Social entrepreneurship among Diepsloot youth

Social entrepreneurship activity is very low in South Africa, especially among the youth. It is argued that favourable attitudes toward social entrepreneurship are determinants of successful social entrepreneurship that could contribute to sustainable socio-economic development amongst the youth who are still grappling with the “triple challenge” of unemployment, poverty and inequality. The primary objective of this study was to describe the attitudes of urban youth toward social entrepreneurship and to identify the constraints that the youth perceive as barriers to engaging in social entrepreneurship. The data of this study was from a survey conducted in Diepsloot, North of Johannesburg involving 153 young people. Data was collected using two self-rating questionnaires. The Social Entrepreneurial Intent Scale (SEIS), adopted from Thompson (2009), was used to measure social entrepreneurial intentions, while the Constraint scale developed by Fatoki and Chindoga (2011) was used to identify constraints. The study produced three main findings. Firstly, the majority of respondents had positive attitudes towards starting and engaging in social enterprises. Secondly, the research identified three main constraints that discourage the youth from starting or engaging in social enterprise, namely “lack of access to finance”, “lack of savings to start”, and “weak economic environment”. Thirdly, the research also identified an overall limitation to social entrepreneurship, namely; lack of support. Recommendations to reduce constraints and support social entrepreneurship were suggested