The relevance, practicality and viability of spatial development initiatives: a South African case study

Abstract

AbstractPolicymakers have for long had an ambivalent attitude towards space and have been hesitant in dealing with intra‐national models of uneven development. Issues surrounding regional development have always been tainted with ideological and political influences rather than being a purely economic consideration. This article addresses the thinking behind regional development policies and questions the role of spatial policy. It confronts this question in the South African case where local government capacity is particularly constrained and the boundaries between government tiers unclear. The first section outlines a selected critical history of the regional policy literature as it applies to South Africa. This is followed by an examination of South Africa's post‐apartheid policy of spatial development initiatives (SDIs) focusing on the most contentious of these, namely the Fish River SDI, which has been plagued by controversy. It focuses on the tensions involved in development planning between government agencies and between politicians and technocrats. It also highlights the growing schism between government and civil society with the former emphasising mega‐projects which reinforce its global competitive strategy but with limited apparent benefit to the local community. Lastly, it concludes that little effort was made to integrate the SDI into a provincial poverty strategy and argues that instead of utilising industrial decentralisation to redress inequality and poverty, a ‘first‐best’ option may be for the government to target poverty directly by investing in various forms of human capital. Such an approach would lead to long‐term economic growth and also improve South Africa's international competitiveness. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.