Here are four simple things we can do differently to get things moving. Nurturing and bolstering township entrepreneurs could inject life into poorer households and communities and help reshape the South African economy for the better, but we need to find ways to fill in those potholes - and fast. They threaten to fail both the entrepreneurs and the country, which has invested so much hope - and money - in entrepreneurship. They are not mere bumps in the road they are calamitous potholes. These shortcomings are by no means inconsequential. That same report highlighted a growing need for mentorship and assistance with expanding markets and networks. The 2018 SME South Africa Report tells us that just 6% of entrepreneurs surveyed had received government funding and 9% funding from non-governmental sources, because, in many cases, they didn’t know how to access or apply for this. banks or government programmes, and we are beginning to appreciate they are cut off from information that could help their businesses. We know that township entrepreneurs and township-based entrepreneurs (those who operate solely within townships and those who do business both inside and outside of those communities) struggle to access finance from traditional sources, i.e. Yet entrepreneurs in these contexts are poorly resourced and poorly understood, and the little we do understand about the realities they face tells us that they are being stifled - if not suffocated. With 22 million South Africans living in townships and informal settlements, they account for 38% of the country’s working-age citizens, and they also make up 60% of the country’s unemployed. The reality is that many of these entrepreneurs will need to come from South Africa’s townships. By 2030, for instance, it is imagined that they will generate 90% of all new jobs created in the economy. It is not uncommon to hear South African politicians extolling the untapped virtues of entrepreneurs as the country’s saviours in the making. If township entrepreneurs are ever going to be the job creators that policymakers hope for, a major overhaul of mindsets and infrastructure will be necessary - and it will take a collaborative effort to bring this about.
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