Occasional papers, no. 16

Abstract

This work encompasses an inquiry into the role of the entrepreneur in economic development, and a report of interviews with eighty African businessmen in the Transkei, Ciskei and some urban locations. South Africa provides a particularly interesting field for the study of African enterprise insofar as it is possible to examine the evolution of entrepreneurship in two fundamentally different environments - namely rural reserves and large urban areas. Furthermore, there has been a substantial increase in the number of African entrepreneurs during this century. The study achieves added significance in view of the wide racial income differentials which are an endemic feature of South African socio-economic existence; moreover, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that, despite the high real growth rates during recent years, the racial income gap is widening.’ A corollary to this is the worsening of the relative - though not necessarily the absolute - economic position of the Black population. Hence: "the fundamental question for South Africa's economic future revolves around the income relationship between the Whites and the African segment of the non-White group."Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER