Entrepreneurship In South Africa Case Study

The importance of entrepreneurship in the development and growth of the South African economy.

To understand the importance of entrepreneurship in the development and growth of the country one must firstly understand the concept of entrepreneurship, Nieuwenhuizen and Oostuizen (2014:48) found that entrepreneurship is the behavior of focusing on opportunities and that it can happen in small, medium or large organizations. They explained it further by saying that it could be a feature of a manager, but that it is important that one understands that not all managers are entrepreneurs and that not all entrepreneurs are managers. Nieuwenhuizen and Oostuizen (2014:49) also explained that South Africa has to grow by 6% a year in the next few years

According to Timm (2013) South Africa shows relatively low interest in entrepreneurship, he investigated and found out that in 2012 only 2309 South Africans attended 16 events and workshops by 29 organizations regarding entrepreneurship which he compared to Brazil’s attendance of 1.6 million people to the same events. From this one can conclude that South Africa has a long way to go if we want to consider entrepreneurship a key role player in factors such as employment and GDP (Gross domestic product) figures. In a recent study by the GEM (global entrepreneurship monitor) South Africa’s rate of perceived entrepreneurial opportunities for its youth is 39%, which is the lowest of all sub-Saharan African countries, the average for this region is 70 % (SA must take entrepreneurship seriously, 2013). This means that for the few young and innovative entrepreneurs in South Africa there aren’t many opportunities to start a business which means that the importance of entrepreneurship in South African economy cannot be

Ekmekcioglu, 2012), from Dr. Ekmekcioglu’s statement we see that entrepreneurship clearly plays a huge role in the economy of any country and this also applies to South Africa. The country does need to up its view towards entrepreneurship as it does play a large role in our development and growth and yet, we see very little activity in this sector as illustrated through our TEA (total entrepreneurship activity) which is only 7% in comparison to the average of 13.1%(Nieuwenhuizen and Oostuizen,2014:49). From the above it is clear that entrepreneurship plays a huge role in the growth and development of the country, it is also clear that there is not enough entrepreneurial activity in South Africa. This can be due to various reasons, one of which is lack of education, as even though last year’s matric pass rate was 75.8% only 41.7% of students who entered in 2003 made it all the way to pass matric (SA’s ‘real’ matric pass rate, 2015).

Looking at entrepreneurial figures of developed countries like seen in the GEM studies, one can deduct that entrepreneurship is one of the key features in their sustained growth figures, South Africa as all other countries therefore relies heavily on entrepreneurship to lead our development and growth in the future. Which means that entrepreneurship is largely important if we strive to reach our vision