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Using South Africa as an example, this article explores how the structure of production affects export diversification and economic growth. We show that the lagging process of structural transformation is part of the explanation for stagnant exports per capita in South Africa over the past 40 years. This slow structural transformation is shown to be a consequence in part of the peripheral nature of South Africa's productive capabilities: the country is specialized in sectors intensive in highly specific factors of production that cannot be easily redeployed to other activities. Using this methodology, we examine the sectoral priorities of the South African Department of Trade and Industry and explore the policy implications of the country's orientation in the product space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa has undergone a remarkable transformation since its democratic transition in 1994, but economic growth and employment generation have been disappointing. Most worryingly, unemployment is currently among the highest in the world. While the proximate cause of high unemployment is that prevailing wages levels are too high, the deeper cause lies elsewhere, and is intimately connected to the inability of the South African to generate much growth momentum in the past decade. High unemployment and low growth are both ultimately the result of the shrinkage of the non-mineral tradable sector since the early-1990s. The weakness in particular of export-oriented manufacturing has deprived South Africa of growth opportunities as well as of job creation at the relatively low end of the skill distribution. Econometric analysis identifies the decline in the relative profitability of manufacturing in the 1990s as the most important contributor to the lack of vitality in that sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the linkages between the manufacturing and services sectors, and between each of them and the rest of the domestic economy, based on analysis of input-output tables and employment trends. This reveals that manufacturing is particularly important as a source of demand for the services sector as well as the rest of the economy through its strong backward linkages, which suggests that in this respect a decline in manufacturing could negatively affect future growth. Services are especially important in terms of employment creation, both direct and indirect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stalled fertility declines have been identified in several regions across the developing world, but the current conceptualization of a stalled fertility decline is poorly theorized and does not lend itself to objective measurement. We propose a more rigorous and statistically testable definition of stalled fertility decline that can be applied to time-series data. We then illustrate the utility of our definition through its application to data from rural South Africa for the period 1990-2005 collected from a demographic surveillance site. Application of the approach suggests that fertility decline has indeed stalled in rural KwaZulu-Natal, at about three children per woman. The stall, some 20 percent above the replacement fertility level, does not appear to be associated with a rise in wanted fertility or attenuated access to contraceptive methods. This identification of a stalled fertility decline provides the first evidence of such a stall in southern Africa, the region with the lowest fertility levels in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building capacities and capabilities for international development is an ongoing subject for debate, further fuelled by recent interest in learning and knowledge. This article focuses on how, and the extent to which, individual learners in education and training programmes for development policy and management interact with their organisations to build capacities and capabilities. It demonstrates some of the ways that individual learning and organisational capacity are linked by examining case studies from Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The article reflects on the complex nature of this interaction and on the broader challenges of linking learning to development. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructure investment, especially in South Africa, is currently at the forefront of policy and public debate. But the term ‘infrastructure’ has a variety of definitions and interpretations; the reason for the various definitions is related to infrastructure's various impacts and incidence. Three levels of infrastructure are identified: local, national and transnational. Infrastructure at all three levels are subject to certain market failures which require some form of government intervention. Furthermore, theory postulates a number of benefits from infrastructure, both on economic growth and equity. Both the quantity (access to infrastructure) and quality (reliability of infrastructure or accompanying services) are important. Finally, empirical analysis tests whether these theoretical benefits are indeed realised. However, it seems as though infrastructure empirics are subject to a number of serious limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article questions some recent analyses which claim that global neo-liberal discourses are disseminated to shift the focus away from development towards a greater emphasis on security issues. Taking as its point of departure the analysis of empirical material from Cape Town, the article shows that security and development in South Africa were never separate concerns. After the ANC came to power in 1994 there was an effort to boost development efforts rather than security. However, these efforts were soon dwarfed by local circumstances, notably the pressure from local state employees who felt their jobs and lives to be under threat from the townships, and the changing nature of violence in the city. The first part of the article details the practices and discourses of state agencies; the second section analyses the consequences of reconfigured security and development concerns for the production of political subjectivity in South Africa's townships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that in most countries, the goal of job creation is of paramount political importance. From an economic perspective, however, the benefit of job creation by a project is measured by the amount that the wage bill exceeds the economic opportunity cost of the labor employed. Unlike the economic opportunity cost of capital and the economic cost of foreign exchange, no single national parameter can be estimated for the economic opportunity cost of labor. Unemployment in South Africa is high and concentrated in the unskilled or semi-skilled occupational categories but is quite low for those in the skilled occupations. Any unemployment in the skilled labor market is mainly structural unemployment. Overall the market for skilled occupations is relatively tight. Industries that employ less educated workers like construction, manufacturing and mining are getting more capital intensive and shedding jobs, while education intensive sectors such as financial services and trade are experiencing slight increases in the capital: labor ratio but are still creating additional employment.

Policymakers 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sustainable fiscal policy means that the public debt/GDP ratio remains stable over the medium to long term. If the real interest rate exceeds the real economic growth rate, the neoclassical prescription for fiscal sustainability requires government to run a sufficiently sized primary surplus in the medium to long term and not to dissave on average. The IMF, international investors and sovereign credit rating agencies use this neoclassical prescription as a measure of country risk. To create an environment friendly to foreign investors, the new South African government has, since it came to power in 1994, reduced the conventional budget deficit to below three percent of GDP to stabilise the debt/GDP ratio.

Reports on the resolution to the problems of low economic growth and worsening unemployment in South Africa. Development of business entrepreneurship; Flexibility in the labor market; Improvement in the quality of education.

Assesses the 2001/02 Budget from a long-term perspective in South Africa. Indication on the ongoing reform of fiscal policy; Discussion on the key policies issues raised by the Budget; Trends in and official medium-term projections of key fiscal aggregates; Emphasis on promotion of economic growth reforms by microeconomic reforms.

The Cape Town, South Africa 2004 Olympic bid presents a unique opportunity to examine the role of bid plan to contribute to the process of restructuring the apartheid city. The thrust of this article is to analyze and evaluate the bid in terms of its developmental aspects, to ascertain the urban significance of this theme, and to assess the role that this development ideology played in mobilizing support for the bid and legitimating its existence. It has been argued that in the current era, mega-events can be linked to the revitalization of city centres for purposes of leisure, entertainment and consumption as specifically postmodern urban traits. Juxtaposed next to this postmodern agenda lies a very oppositional theme of human development in the Cape Town bid, which attempted to redress a legacy of urban inequality. In actuality, adding human development to the pressures of mega-event planning may raise expectations that would surely have resulted in post-event criticisms for failure to substantially achieve development goals. Yet, on balance, it is refreshing to think beyond rationales and legitimations to the possibilities of harnessing such events for the broader public good.

Most of the land in South Africa is dominated by 45 million Whites. A tiny fraction of this key resource is designated for Black occupation in Black townships in White South Africa and for Black ownership in the ten "homelands." Several interrelated factors account for the lop-sided land distribution that exists in South Africa The two most important factors are the removal of native occupants from the majority of the land, accomplished by early Dutch settlers, and legislative measures that were designed to guarantee a White-controlled economy and foster economic development by assuring an abundant supply of disenfranchised and cheap black labor. The extent of the inequality in the land distribution suggests that, from the viewpoint of ownership and control, Blacks were better off prior to 1652 when the first Dutch settlers arrived at the Cape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the effects of capitalism on the labor reserves of South Africa. It discusses the views by development economists on the process of economic development. It illustrates the effect of capitalist development on the precapitalist sector. It describes the migrant labor system and the labor reserves in South Africa. It shows how individual decisions and market forces, operating within a particular and possibly endogenous political and institutional framework, have produced an outcome inimical to the people of the reserves.

South Africa has entered a period of national reconstruction following the first democratic elections in April 1994. The new Government of National Unity faces formidable challenges as a result of the critical problems inherited from apartheid. There are daunting problems facing South Africa. The centerpiece of the government's efforts to promote these goals is the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The RDP aims to bring about all-round socio-economic improvement, to focus the efforts of different levels and departments of government on this task and to make the process thoroughly participatory by mobilizing the resources of civil society to support it. The RDP represents a far-sighted attempt tackle the distortions of apartheid through a national reconstruction campaign. It seeks to balance radical reform with a process of change based on consensus. Some of the immediate obstacles to implementation are practical, including a shortage of experience among relevant actors, a need for more concrete plans and policies to be formulated, for project delivery and coordinating structures to be established and for extensive consultation and negotiation to be undertaken. Other obstacles are more political, reflecting the scope of the issues and interests at stake. The outcome may hinge on the emphasis the government attaches to socio-economic restructuring and redistribution against smoothing the political transition by proceeding through gradual compromise.

Attempts to establish whether or not the goals set out in the Growth, Employment and Redistribution macroeconomic strategy concerning employment-creating economic growth are attainable. Nature and extent of unemployment in South Africa; Examination of the ability of economic growth to create employment opportunities.

A community development program was implemented in the communities providing labor to a timber-producing company in a rural area of South Africa. The program was preceded by a survey that compared the life-styles and residential and work histories of residents in the different communities. The survey indicated that the degree of dependency on the company for facilities and services affected labor turnover and job advancement. Furthermore, community affairs were disorganized and, on average, income levels were below the Household Subsistence Level calculated for the area. The community development program was assessed over a 12-month period. Participation in community affairs by the local residents increased considerably during this time. This increased level of participation is interpreted within the framework of an attributional analysis of the learned helplessness theory. Aspects of the theory appear to require modification and reformulation if they are to be applied successfully to a community setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on conservation biology and the impact of neoliberalism in South Africa. According to him, the concept of preserving economic growth and conserving biodiversity simultaneously is not sustainable. He argues that the social sciences are less constrained by critical analysis of complex natural systems and empirical scientific research.

The article reports on the effort of the finance minister of South Africa, Trevor Manuel, in helping the country's economic growth. With a 41 billion Rand revenue overrun, Manuel has delivered a stimulus to economic growth in a generally expansionary budget. Manuel has increased the treasury's real growth domestic product growth to five percent for the next three years starting 2006.

The article reports on issues and topics related to the economic condition of South Africa. Indications show a positive sign of the country's economic performance. According to the International Monetary Fund, the 6 percent growth target before 2010 is achievable. This notion supports economists' views that South Africa is on a structurally higher growth path that is capable of delivering annual growth in excess of 4 percent for the next few years.

The article reports that South Africa' rapid pace of economic growth over the pat three years was well above a sustainable level of about 3.5 percent, according to a team of international economic experts led by Harvard University. The "potential" annual growth rate identified by the group advising the government is well below the Reserve Bank's estimate of 4.5 percent. South Africa's was unsustainable because it was driven by domestic demand, the panel said in final recommendations released by the treasury.

Reports that the economic development aid promised by the European Union following its proposal to cut sugar prices to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) producers is unlikely to benefit Southern African countries. Recommendation for a direct income support for European Union sugar beet growers from its agricultural budget; Proposal of the European Commission; Sugar trade agreements between ACP countries and the European Union; Plan of Swazibank to reduce lending to sugarcane-based businesses

The article reports that a Triple Alliance summing meeting held in October 2008 spelled out a shift in economic policy that would make South Africa a "developmental state." Under the new economic policy the motor for change would be an industrialization policy that will replace forces in directing investment.

The article reports that Finance Minister of South Africa Trevor Manuel stated that the economy will grow faster in 2005 than expected. Presenting the annual Medium Term Budget Policy Statement to parliament, Manuel raised the growth forecast from what is predicted in the budget in February 2005. The findings of a study suggest that jobs are being created at a faster rate than what is in the official employment figures and that the economy may be growing at the annual rate sought by government.

Reports on the topics discussed at a conference on microfinance held at Cape Town's International Convention Centre in South Africa. Ways of integrating the first and second economies; Possibility of creating a second tier of banking services that would offer products and services to the poor; Issue on building inclusive financial systems that will promote economic growth in the region.