The purpose of this article is to make a contribution towards greater success with the promotion of entrepreneurship in South Africa. Unemployment in South Africa is a large and growing problem which cannot be solved by merely intensifying existing measures of employment creation. The promotion of entrepreneurship is therefore suggested as a supplementary approach to solving the unemployment problem. The lack of success with the promotion of entrepreneurship in the past indicates the need for an alternative paradigm. The concept of development, as understood by the social systems approach, is suggested as such an alternative paradigm of entrepreneurship. A framework of aspirations, abilities and context is derived from this paradigm to put existing measures for promoting entrepreneurship into perspective. Together with the findings of an empirical investigation into entrepreneurship in the Coloured community in the Southern and Western Cape, this classification is used as a basis for recommendations and suggestions for more effective promotion of entrepreneurship.