Development In South Africa Research Articles

Exploring the Adequate Strategies Adopted By Women to Sustain the Growth and Development of Entrepreneurship in the Nkonkobe Municipality, Eastern Cape

Women entrepreneurs can contribute significantly to economic development in South Africa, but their contribution has not been adequately studied and developed. This study examined the adequate stra...

Reducing the Role of the Food, Tobacco, and Alcohol Industries in Noncommunicable Disease Risk in South Africa.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) impose a growing burden on the health, economy, and development of South Africa. According to the World Health Organization, four risk factors, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets, and physical inactivity, account for a significant proportion of major NCDs. We analyze the role of tobacco, alcohol, and food corporations in promoting NCD risk and unhealthy lifestyles in South Africa and in exacerbating inequities in NCD distribution among populations. Through their business practices such as product design, marketing, retail distribution, and pricing and their business practices such as lobbying, public relations, philanthropy, and sponsored research, national and transnational corporations in South Africa shape the social and physical environments that structure opportunities for NCD risk behavior. Since the election of a democratic government in 1994, the South African government and civil society groups have used regulation, public education, health services, and community mobilization to modify corporate practices that increase NCD risk. By expanding the practice of health education to include activities that seek to modify the practices of corporations as well as individuals, South Africa can reduce the growing burden of NCDs.

From the RDP to the NDP: A Critical Appraisal of the Developmental State, Land Reform, and Rural Development in South Africa

ABSTRACTAfter decades of neoliberal rule in which market forces held pre-eminence in shaping development, there has in recent years been a resurgence of an activist developmental state in promoting economic development and tackling poverty and inequality. This article explores the resurgence of developmental state thinking in South Africa. Specifically, the article critically appraises the functioning of the post-apartheid state as it relates to land reform and rural development and argues that a weak bureaucracy and a policy fixation on the neoliberal willing buyer, willing seller policy framework militates against the promotion of a thorough-going land reform and rural development programme to promote rural livelihoods. We argue that South Africa needs a developmental state that will construct a skilled and competent bureaucracy, a centralised planning agency with the power to coordinate and ensure that government departments work together, and that will actively intervene in the economy to meet developmental objectives.

Perception-based analysis of climate change effect on forest-based livelihood: The case of Vhembe District in South Africa.

Forests are vulnerable to climate change and are also major sources of livelihood for many rural households in Africa. This study examines rural people’s perceptions of climate change impacts on forest-based livelihoods using rural communities of Vhembe District in South Africa as a case study. The study was based on the principles of perceived impact-based assessment, and sustainable livelihoods framework. Using the stratified proportionate random sampling procedure in combination with weighted Enumeration Area for the selected communities, 366 households were chosen and interviewed. Data analysis involved computing frequencies and conducting the Chi-square, binomial tests and binary logistic regression analysis. The respondents identified erratic rainfall, extreme temperature, extreme drought and flooding as key climatic events in their community. But not all identified key climatic events were perceived to constitute risk to forest products and forest-based livelihood. Only extreme drought was indicated to constitute risk to availability of forest products. In addition, the binary logistic regression showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the perceived risk of climate change to the availability of essential forest products across the three municipalities. Hence the need for forest development initiatives that target vulnerable forest products per community as a means of enhancing resilience of forest-based livelihood to climate change impacts in rural community development in South Africa.

Neural networks, real patterns, and the mathematics of constrained optimization: an interview with Don Ross

DON ROSS (Winnipeg, 1962) is professor of economics at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and is program director of methodology at the Center for Economic Analysis of Risk (CEAR) at the J. Mack Robinson School of Business at Georgia State University (USA). He is co-founder of the Research Unit in Behavioral Economics and Neuroeconomics (RUBEN) at the University of Cape Town. From 2012 to 2014 Ross was chair of the executive board of the International Network for Economic Method (INEM), and remains an active member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Economic Methodology, Biological Theory, and Bioeconomics. He holds a PhD in philosophy of science (1990) from the University of Western Ontario.The scope of Ross' work is staggering. His areas of specialization span economic methodology, game theory, experimental economics of risk and time preferences, addiction and impulsive consumption, the history of economics, and philosophy of science (from logical positivism to scientific metaphysics). Moreover, he has published, refereed, and organized symposia on topics as diverse as biological evolution, human language and signalling dynamics, artificial intelligence (AI) and artificial life modelling, connectionist theories of cognition, cognitive learning theory, analysis of econometric methods, political economy of international trade, African industry studies, and economic development (with emphasis on development in South Africa).Ross' published monographs include: Philosophy of economics (2014), Economic theory and cognitive science: microexplanation (2005), What people want: the concept of utility from Bentham to game theory (1999), and Metaphor, meaning and cognition (1993). His collaborations include Scientific metaphysics (2012, with James Ladyman and Harold Kincaid), Distributed cognition and the will (2007, with David Spurrett, Harold Kincaid, and G. Lynn Stevens), Handbook of the philosophy of economics (2009, with Harold Kincaid), Midbrain mutiny: the picoeconomics and neuroeconomics of disordered gambling (2008, with Carla Sharp, Rudy E. Vuchinich, and David Spurrett), Every thing must go: metaphysics naturalized (2007, James Ladyman), and Dennett's philosophy: a comprehensive assessment (2000, with David Thompson and Andrew Brooks). To date, he has published upward of fifty scholarly articles, three dozen book chapters, and a score of reviews and review articles. He has also contributed over a hundred mass-market articles on trade and industrial policy in Africa.In this interview, professor Ross explores his intellectual roots and surveys his transition from cognitive scientist to economist. He discusses his involvement with Daniel Dennett, the virtues of economic optimization theory, and the merits (and demerits) of integrating economics with its neighbour disciplines.EJPE: The story of your academic training is very interesting: You started out as a philosopher interested in cognitive science-how did this segue into studying economics? Can you say a little bit about your background as a philosopher and your early interests in cognitive science?DON ROSS: It was a rapid trip across a wide intellectual landscape. I started offbeing interested in continental philosophy, specifically Merleau-Ponty's brand of phenomenology. Then I read Doug Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach (1980), in my final undergraduate year, and was entranced by the deep intellectual roots of the study of machine intelligence. My alma mater, Western Ontario, was strong in cognitive science-Zenon Pylyshyn was there at the time-and it was possible to specialize in cognitive science within the philosophy of science PhD programme. But it was 1986, and the 'new' connectionism was just being born. I was sure that bringing a more biological flavour into AI made sense, so wanted to study that. But the necessary formalism for neural network modelling is the mathematics of optimisation, not formal logic as with classical AI. …

Technology Development in South Africa: The Case of Wind and Solar PV

This paper examines the political economy of technology development in the context of South Africa’s emerging utility-scale, privately generated renewable energy sector. Focussing on the wind and solar PV industries, the paper explores how international dynamics in manufacturing, investment and trade that involve increasingly global industries, are interacting with territorial factors embedded within South Africa’s unique economic, social and political context. While South Africa’s renewable energy industry has been celebrated internationally, there are tensions between commercial priorities, and requirements for economic development including local content. The paper merges perspectives from global production networks and the literature on technological innovation in low and middle income countries in order to analyse the potential for the development of innovative capabilities in South Africa’s renewable energy sector. The paper provides rich empirical content including challenges to the definition and implementation of local content requirements, as well as the involvement of key national and international actors.

Black Fathers’ Participation in Early Childhood Development in South Africa: What Do We Know?

This paper draws from an ongoing exploratory qualitative study, which uses semi-structured interviews to investigate the views of fathers about strategies to encourage men’s participation in early ...

Re-engaging with spatial economic development: The recent experience of regional and local economic development in South Africa

Local and regional development trajectories across the global north and south exhibit both convergent and divergent tendencies (Barca et al., 2012; Nel and Rogerson, 2009; Pike et al., 2014; Reddy and Wallis, 2012; Rogerson and Rogerson, 2010). One of the distinctive features of SouthAfrica’s development pathway in the post-apartheid era has been the reinvigorated embrace of regional and local development policy and interventions. This characteristic exemplifies the broader argument internationally that there has been ‘renewed emphasis upon the region as the locus for economic, social and political action and the roles of institutions in local and regional development’ (Pike et al., 2006: 130). Spatially based economic interventions have had a long and contested history in South Africa where support for marketbased interventions have sat uncomfortably alongside the direct pursuit of political objectives and of attempts to use economic support measures to achieve social and political outcomes. After Second World War and until the democratic transition of the early 1990s, Keynesian state thinking was used to justify the apartheid’s states efforts to divide and separately develop and economically support different parts of the country and different areas within cities on racially segregated lines. Parallel efforts included import-substituting industrialisation and a growth point strategy targeted to both develop the country’s peripheral areas and to offer national economic development opportunities for the racial reserves which had been established (Bell, 1987; Nel, 1999; Tomlinson and Addleson, 1987; Wellings and Black, 1986a, 1986b). After the 1994 political transition, there was an initial reluctance to engage in spatial interventions which were seen as being tainted by associations with apartheid planning (Oranje, 2010). Nevertheless, a number of spatially targeted interventions were applied

Paradigms and theories in water governance: the case of South Africa’s National Water Resource Strategy, Second Edition

This paper indicates the influence of paradigms and theories on the development of South Africa’s National Water Resource Strategy, Second Edition. Five paradigms exist: positivism, postpositivism, interpretivism/constructivism, critical theories and the participatory paradigm. I use the PULSE 3 framework for analysis that I developed to analyse the NWRS2. I found that positivism is the dominant paradigm influencing the NWRS2. I furthermore analyse the strategy through two alternative theories: agential power and the ambiguity theory of leadership. These theories are interpretivist/constructivist type theories. My argument is for the integration of paradigms through the utilisation of analytic eclecticism. In light of positivism’s dominance, I conclude that water research can be more innovative through the integration of paradigms and alternative theories. Keywords: water governance, paradigm, theory, policy, leadership theory, power

Thinking regionally: Aviation and development implications in the Karoo region, South Africa

ABSTRACTThis study focuses on regional economic development in South Africa, across provincial political jurisdictions. The article argues that remote hinterlands can be more usefully understood as forming an integrated whole, rather than functioning as the poor rural cousins of their provincial metropoles. This article considers three propositions: that key transport projects (such as airports) may unlock regional development; that this may stimulate regional spatial integration; and that this may spur the South African government to address its weak regional planning system. All three propositions are speculative, drawn from the international literature, but they contribute to an argument for greater spatial coherence in South African planning in rural regions. The argument is illustrated with reference to the Karoo region of South Africa, and the potential of a new airport to impact on regional economic dynamics. Furthermore, the article argues that such impacts will require new regional planning systems, which are currently absent from the South African political system.

The Importance of Effective Economic Regulation for Inclusive Growth: Lessons from South Africa's Renewable Energy Programmes

Economic regulation, including competition policy, is not an end in itself but a means to an end, and must ultimately have a positive impact on the economy as a whole. However, this positive impact needs to be broad-based or inclusive, particularly in the context of South Africa given its legacy of non-inclusive growth and persistent inequality. An area where increased participation is important in achieving more inclusive growth in a developing country context is in the procurement of large-scale infrastructure. The South African experience with procuring large-scale renewable energy-based electricity generation capacity carries interesting lessons in this respect.The paper reviews the development of South Africa's large-scale renewable energy sector from an economic regulation and inclusive growth lens. The regulatory framework governing the sector is examined, looking at both the policy and institutional environment, and their role in contributing to inclusive growth objectives. As such, the paper investigates the role that economic regulation can play in stimulating inclusive growth, through the promotion of both competitive and socio-economic outcomes. The paper also looks at the importance of factoring vested interests in order to maximize inclusive growth outcomes through economic regulation.

Inclusive local tourism development in South Africa: Evidence from Dullstroom

Growing international debates surround the notion of inclusive tourism development. The objective in this paper is to examine the issues around inclusive tourism development in South Africa through a locality study. The analysis focuses on the small town of Dullstroom which has experienced considerable tourism growth over the past decades as a consequence of its rich tourism products of fly-fishing, agritourism and second homes tourism. Findings are reported from qualitative interviews with black (African) employees of tourism establishments in Dullstroom. The results reveal tourism development in Dullstroom provides a range of positive economic and social benefits for local residents and that this small town exhibits evidence of an inclusive trajectory of tourism development.

A role for housing in development: Using housing as a catalyst for development in South Africa

In many parts of the world, housing is as an economic commodity, with the property acting as an asset that accumulates passive wealth for the owner. This trend stems from housing markets in the Global North, yet many formal housing markets in the Global South demonstrate similar characteristics. However, in the Global South, there is a prolific shortage of housing at every level; this has pushed many individuals to seek shelter in the informal housing sector. This situation has meant that the informal housing sector and any associated economic activities are lost to the official development agenda, and housing does not contribute fully to local economic development. This article explores the role of housing in development in South Africa and how a ‘developmental state’, with a housing-driven development strategy, can accelerate development at the local level.

Climate change, tourism and local economic development in South Africa

Climate change is a major factor impacting upon local economic development futures. South Africa is one of the most vulnerable parts of the world in terms of projected climate change. This article examines issues around climate change impacts for South Africa’s tourism sector and in particular implications for local economic development. It is argued that, whilst tourism represents one of the main drivers of local economic development in small towns and peripheral areas, as a result of capacity and financial constraints municipalities often struggle to undertake effective tourism planning. Accordingly, capacity building for tourism practitioners and policy makers around climate change must become an essential component of the roll out of government tourism support programming to enable South African local governments to manage and sustain partnerships with the private sector, to ensure a deeper understanding of how municipalities can manage the tourism assets within their areas, and to maximise the opportunities of tourism for local economic development.

Is South Africa's Great Karoo region becoming a tourism destination?

Desert tourism has grown steadily in several regions of the world, due to a post-modern fascination with remoteness, barrenness, silence and solitude. This paper evaluates the trend towards tourism development in South Africa's arid Karoo region. It utilises several methodologies – analysis of discourse, demand and supply – to track the changing profile of tourism in the Great Karoo. The paper concludes that the reputation of the Karoo has shifted profoundly from being hostile, dangerous and boring to being attractive, enticing and spiritual. At the same time, tourists are increasingly expressing favourable opinions of the Karoo as a destination, while accommodation facilities are growing apace. The overview also finds that tourism services in some Karoo towns are developing at a much faster rate than others, so the tourism performance is uneven. A survey of tourists in the Karoo found that the arid environment and small-town ambience offer significant attractions, and Karoo guest houses have a positive outlook for the future. These findings suggest that the Great Karoo is indeed in the process of becoming a tourism destination.

Planning for local economic development in spaces of despair: Key trends in South Africa’s ‘distressed areas’

South Africa’s distressed areas are the country’s spaces of despair. Alongside national government interventions designed to target spatial inequalities, there are Local Economic Development policy interventions taking place. The objective in this article is to analyse the state of current local economic development policy proposals in the municipalities that are categorised as part of South Africa’s distressed areas. After reviewing the roots and persistence of socio-economic and spatial inequalities in South Africa, attention turns to dissect the key challenges and directions of local economic development policy and planning across the distressed areas. The local economic development policy foci in distressed areas are described and set against a national profile for local economic development. Overall, it is argued that given the weak state of local economic development in South Africa, its constraints and limited successes, minimal prospects exist for local economic development plans across the distressed areas to impact substantially the structural nature of spatial inequalities in South Africa. New policy frameworks for local economic development in these areas are, therefore, needed.

Valuing IKS in successive South African Physical Sciences Curricula

The valuing of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) is one of the principles on which the South African school curriculum is supposed to be based. The purpose of this paper is to critique the treatment of indigenous knowledge in the South African secondary Physical Sciences curriculum against a backdrop of international debates on the relationship between IKS and science. Such debates usually take either an Inclusive perspective, where IKS are regarded as part of science, or an Exclusive perspective, where IKS and science are regarded as separate domains of knowledge. We identify a third perspective where IKS and science are viewed as intersecting domains. A document analysis of all national post-apartheid curriculum documents relevant to secondary Physical Sciences identifies only nine examples of IKS related to Physical Sciences in the latest curriculum documents (CAPS), although this is an improvement on the previous curricula. The curriculum documents reflect some confusion about the relationship between IKS and science, both in the wording and in the positioning of examples in relation to science content. Physical sciences curriculum development in South Africa appears to have gone through the stages of colonisation, decolonisation and neo-colonisation. We recommend the development of theory that addresses the role of valuing IKS in science classrooms. The Intersecting perspective offers promise as an approach to use in science classrooms, allowing the distinction to be made between pieces of indigenous knowledge that intersect with modern science knowledge and IKS as whole systems of thinking with distinctive worldviews.

Overview of Segregated Development in South Africa and Its Implications in the Provision of School Libraries

AbstractPrior to1994, South Africa’s education system was influenced by racial dynamics which had implications for the development, provision and distribution of human, financial and material resources. This paper presents the overview of segregated development in South Africa and its implications for the provision of school libraries, to support teaching and learning in selected schools in KwaZulu-Natal. It sets out to describe the understanding and the extent of segregated development in the provision of library resources at Gilonki Secondary school and to establish the perceptions of educators and school management for the importance of teaching and learning. This paper seeks to establish the policies/measures which were being put in place to redress these anomalies. Furthermore, this paper observes that development was retarded as evidenced by the poor provision of important resources such as school library services, resulting in poor learner performance, limited ability to excel in reading and mathematics, lack of appropriate study areas, and difficulties in providing extended tasks on class exercises, among other factors. The study concludes that segregated development has had negative implications for the provision of school libraries, and subsequently for the teachers’ and learners’ performances. The study recommends a swift rolling-out of processes to redress challenges of the past.

Risks and Benefits of Visibility: Librarians Navigating Social and Political Turbulence

The deliberate burning of libraries is nothing new, but it seems surprising that such incidents have also occurred in peacetime in democracies. What does this say about community perceptions of libraries and the response of the library profession? Mostly, libraries are not very newsworthy. In some countries they are largely invisible; in others they may only attract public attention when they are threatened by cutbacks or closures or when things go badly wrong. The visibility and invisibility of libraries in the political arena confer risks, as well as benefits. As a framework for an exploration of this topic, libraries in various countries are conceptualized as being located in the political space on a continuum, from invisible to highly visible, on which the risks of visibility and invisibility can be situated. Some observations, with particular reference to library development in South Africa, follow on how librarians see themselves and their institutions in relation to the communities and societies they serve. This paper concludes that the risks of invisibility outweigh those of visibility, but that the political awareness, engagement, and commitment of the library profession are critical.

Call for Special Edition : Tutoring and Mentoring – Key Strategies for Tertiary Educational Development in South Africa

Papers are invited which move beyond the specifics of programme application and outcome evaluations to exploring factors which could form the basis of student support theory and practice, without losing the specificities of discipline and context, so critical to making sense of an intervention. The issues of social justice and transformation underpinning such interventions are also pertinent, as are specific manifestations of these values. We invite papers that engage critically with questions such as these or introduce additional questions for the 5th volume (November 2017) of the Journal for Student Affairs in Africa. Papers can be conceptual or empirical but must address the concerns of the Special Issue clearly.