Abstract
South Africa adopted a National Development Plan (NDP) (2013), referred to in the National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF) (2019) as a ‘super plan’, to transform national space economy and in the process disrupt the apartheid spatial logic. The South African National government adopted a series of acts and policies; sector plans and programmes, as well as strategic infrastructure investment programmes to eliminate the triple challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty. This requires a strategic response, including a reorientation of selecting specific cities or regions as preferred locations to create development opportunities. Such a strategic response would require justifiable spatial solutions that can promote economic development. The article focuses on development corridors as a potential solution, elevating the importance of regional attractiveness as essential for economic growth. It is anticipated that the evolution of development corridors will result in the strengthening of cities and regional centres linked to the benefits exerted by corridors, on the one hand, and strong intra-national and interregional economic integration, on the other. The article concludes that development corridors are created to seek development opportunities, thereby increasing the spatial attractiveness of regions and cities that may provide for better economic spaces in South Africa.
Highlights
To eliminate the main challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty, the National Development Plan (NDP) (South Africa, 2013a: 24) proclaims “South Africa needs an economy that is more inclusive, more dynamic and in which the fruits of growth are shared more equitably”
The South African National government adopted a series of acts and policies; sector plans and programmes, as well as strategic infrastructure investment programmes to eliminate the triple challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty
The National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF) (South Africa, 2019: 24-38) states that the transformation of national space economy needs to be understood against disrupting the apartheid spatial logic
Summary
To eliminate the main challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty, the National Development Plan (NDP) (South Africa, 2013a: 24) proclaims “South Africa needs an economy that is more inclusive, more dynamic and in which the fruits of growth are shared more equitably”. The National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF) (South Africa, 2019: 24-38) states that the transformation of national space economy needs to be understood against disrupting the apartheid spatial logic This requires a stronger focus on areas where sufficient agglomeration economies exist, which, according to Drewes (2015: 61), maintains that economic space development is the outcome of selecting specific cities or regions as preferred locations to create development opportunities, i.e. spatial targeting. The agglomeration of economies at interdependent locations such as cities and city regions can lead to the creation of competitive advantages (Strzelczyk, 2015: 10; SACN, 2016: 29) New concepts such as spatial attractiveness (the capacity to attract new investment and development opportunities) for promoting regional economic development are becoming a growing importance for all spheres of government (Snieska, Zykiene & Burksaitiene, 2019: 928). There are different research techniques, this article employed a quantitative approach, which is central to the process of measurement, i.e. it provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships (spatial relationship between regional centres based on numerical algorithms), which is the core logic
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