The results of a recent survey done on entrepreneurship in South Africa were released a few weeks ago. This article from The Fin24/Entrepreneurship site:

 One in six adults in SA is a small business owner, according to FinScope SA's Small Business Survey for 2010.
Released on Friday, the survey also indicated that two-thirds of these businesses did not employ anyone other than the business owners, and 79% were involved in product sales.
"Woman are more likely to be small business owners, although small businesses owned by men are more likely to render services and to employ other people," the survey found.
Two-thirds of small business owners needed start-up money and most of these funds came from own sources, with 37% claiming to have borrowed from other sources.
Only 5% of small business owners claimed to have current borrowing or loans for the business, and 39% claimed to save for business purposes.

Read more and the many different responses to this here.