Green Economy and SMEs in South Africa: How Green are South African SMEs?

Germinah Evelyn Chiloane-Tsoka

doi:10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p181

Abstract

The setting up of intellectual property support platform in South Africa has been intended to stimulate the development of technology-based services, products, enterprises, and encouraging investment. This initiative is at the heart of the South African National Development Plan (NDP) of 2030. Again, green technology has become a necessity in modern society that in the absence of adequate knowledge will weigh at the expense of any economic objective of any scale to achieve. Green economy has been seen as a great opportunity to boost the global economy and South Africa sees the necessity not to delay to involve its society and already has set targets for 2020 and beyond in the transformation of the natural resource reserves at disposal. A successful South African green economy development would profit the sub-Saharan region and reciprocally, the region would be of an ultimate prospect to benefit the country assuming its position of the regional hub. With this in mind the paper intends to review how possible can an adjustment of SMMEs to green economy occur. SMMEs are the engine of the global economy and the South African economic development aim is a shift to high-value, knowledge-intensive products. The objective of the paper is a conceptual framework and it is based on secondary data collected from government reports, books, internet, archives and current journals, and online publications. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p181

Highlights

Green economy is likely to take up all business sectors on the most basic ground of doing business as usual but in an alternative approach that enhances performance in terms of environmental sound output
The creation of knowledge is essential in order to understand new technologies baseline of green economy
Based on the SA diverse plenty of natural resources the promotion of equity and inclusion in the economic benefits of these resources through green economy implementation will act as enabler of sharing the worth to all the citizens of the country

Summary

Introduction

Green economy is likely to take up all business sectors on the most basic ground of doing business as usual but in an alternative approach that enhances performance in terms of environmental sound output. South Africa for the green development is part of the strategy of paving a path for the economy as a whole to benefit from country’s natural resources. South Africa’s vision for green technology like platinum based hydrogen fuel cell technology for the onsite energy generation is to develop a number of niche applications in the country and, business wise, conquer the Southern African region. The strategy to a better intervention to the shared benefits by the South African initiatives is to occur in a decentralised nature which SMEs are to play a major role to contribute to the dissemination of services to end-users that are to be supplied even to deep rural areas. The knowledge, awareness, readiness and participative intervention capacity by SMEs on high technology will definitely require high knowledge skills if they have to play their traditional role of contributing to job creation and sustain themselves in the new arena (Mabiza, 2013)

Background

The South African Perceptive of SMEs

Challenges Likely to be Faced by SMEs to Going Green

Financing

Appropriate Regulation and Incentives

Conclusion

Recommendations

Findings

Managerial Implications