Contemporary South Africa is a state of contradictions. It is a country well-endowed with natural resources, relatively cheap labour and a well-established corporate/private sector. The political emancipation in 1994 was met with much fanfare and promises and expectations of economic freedom. What escaped the political and economic discourse of the majority of the citizens was the damage inflicted by state-supported business practices on the most vulnerable of the society. The majority of the African poor had justifiable expectations that the state would provide sustainable services and opportunities that were denied under the apartheid system, but the underlying ideology underpinning the reform initiatives had other consequences. Looking into the role the corporate sector and state could play to alleviate poverty, the relations that characterised the dawn of the democratic state was one of suspicion and mistrust (by the state) of es