The audit conducted over the past month-and-a-half, was facilitated by the Cape IT initiative (CITI), the Western Cape Provincial Government, the City of Cape Town and open-source magazine, Tectonic.
The audit was the result of the first OSS workshop held in Cape Town two months ago. The aim was to ascertain where skills currently lie and where there is a need for skills development.
Responses came from companies offering OSS sales and support in the Western Cape region.
'For an initial call to action, we had a good response with 75 valid forms. The questionnaire was analyzed and the results have further validated the fact that the Western Cape is abuzz with open-source activity,' comments Masedi Molosiwa, executive director of CITI.
Of the 75 respondents, 44 or 57 percent of the companies began, in or after, 2000, showing that in the last few years OSS has gained an enormous following in the Cape region.
In addition, 17 percent have been operating for only 12 to 18 months, further emphasizing the validity of OSS as a viable business proposition.
49 percent have a staff complement of five or less, while 21 percent have between six and 20 staff members. Only 11 percent of respondents have between 20 and 100 employees and only four companies, or 6 percent, have more than 100 employees.
(It must be qualified and said that only 87 percent of companies responded to this question)
'It is heartening to see that 13 percent of companies are 100 percent black-owned and a further 19 percent meet current BEE compliancy.
"A large number of the remaining companies indicated that they were actively pursuing empowerment initiatives and many expected to meet criteria in the next 24 months,' explains Molosiwa.
One real cause for concern was the low number of respondents who have learnership programs in place - only 12 percent.
'The lack of learnerships in the sector is understandable given the size and nature of many of the companies that responded to the survey.
"Encouraging the implementation of learnerships through incentive programs would likely be of benefit to the entire sector, and to the long-term health of the sector in the region,' comments Alastair Otter, editor of Tectonic.