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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Small Business Policy: Stepping Down from the Side of the Angels |
Authors: | Godsell, Gillian Clark, Ian |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | Africa Insight |
Volume: | 19 |
Issue: | 4 |
Pages: | 213-217 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | middle class private sector small enterprises economic policy Development and Technology Economics and Trade |
Abstract: | The long-term goals of individuals and groups will shape their business interventions, and will have positive and negative consequences for small business. This article examines these expectations, some explicit and some implicit, some contradictory, and even some perhaps inimical to the development of small business, as they prevail in South Africa: small business has a major role to play in the reduction, and perhaps even the elimination, of unemployment and will improve the growth of the South African GNP; the development of small business will create a black middle class which will be politically conservative; the development of small business will lead to black economic empowerment which in turn will lead to emancipation. Another complex issue is whether or not small business is a reliable conduit for the redistribution of wealth. The conclusion is that if public resources are to be committed to the promotion of small business, a public policy is needed to explain both ends and means. What is needed in South Africa is a first-class small business development policy. Such a policy would put the individual entrepreneur first, rather than regarding him or her as a means to an end. Ref. The article is followed by a response by I. Hetherington, p. 218. |