Corporate Social Responsibility and Gender Perspective: The case of Tshwane, South Africa

Abstract

The pre-colonial system in South Africa has left the country with many social ills such as inequalities in income distribution, a lack of infrastructure and of critical concern, educational disparities. Since 1994 there have been important efforts made in combating social imbalances through different social programs and various public initiatives in order to redress the societal impacts to build a better life for all. SMEs are thus regarded as engines of growth for emerging countries and as a stimulus of job creation. Women on the other hand, have emerged significantly in the arena and play in the same field as their male counterparts to shape the business landscape in terms of procedures, accounting, sustainability, and  environmental and social responsibility that successful businesses normally follow. With that in mind this paper aims to look at the challenges faced by women operating in Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in their daily operations, and also to establish whether they are creating a meaningful contribution to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their business environment. The findings revealed that women entrepreneurs operating as SMEs in Gauteng still have a long way to go in employing CSR.  Reporting to internal and external stakeholders is still a nightmare. Finally it was observed that women operating as SMEs were not much focussed on CSR. The study used a quantitative method approach and 150 structured questionnaires were administered purposely and respondents were  randomly selected in the three Tshwane Townships.

Keywords: Women entrepreneurs, SMEs, Tshwane, CSR, Good Governance, Stakeholders and Local municipality