Poverty alleviation through employment creation is the focus of the South
African government and other developing economies. The SMME sector has
been identified as the leading vehicle for the creation of employment
opportunities. South Africa in particular went through a phase when
economic growth did not translate into employment creation. Consequently
the benefits of economic growth did not filter through to the unemployed. In
South Africa there is a strong link between unemployment and poverty.
Essentially the country experienced jobless growth and it is the poor who
missed out on the possible benefits of economic growth. The challenge then
for South Africa is to come up with a revolutionary approach to ensure that
the country's poor are not excluded from the of benefits economic growth.
Almost half of the South African population lives in poverty. Poverty and the
consequences thereof are most pronounced among the African population.
This is due to the South African history of apartheid which systematically
excluded them from accessing economic opportunities. Bringing
development to communities is the thinking behind local economic
development (LED). The urgency for the country to address poverty lies in
the fact that poverty is not a static phenomenon and if left unaddressed it may
to lead more people being poor when the numbers are already overwhelming.
Government has come up with various strategies for poverty alleviation,
employment creation being the chief strategy. The SMME sector is the most
prominent employer in South Africa, said to be responsible for over 61 % of
all employment. Even given these figures of there are still high levels of
unemployment in the country. Growing industries like the tourism sector
present a lot of hope for the ambitions of employment creation and poverty
alleviation in developing countries including South Africa. The focus of this
study will be the South African tourism sector. / Thesis (M.Dev. Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/10373 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Dlamuka, Sikhulile Nombuso. |
| Contributors | Padayachee, Vishnu. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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