Corporate social responsibility a toolkit for SMEs efficiency in Tshwane, South Africa.

Abstract

The code of governance presents some fundamental core philosophy that is of significant milestone providing opportunities in shaping the business landscape in South Africa. Tough penalty clauses for non-compliance are designed to create effective leadership through the establishment of many guidelines 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 business owners 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 entrepreneurs in Gauteng operating as SMEs still have a long way to go in learning CSR. Reporting to internal and external stakeholders is still a nightmare if many SMEs on questioning indicated that they were concerned with the burdens of compliance and the cost of compliance. Finally it was observed that they were not much focussed on CSR. The study used a quantitative method approach and 200 structured questionnaires were administered purposely and respondents were randomly selected in the three Tshwane Township.