Black entrepreneurship development in the construction sector in eThekwini Municipality.

Abstract

South “Africa’s Construction Sector is seen by Government as critical in job creation, service delivery and improving the lives of citizens, through provision of such amenities as water, sanitation, roads and human settlements. Despite these efforts by Government, SMMEs in the Construction Sector continue to experience high failure rate calling for meaningful study to be conducted towards the underlying factors leading to such failure of SME’s especially Black (African) owned SME’s. In attempting to understand these factors this study looks into Black entrepreneurship development as a key factor in addressing challenges faced SMME’s as well as in addressing growth and transformation of the sector. The study employed exploratory study design in which data was gathered from 10 focus groups, 2 government officials and 2 sectors experts using interviews. This study has shown that entrepreneurship development is widely accepted as a primary mechanism to address economic development systematic development of entrepreneurs can positively impact business success and increase performance, growth and profitability. Entrepreneurship development is a process of enhancing entrepreneurial skills and knowledge, through structured training and institution building programmes. This information about how entrepreneurship development contributes to transformation, economic redress, and growth has been obtained. The focus of this study is to explore Black Entrepreneurship in eThekwini Municipality, and to examine challenges faced by Black business in the Municipality. The findings show that respondents share a similar sentiment of inadequate attention/focus by the Municipality on relevant Entrepreneurship development, and commitment to transformation. No specific focus and programmes exist for Black (African) Construction companies in particular; that will lead to them being competitive, profitable, and sustainable. There is no evidence of similar study being conducted previously, especially Black (African)” Entrepreneurship Development in eThekwini Municipality, and therefore this study represents new study.