The effectiveness of local economic development programmes in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality

Abstract: The aim of this research is to review the extent to which the Ekurhuleni municipality’s local economic development (LED) supports its development programmes and initiatives in the northern region of Ekurhuleni. South Africa, like most developing countries, is faced with high levels of unemployment and the country’s municipalities have a role to play in creating opportunities for small businesses to grow with as much support as possible from each municipality. Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has its own challenges in terms of the growth and development of small business. The literature review suggested that LED programmes have yielded mixed results in communities as some tend to be pro-growth and not pro-poor oriented. This means that a person with limited resources but a good business idea might not find the LED supportive because the LED is not pitched to help the micro business while a more potentially profitable business with lots of resources might find the LED offerings useful. A literature review is presented which covers the past research and theory of LED, also evaluating the success of LED within the South African context, highlighting the challenges and implementation in South Africa. In South Africa LED is considered as a local community’s response to local initiatives with the community taking ownership of the development process. This research sought to investigate the background of the LED programmes offered by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality to small business in the area of Edenvale and, whether the LED offerings are considered effective, or not, by the gaining the personal perspectives of selected small business in that municipal area. Qualitative research theory was applied using semi structured questions to gain rich insights. Fourteen respondents were interviewed, they are SMMEs within the same geographic area as the researcher’s SMME. The highlight of the findings was discovering that the many small to medium business enterprises (SMMEs) were not aware of the services that the municipal LED unit provides indicating that there were poor information communication channels between the LED unit and SMMEs. The researcher recommends the use of road shows, workshops and information sessions to bring awareness to local community SMMEs.M.Com. (Business Management