To conduct a retail and services sector foreign ownership study. This study aims to understand the nature of the local small-scale retail and services sector in the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN), with a particular focus on the extent, profile and socio-economic impacts of activity and ownership by business people who are not of Bafokeng origin. The study will be carried out jointly by the research team in Protective Services and the RBN’s Research & Knowledge Management (RKM) Department in April-October 2014.
The Protective Services Research Unit to conduct a walking field survey of foreign-run shops on RBN land;
Two experienced researchers to enter all visible shops, workshops and service businesses (salons, etc.) and interview the managers or owners of all 201 identified foreign-run businesses;
Visits to the main wholesale stores mentioned by the shop managers;
Protective Services and the RBA RKM to jointly conduct additional interviews with three foreign shopkeepers, two Bafokeng shopkeepers and three Bafokeng landlords;
Existing quantitative datasets generated by the Research & Knowledge Management Department (Ntshegetse 2014, covering all structures in the RBN) to be analysed to quantify and spatially located all businesses on RBN land;
Existing regulatory frameworks to be analysed through a review of documentation and interviews with the RBA Land Affairs Department;
A literature review to be conducted regarding the social and economic impacts of foreign shopkeepers in other communities and contexts; and
