In South Africa, the broad unemployment rate for Africans has remained near or
above forty percent for most of the last ten years. One critical reason is the
relatively low level of employment in small-scale entrepreneurial work. This
paper explores the factors that constrain individuals from engaging in selfemployment
activities in a large township in Cape Town. Crime is perceived to
be the dominant hindrance to entering the micro-enterprise sector. A number of
other hindrances, including capital constraints, transportation costs, and
community jealousy, are on par or surpass concerns over profitability or
government regulation. These findings are robust to a series of alternative
ranking scheme.