Income generation, local economic development and community development: paying the price for lacking business skills?

The introduction of the notion of developmental local governmentas entrenched in the South African constitution in 1994 hasrequired municipalities and cities to consider initiatives toenhance their local economies. At the same time, the socialwelfare paradigm has shifted from one of welfare to development.One way of ensuring the sustainability of this developmentalparadigm is to embark on income-generating projects or businesses.The Free State provincial government created various projectsto develop local economies and to establish income-generatingprojects with a view to making people more self-reliant andtheir livelihoods more sustainable. This article aims to evaluatelocal economic development and income-generating projects inthe Free State province from the perspective of business principles.