The focus of this study is on household income generation among previously disadvantaged households in South Africa. Households’ income sources are divided into categories that reflect differing extents of association with the core economy. Ensuing further justification by results from descriptive analyses, the income source categories are utilised as explanatory variables to investigate whether inter-household variation in income sources can explain variation in income levels. The third specification contains no income source variables but includes provincial locations as explanatory variables.