Social entrepreneurship and poverty reduction in South Africa, the case Eastern Cape Province

Globally, poverty is a major social problem. Billions of people in developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan African countries including South Africa, continue to live in extreme poverty without access to basic needs (food, shelter, clean water and sanitation, health and education).The Eastern Cape Province has the highest number of the poor people in South Africa. The government strategies and policies to address the magnitude of poverty seem unlikely to lift the majority from poverty. Recently, however, social entrepreneurship has been recognized as the most important instrument in addressing the challenges of development (poverty, unemployment and inequality). Hence, this study was conducted to examine the role of social entrepreneurship in poverty reduction in Eastern Cape Province. A mixed research method was employed to achieve this objective. The population of the study targeted social entrepreneurs and their beneficiaries in Eastern Cape Province. The data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire from 265 social entrepreneurs and 120 social entrepreneurship beneficiaries. The participants were selected through purposive sampling technique since the population of social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship beneficiaries in the Eastern Cape Province is not well determined. The descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that social entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in poverty reduction in Eastern Cape Province through creating employment opportunities, skill development, availability of goods and services such as financial loans. Therefore, the support for entrepreneurship culture is important for social entrepreneurship growth in order to enhance its contribution to poverty reduction. The study recommends that the government of South Africa and other vi relevant stakeholders should create conducive environment for social entrepreneurs to flourish and grow in the country to reduce poverty significantly. The growth of social entrepreneurship can lead to substantial benefits for the marginalized and vulnerable segments of the societ