This paper seeks to analyse the state of township economies bearing in mind both challenges and opportunities available to this sector. Scheba and Turok (2019) further add that the township economy is a spatial concept, and is not like the ‘informal economy’, which refers to unregulated economic activities irrespective of their location. Township entrepreneurs operate these enterprises to meet the needs within and beyond the township and therefore can be understood as township enterprisesdistinguished from those operated by entrepreneurs outside the township. Subsequently, the township economy is currently attracting a great deal of policy interest in South Africa, primarily as a result of the persistence of concentrated poverty, unemployment and the lack of economic transformation since democracy, which is intrinsically linked to the historical of these areas.Īccording to the Gauteng Township Economy Revitalisation Strategy 2014-2019, the township economy”refers to enterprises and markets based in the townships.
Asad Alam, the World Bank Group country director for South Africa, states that addressing the spatial inequalities reflected in townships is essential to improving the lives of its people. According to Currin (2020), South African townships remain as they were initially conceived, that is, spatially disconnected and alienated from mainstream economic activity.
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