5.1.3 Social entrepreneurship

News article

A spoonful of sugar: how South Africa’s weigh-and-pay shops are tackling ‘poverty tax’ head on

Run by a social enterprise, the six shops operate from shipping containers across Johannesburg’s Alexandra township and sell food and household goods by weight in small, affordable amounts

The Guardian · 14 September 2026

Key terms

• Alternative trading network
  • A trading system that pays producers more fairly than conventional trade. It links producers, often small farmers or workers in lower-income countries, with certifiers, brands and shoppers who accept rules such as a guaranteed minimum price and an extra premium for community projects. Fairtrade is the best-known example.

• Corporate social responsibility
  • A self-regulatory business model practised by large and small companies. The concept allows businesses to be socially accountable to their stakeholders and the public. By adopting clear CSR strategies, companies accept responsibility for their impact on society (including all economic, social, and environmental aspects).

• Fairtrade
  • A system of certification that aims to ensure a set of standards are met in the production and supply of a product or ingredient. For farmers and workers, Fairtrade means workers’ rights, safer working conditions and fairer pay. For shoppers it means high quality, ethically produced products.

• Microfinance
  • Microfinance is a type of banking that provides financial services to low income individuals or groups of people who would otherwise have no access to finance.

• Social entrepreneurship
  • A way of addressing human development goals by using business techniques and principles which focus on benefiting society rather than solely pursuing profits.