support the development of small and micro enterprises. The majority of these enterprises belong to the second economy, and by supporting them the government also supports the poorest of its population. The South African government has put in place support systems to strengthen the small and micro enterprise sector. It also constantly reviews the regulatory environment in order the ease the regulatory burden on this sector. This research aimed to explore how the micro enterprises experience these efforts. It looked at the reasons behind compliance and/or non-compliance with regulations, and the reasons for the utilisation, or lack thereof, of support systems. Langa was chosen as the geographic area in which the research was carried out. In Langa, 20 micro business owners, both formal and informal, agreed to undergo qualitative interviews where they shared their experiences with regard to regulations and support systems. Nonprobability sampling was used to identify the participants. The interviews were guided by the use of semi-structured interview schedules, which included the main questions of the research. An audio recording was used, and the interviews were transcribed into text. Coding procedures from grounded theory methodology were used. Findings were drawn from the responses of the participants, and compared to findings from previous research studies. It was found that the participants to a very little degree complied with regulations. Despite the fact that most of the participants regarded complying with regulations as the right thing to do, they did not see their own enterprises as important enough to take steps towards compliance, and thought it only to be relevant to larger enterprises.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/8110 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Kristiansen, Silje Klommestien |
| Contributors | Booyens, MG |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Social Development |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MSocSc |
| Format | application/pdf |
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