Challenges facing small black business in securing viable and sustainable contracts

M.B.A.The Black enterprise sector in South Africa has, despite a long history of exclusion and restriction, substantial potential to help distribute employment, income, and wealth more equitably between whites and blacks. This report summarizes research on the subject and attempts to evaluate realistically the potential role that small black enterprise can play in this effort. It also examines the challenges and constraints that face small black businesses. South Africa's small black business is highly constrained by the restrictions that apartheid placed on the establishment of businesses, on the opportunities for skilled employment, and on the educational opportunities for blacks as well as by the restrictions affecting the spatial arrangement of cities (Riley, 1993: ix) Despite severe constrains, evidence of dynamic growth does exist, notably among small light manufacturing enterprises, whose incomes and employment are above averages for the sector. Also, the incomes of even the most survival-level businesses are critical to the survival of many households. The small black businesses has two distinct roles that deserve to be supported in any project or policy intervention: it is a residual employer with an important role to play in improving welfare and alleviating poverty, and it is a source of dynamic and potentially dynamic firms that create wealth and generate employment. (Riley, 1993: ix) Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa in April 1994, the government has come up with concerted efforts to create a conducive environment for developing Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), particularly from historically disadvantage individuals (Petje: i) Approach chosen for the study was to personally interview eight respondents both from established business and black small businesses with the aid of a structured interview schedule. Questions were open ended and allowed for self expression by the respondents. The nature of the research was to be investigative rather than to provide statistical measure of dependency