An exploratory study of social enterprise capacity at the Grinacker Development Centre, in Thokoza

M.A.Social enterprises are unique in that they serve as potential answers to the socio-economic challenges faced by South Africa. There is growing support for social enterprises, which are viewed as relatively new phenomena in the country. However, social enterprises have existed in varied forms for some time, in the structures of non-governmental organizations of a profit or non-profit-making type. The added benefit of social enterprises is that of skills development or capacity building, of both the enterprise membership and the community members. Thus the public-private partnership between government and social enterprises is of utmost importance in addressing the socio-economic challenges faced by the poverty stricken majority in the country. This study explored the capacity of social enterprises based at the Grinacker Development Centre in Thokoza, one of eight similar centres under the custodianship of the Health and Social Development Department in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, east of Gauteng. The motivation for the study arose out of the student’s experience of social enterprises in the work environment. These social enterprises continued to be dependent on government funding despite an expectation that they should be a key role-player in job creation. The literature review in this study focused on the significance of social enterprises within the theoretical framework of social development, community work and community development, including community economic development and the community education models. The concepts of self help and the asset based (strengths) approach were also highlighted. A qualitative study approach was adopted to understand the situation from the perspective of the participants. The study design was both exploratory and descriptive as the intentions of the objectives were to describe capacity building programmes that the selected social enterprises were exposed to from 2007 to 2010; to establish the strengths of the participants and observe the assets found within the social enterprises, to identify challenges experienced by the social enterprises towards the achievement of organizational and economic sustainability and to formulate conclusions and recommendations designed to contribute to the promotion of sustainable social enterprises. Subsequent to a pilot study, eleven members from seven social enterprises from the Grinacker Development Centre at Thokoza participated in this study from the original fourteen selected, based on non-probability sampling criteria. A guided interview approach was followed and the study was completed between late August and early September 2011. The main findings of the results were: Training is not planned, structured nor consistent. Most of the training that is conducted is based on the needs of the organizer or training provider of the training. Training is seldom requested and arranged by the potential trainees. Language consideration for the purpose of understanding does occur in many cases (50 % in the study undertaken). Assessment of the trainees needs prior to and subsequent to the training takes place infrequently. After-care support and mentorship was rarely provided either by the training providers or funders although it was seen as valuable in the form of monitoring and evaluation. Although training manuals were provided in most training it was hardly used as a reference. Practical suggestions were made by the participants in terms of the training process, content and training providers based on their experience