“This is according to a recent policy paper on South African township economies, “Supporting Small-Scale Micro-Entrepreneurship in South Africa’s Townships”, released by the World Bank.”

“The paper includes interviews, focus group discussions and data from 75 micro-enterprise owners in Ivory Park, Marikana and Langa.”

“Of the surveyed businesses, 29.3% dealt in takeaways, 12% were spaza shops and 10.7% were in beauty services.”

“Among survivalist entrepreneurs, 38.9% operated takeaways, and 16.7% operated in beauty services.”

“The majority of survivalist entrepreneurs generally earned an average monthly income of between R1,000 and R5,000, while sustainable entrepreneurs earned relatively higher, between R5,000 and R10,000, the paper said.”

“The report said 66.7% survivalist entrepreneurs were female, while 61.5% of sustainable entrepreneurs were male.”

“A higher proportion (71.8%) of sustainable entrepreneurs had completed secondary school than their survivalist counterparts (66.7%).”

“the minister of small business development, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, said the department planned to formalise 11,000 informal enterprises, provide business development interventions for 26,000 township and rural enterprises and offer business skills training for 25,000 small businesses.”