Search

The most recent sub-prime crisis, the Euro-debt crisis and the global recessionary period have resurrected a debate on the nature of fiscal cyclicality in the South African economy. Previous literature on the South African economy has been inconclusive and we attribute this inconclusiveness to possible asymmetries existing in the fiscal cyclicities. Our study questions whether the cyclicality of public policy has evolved asymmetrically and holds differently over the recessionary and expansionary phases of the South African business cycle for a quarterly period of 2001:01 - 2018:04. To ensure that the business cycle is inherent to our estimation process we rely on the nonlinear autoregressive distributive lag (N-ARDL) model as empirical framework. For comparative purposes, we firstly examined fiscal cyclicality in fiscal expenditures by estimating the conventional ARDL using H-P filter to extract cyclical terms. Our preliminary results point to fiscal procyclicity in fiscal expenditures over the short-run but not over the long-run. However, in proceeding to our main empirical N-ARDL estimates, we observe nonlinear behaviour in the cyclicality of fiscal expenditures in which fiscal authorities behave procyclical in the upswing of the business cycle whilst behaving countercyclical during economic downswings. These findings are robust to alternative specifications, inclusion of control variables and estimations across different subsamples corresponding the pre- and post- 2007 financial crisis. Our findings have two important policy implications. Firstly, our findings reveal fiscal authorities have been implementing wrong policies during the upswing of the business cycle whilst implementing correct fiscal policies during the downswing. Secondly, our findings implore fiscal authorities to incorporate asymmetric fiscal cyclicality within the design of optimal fiscal policy rules in order to avoid making policy decisions based on inaccurate diagnosis of fiscal behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between household size and future health outcomes for children is of immense interest to economists, demographers and policy-makers especially in developing countries. One reason for this is that child health is a key determinant of future human capital. This is particularly important in South Africa with high levels of unemployment, poverty and gross income inequality. Moreover, the quantity-quality model of fertility indicates a trade-off of children's welfare with increasing family size. However, despite the forgoing, relatively little empirical research has been done regarding this nexus, especially in developing countries. Furthermore, while the few studies have mainly relied on cross-sectional data, this study takes advantage of the availability of the recent National Income Dynamic Study (NIDS) panel data set to empirically assess this link. We make use of both the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and the Control Function (CF) approaches to account for econometric issues such as heterogeneity, endogeneity and selection bias. These results suggest fertility choices have a significant association with child health. Moreover, younger children are more likely to be affected by increased household size. These results are concordant with theoretical expectations. From a policy perspective, these findings indicate that intensified child support is likely to improve child health outcomes in South Africa, particularly among the black racial group where fertility is comparatively higher. Moreover, family planning programs especially in the rural areas should be promoted with mobile clinics to improve access in the provision of free contraceptives, especially to women. In addition, the empowerment of women through provision of funding for schooling, skills development and. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the relationship between colonial education and economic growth are topics of growing interest, few studies have examined the influence colonial education on economic growth in South Africa. This paper uses archival data (derived from Bluebooks, De Zwart 2011, Statistical yearbook of the colony of Natal and Malherbe (1925)) from colonial South Africa over the 1859-1910 period to study the extent to which economic growth is influenced by education. The analysis applies fixed effect to account for unobserved colony-level heterogeneity and minimise the omitted variable bias. It also employs certain methods (such as Fixed effects two-stage least squares (FE-2SLS) procedure)) that account for a possible endogeneity bias caused by reverse causation between the dependent variable (growth) and our variable of interest (education). Our analysis yields two important results. First, the results suggest that levels of education (proxied by spending on education) have a robust positive impact on economic growth. The results are robust to addressing the potential reverse causality between education and economic growth and using alternative measures of education (proxied by enrolment rate). Secondly, the impact of education on economic growth appear to vary from one population group to another. Specifically, the effect of education on economic growth is found to be significantly higher for Europeans compared to natives groups, adding a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between education and growth in the South African context. The estimated coefficients of control variables such as natural resources present positive and significant estimates on economic growth, in line with many studies in developing countries which have found that discovery of natural resources favourably affects the rate of economic growth. Thus our results suggest that there is a need to think about how available resources could be used more efficiently to guarantee quality education for all and proposes that policy interventions in the historically disadvantaged schools and universities might have important implications to stimulate economic growth. This does not mean that historically advantaged schools must be ignored as biased educational policy that is not inclusive to all would lead to large educational gaps that can be persistent and destructive to the development of a country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the potential for cultural and creative industries to drive growth and job creation is increasingly recognised, developing countries like South Africa are examining their cultural goods and services trade in a new light. This article investigates the pattern of South Africa's cultural trade, with a focus on the strategically important BRICS trading bloc. Results show that, like many small, open developing countries, South Africa has a significant cultural goods trade imbalance, especially with China and India. While cultural trade policy is still somewhat fragmented, there are indications that where policies have been put in place, such as in the crafts and audio-visual sectors, progress in reducing significant deficits has been made. At the same time, the pattern of CCI trade preferences currently favours SADC, the EU and EFTA over BRICS partners. Finally, South Africa performs well in a number of services sectors for which cultural trade is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation for inclusive development (IID) is widely promoted as a policy objective in the global South, but the challenge is that there is little design and implementation of context-appropriate instruments and incentives. One critical foundation is network alignment – that innovation policy should be aligned with the goals and strategies of government departments responsible for promoting inclusive development (Von Tunzelmann, N, 2007. Approaching network alignment. Draft Paper for the U-Know Consortium: Understanding the relationship between knowledge and competitiveness in the enlarging European Union). The paper contributes by using qualitative analysis software to analyse the nature of shared policy goals and instruments in South Africa, and assess how these can be aligned with each other and with the goals of IID. Three main spaces for policy intervention are identified, to promote IID in a way that goes beyond the aspirational and the rhetorical. Such analysis of formal policy does not take into account the political will, capabilities and resources for implementation, but it does provide a systematic evidence base to effect strategic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is experiencing a growing recognition of the role of social dialogue in the pursuit of inclusive sustainable economic development. However, the sidelining of non-governmental actors in South Africa's local government-led development landscape has hampered this agenda. This alienating culture led to the establishment of local economic development agencies (LEDAs) as structures tasked with fostering a participatory approach to local economic development (LED) for an effective response to developmental challenges. This article explored the role of social dialogue in LED through a case study of one LEDA in South Africa. A qualitative approach was deployed by conducting semi-structured interviews with key gatekeepers in the LED space. The findings reveal that whereas social dialogue is embraced at the national level, there is minimal understanding and usage of social dialogue at the local government level. Nevertheless, social dialogue strategies (information sharing, consultation, negotiation, joint decision-making and problem-solving) are used by the LEDA and its various stakeholders. The article argues that there is a need to align the national social dialogue with the local social dialogue through LEDAs to strengthen institutional arrangements for LED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa has been a country that has captured the attention of the world for decades. It is a country that has undergone tremendous violence and upheaval during the apartheid years, transformed itself into a functioning democracy, and has become a welcome member of the global community. However, as South Africa settles into a post-apartheid democracy, there are growing reports of rising crime, violence, and persistent poverty. It is vital then that South Africa find a way to reframe the narratives surrounding the major cities in South Africa if the country wants to continue to grow their tourism sector, a sector that has become an important part of the local economy. This article focuses on the ways in which digital tourism literature is an important point of entry for international tourists that work to "sell the city." To illuminate the ways in which these websites are attempting to mobilize political, cultural, and historical resources to build an overarching identity for the nation to sell to tourists, I examine three prominent tourist websites run by the South African government to unearth implicit ideological narratives of the country. I conclude that these narratives work as discursive frameworks that serve two functions. One, they select, deflect, and reflect a "reality" of a post-apartheid South Africa that seems most likely to attract tourists--a nation that is safe, modern, unique, and (above all) consumable. Second, these narratives have real physical impact on a city. When tourist information frames cities, or parts of the city, as something distinct and thus worth visiting, I argue the city must shift to accommodate those expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When South Africa’s credit/debt landscape expanded during the 1990s, this was justified by some as a new form of inclusion but alleged by others to have intensified the power and profit of capitalism and acted to the detriment of householders, thus perpetuating ‘credit apartheid’. Yet, blame cannot be so easily assigned. Forces of state and market have intertwined to create a redistributive neoliberalism, enabling brokers - who have played a key role in establishing the current credit/debt landscape - to insert themselves into the interstices of the system, making money by adding interest at every point in the value chain. Apartheid’s spatial separations meant that traders - and later informal moneylenders - relied on agents to bridge the gap between themselves and the rural/township world of economic informality. Even attempts at credit reform have been complicated, and stalled, by the ongoing presence of intermediaries. The paper explores these dynamics, illustrating how difficult it is to separate bad from good protagonists or perpetrators from victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wave of upbeat stories on the developing world’s emerging middle class has reinvigorated a debate on how social class in general and the middle class in particular ought to be defined and measured. In the economics literature, most scholars agree that being middle class entails being free from poverty, which means being able to afford the basic things in life – not only today, but also tomorrow. In consequence, there is an increasing tendency to define the middle class based on a lack of vulnerability to poverty. In this paper, we strengthen and expand on these existing approaches in three ways: First, we incorporate the differentiation between the middle class and a (non-poor) vulnerable group into a broader social-stratification schema that additionally differentiates between transient and chronic poverty. Second, in estimating the risk of poverty, we employ a multivariate regression model that explicitly allows for possible feedback effects from past poverty experiences and accounts for the potential endogeneity of initial conditions, unobserved heterogeneity, and non-random panel attrition – four factors insufficiently addressed in existing studies. Third, we highlight the value of paying attention to these conceptual and modelling issues by showing that class divisions based on monetary thresholds inadequately capture a household’s chances of upward and downward mobility. We then apply our conceptual framework to the South African case. We find that only one in four South Africans can be considered stably middle class or elite. Access to stable labor market income is a key determinant of achieving economic stability. A lack of jobs as well as the prevalence of precarious forms of work drive high levels of vulnerability, which in turn constrains the development of an emergent middle class – not only in South Africa but potentially also in other parts of the developing world that face similar labor market challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African population is ageing in an interesting manner. The median age was 26 in 2015, but the proportionate share of older cohorts is increasing rapidly. The older cohorts face numerous challenges around economic participation. This article highlights the research findings of a statistical analysis of the population's demographic profile, a causal layered analysis to deepen the understanding of the problem, and the generation of a set of scenarios to imagine the plausible futures of economic participation by people aged 55 and older toward 2030. Findings indicate that planners who presently focus most of their efforts on the youth may be surprised by the exponential increase in the numbers of older people. The article further describes the use of the four causal layered analysis levels (litany, systems, worldviews and myths/metaphors) to give structure to and enable richer comparisons between the different scenarios in a set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to uncover the national intellectual capital (NIC) of South Africa by making comparisons with Poland and Romania.Design/methodology/approach Based on a database of an NIC measurement model spanning 2001-2015, this study plotted the development trend of the NIC and its component capitals – human, market, process and renewal capitals. Their correlations with GDP per capita (ppp) (GDP hereinafter) were also presented.Findings The NIC of South Africa is lower than that of both Poland and Romania. Except for the increase of its human capital together with its GDP, the other capitals have lower relevance. Poland experienced highly correlated growth for its NIC and GDP, shedding light for South Africa. The qualitative findings are also reported.Research limitations/implications The IMD database carries South African data only for the African continent. Therefore, this paper cannot cover other countries from the continent.Practical implications There are three implications from both the quantitative and qualitative analyses: initiate national transformation from the two core issues of education and health; invite and provide attractive incentives for South African returnees from abroad and members of local private sectors to take part in the national transformation efforts; and learn from the NIC development pattern of Poland and Romania by investing in market capital and process capital as soon as possible for faster results.Social implications The research findings of this paper unveil the root of the social problems in South Africa, including education, health, high unemployment and so on. Suggestions are provided for mid-term and long-term potential solutions.Originality/value This paper demonstrates the value of an NIC in the economically successful Poland whose growth and GDP growth occurred at a similar pace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction project managers come from diverse backgrounds and may, therefore, lack the knowledge set currently required in order to be competent and effective in practice. The aim of this article is to establish the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level of each type of knowledge area required for a competent and effective construction project manager in South Africa. These levels of knowledge are important, in order to develop a proposed construction project management knowledge model to be used by the construction industry. A mixed methods research design was used, including structured questionnaires (n = 40), interviews (n = 10), and a single case study. The questionnaire survey, using closeended questions measured on a 5-point Likert scale, tests the importance of and rated the NQF qualification levels of each knowledge type fit for project managers in the built environment. The rating assisted in knowing to what knowledge depth project managers need to be educated and trained. Interviews were conducted with 10 construction professionals to obtain their views on the importance of industry-specific knowledge of a construction project manager and to critically review the form of knowledge considered essential. The case study of a building project to the value of R35 million was used to gain understanding of the impact that industry-specific knowledge, or the lack thereof, may have on the successful completion of a project. Results showed that qualifications to gain industry-specific knowledge should at least be on NQF level 6; a qualification on NQF level 7 is recommended to gain adequate project management knowledge (theory). These findings are important, as some construction project management courses in South Africa are currently below NQF level 6. This may be contributing to industry not producing construction project managers with the required knowledge set. The proposed model outlines the adequate knowledge sets and level thereof that can be used when designing training and educational degrees for construction project managers. The proposed model could also be used in practice as a guideline for placing or promoting construction project managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth unemployment continues to be a burden and concern for the South African government. Being economically insecure, the situation is dire with the government needing to provide resources to a population who should be economically independent. There is a need to look at the social determinants of economic insecurity among youth in South Africa. Family formations could either promote or inhibit economic well-being. This article aims to assess whether economic security improves as youth enter into unions and/or have children. The South African National Income Dynamics Study is used. Unmarried youth with no children are measured at baseline (2008) and followed up over time to examine whether economic security status changes as union status changes. Results show that while economic security, employment (from 7.61% to 25.67%) and net income per month (from 19.48% to 32.79%) increase over time, youth who marry but have no children have the lowest risk of economic insecurity (relative risk ratio = 0.02, p < 0.05) compared with those who remain unmarried but have children. Special attention needs to be given to youth who have children and are unmarried and among those who marry and have children soon after. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines income dynamics and the existence of poverty traps in South Africa between 2010 and 2012 using panel data from the first three waves of the National Income Dynamics Study. In order to separate structural trends in income from stochastic shocks and measurement error, the paper makes use of an asset-based approach to estimate the shape of structural income dynamics in order to test for the existence of one or more dynamic equilibrium points. Contrary to earlier findings on South African data from 1993 and 1998, the results do not provide evidence for the existence of an asset-based poverty trap. Instead, the results seem to indicate the existence of a low-level equilibrium beyond which structural income remains very persistent. The robustness of the results is confirmed by making use of control functions in order to correct for any measurement error which may exist in the data on assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine underlying conflicts between technological capabilities and global production networks in South Africa's solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy industries. This includes an analysis of the complex and multi-scalar relationships that exist between international and local institutions, as well as the embedded nature of renewable energy technology within a national and international political economy. In South Africa's case, this encompasses endogenous factors such as the introduction of a regulatory framework for renewable energy independent power producers as well as international dynamics such as rapidly evolving trends in renewable energy investment, trade, and technology development. While South Africa's wind and solar industries have been celebrated internationally, tensions exist within national government between commercial priorities and requirements for economic development including local content. We provide an empirically rich description to explore how competition and manipulation have posed obstacles to the localisation of renewable energy technologies at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates stakeholder knowledge, attitudes, and public perception concerning biofuels as an enabler towards a bio-based economy. In innovation and adoption studies, perceptions play a critical role in the acceptance of a technology. Biofuels have been touted as a clean fuel with an ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously creating employment and growing economies. South Africa is in the process of transitioning towards a bio-based economy. Accordingly, policies and institutions have been developed to promote biofuels production and distribution. Knowledge, attitude and perception (KAP) surveys were carried out to deepen knowledge and understanding of the stakeholder's KAP. Emails as well as telephonic and group interviews based on open questions and social media were used to gather data. The study employed cluster, purposive random and snowball sampling to select the participants with descriptive statistics, thematic analysis and discourse analysis used to analyse the data. The study found that the introduction of biofuels presents many opportunities and benefits for the economy and unlocking the potentials for rural entrepreneurs. Stakeholders have concerns and issues regarding the use of biofuels on their internal combustion engines. The study recommends proper communication and education should be done on the benefits of biofuels in a bio-based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 7 of the NDP 2030 articulates a foreign policy vision for South Africa over two decades. While the NDP acknowledges the place of ‘soft power’ in realising this vision, it remains doubtful whether South Africa will indeed take advantage of the enormous gains offered by soft power as a foreign policy lever. This paper examines the role of soft power in achieving the foreign policy mandates prescribed in the Plan. It argues that, like other regional powers such as China, South Africa needs to pay more attention to its soft power attributes if it is to fast-track the successful implementation of its foreign policy ambitions for 2030. We conclude that sustaining South Africa’s rising position and influence in the international system and in Africa, will largely depend on its ability to consciously adjust its foreign policy trajectories – in the long term – in tandem with its soft power resources and competences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to uncover the channels through which real exchange rate undervaluation influences the performance of the South African economy.Design/methodology/approach The author decomposes the South African economy into three sectors: agriculture, industry, and services. Specifying a model for each sector, the author employs the ordinary least squares (with Newey-West and robust standard errors) and generalized method of moments estimation techniques. The annual time series data cover the period 1962-2014.Findings The author finds that real exchange rate undervaluation exerted a positive influence on agriculture and industry, and a negative impact on services.Research limitations/implications The results have practical policy implications, which are discussed in the paper.Originality/value Although the growth effect of real exchange rate undervaluation has been well established in the literature, the channels through which this occurs has received limited attention. Prior to this study, no study has considered the impact of real exchange rate undervaluation on the economy through the various sectors in the South African context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature that relates average income rise of the economy with increase in average income of the poorest population is well established. However poverty continues to be predominant in Africa indicating that income rise is not sufficient to decrease poverty. As a middle-income country, South Africa has consistently held the unappealing record of the country with the most unequal income distribution in the world. The increasing inequality in South Africa represents a substantial policy challenge to policymakers as it affects socio-political stability and economic development. This paper investigates the relation between growth, poverty and inequality in South Africa at the regional level using data over the annual period of 1996-2013.We adopt a spatial econometric model motivated by two noteworthy facts: (i) the high rate of poverty in South Africa and (ii) the high levels of poverty and inequality in the studied regions. In addition we account for the spatial dependence between regions which might affect the relationship between growth and poverty. Also, we develop and test five hypotheses and account for the possible endogeneity in specified model. The results reveal that the autoregressive parameter, lagged poverty is positive and statistically significant in all cases, which supports the use of a dynamic panel data model. Furthermore it reveals poverty increases along the period and the autocorrelation poverty variable is also found to be positive and statistically significant. The trend also reveals that poverty increases but at a decreasing rate, with the latter indicated by the square trend term. Log per capita income increases poverty and is statistically significant. Log GDP Growth is also statistically significant but only in the Arellano-Bond model, signifying that it is an endogenous variable. Log Employment increases poverty and is statistically significant. The Gini indicator (a measure of inequality) is found to increase poverty; signifying that poverty and inequality are affecting each other. This result signifies that poverty is increasing in South Africa at decreasing rate. Moreover the economic variables (for example, income per capita, GDP growth and employment) are also decreasing poverty. Therefore it appears that South Africa is on the right road to decrease poverty, but the spatial slipovers on poverty implies that the government needs an active anti-poverty policy to attack this persistent problem, since it cannot rely on economy growth to overcome it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of value-added tax (VAT) zero-rating has become widely accepted internationally to mitigate the regressivity of the tax. From an economic perspective, it remains contestable whether VAT zero-rating is the most cost-effective way of targeting the poor. This article addresses some topical issues on VAT zero-rating in South Africa. We first ask whether (conceptually) zero-rating should be a consideration within the context of tax theory literature, and then quantify the impact on the poor if zero-rating was to be removed, as well as the tax revenue implications thereof. We compare the cost of VAT zero-rating with the benefit, using data sourced from the Income and Expenditure Survey 2010/11 and the Estimates of National Expenditure. Our findings show that VAT zero-rating (compared with existing social transfer programmes) is not cost-effective when targeting the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unemployment in South Africa has multiple causes. This article uses a district pseudo-panel to estimate the elasticity of labour demand, labour supply and unemployment with respect to wages. We assess whether hiring decisions are more sensitive to increases in wages of low-paid workers than high-paid workers, and whether wage growth prompts entry into the labour market. These channels combine to result in the positive causal effect of wage growth on unemployment. The research investigates whether these effects are dominated by districts in which unionisation rates are high and employment is concentrated in large firms. Wage growth of middle-paid to highly paid workers – as opposed to low-paid workers – reduces local labour demand and raises local unemployment. Bargaining arrangements correspond closely to the spatial wage distribution; in turn, a large part of the impact that wage growth has on labour market outcomes is determined by these wage-setting institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey since 2008, a newly derived variable, namely underemployed, has become available. It is derived according to the ‘time-related’ approach (i.e. those who are employed, but would like to work longer hours and are available to work longer hours in the near future). However, underemployment could also be derived according to the ‘inadequate employment situations’ approach (e.g. under-utilisation of skills, over-qualification). Because underemployment is a seriously under-researched topic in South Africa, this article investigates the extent of underemployment according to these two definitions, before examining whether the characteristics of the two groups of underemployed are significantly different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to debates on the relationship between waste and value by exploring how the revaluation of waste at a dump in Soweto, South Africa, was transformed during the 2008 economic crisis. It critically engages Herod, Pickren, Rainnie & McGrath-Champ's differentiation between ‘devalorisation' due to material degradation and ‘devaluation' due to prices being too low for recycling to be profitable, in order to develop three arguments. First, it is necessary to recognise how political mobilisation by reclaimers shapes the conditions for devaluation by affecting local prices for recyclables. Second, reclaimers' struggles to monopolise control over waste as they govern their labour process may lead to materials that could be profitably reclaimed remaining wasted. Third, waste is not only revalued through global production networks. Analysing why reclaimers choose to revalue waste through either formal or informal circuits provides insights into how the economy is constituted and affected by crisis in postcolonial contexts [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2006-2007 Long Term Mitigation Scenario planning process (LTMS) was a seminal South African climate mitigation policy initiative that continues to underpin the country's climate mitigation policy today. Whilst acknowledging the LTMS's significant contributions, the article explores how the particular conceptualization of the policy problem under the LTMS as linear, sectoral, technical and environmental might be contributing to inadequate progress on implementation a decade on. Additional constraining factors are identified as being a lack of attention to policy process after the LTMS, and a lack of engagement with the political economy realities of climate mitigation in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the South African war, the indenture and transport of over 63,000 Chinese men to gold mines in the Transvaal sparked a rush to supply smoking opium to a literally captive market. Embroiled in a growing political economy of mass intoxication, state lawmakers shifted official policy from prohibition to provision. Their innovation of an industrial drug maintenance bureaucracy, developed on behalf of mining capital in alliance with organized pharmacy and medicine, ran counter to local trends of policy reform and represents a unique episode for broader histories of modern narcotics regulation. This article considers the significance of this case and chronicles the contradictory interests and ideologies that informed political scrambles over legitimate opium uses, users, and profiteers. It shows how the state maintained its provision policy, for as long as it proved expedient, against varied and mounting public pressures – local and international – for renewed drug suppression. The argument here is that the state managed an epidemic of addiction on the Rand as an extraordinary problem of demography. It achieved this both through redefining smoking opium from intoxicant to mine medicine and through the legal construction of a ‘special biochemical zone’, which corresponded with the exceptional status and spatial segregation of a despised alien labour force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the extent to which South Africa utilises positive economic statecraft to promote human rights in the region – that is, the degree to which it mobilises its economic engagement to affect a desirable political outcome in its foreign engagements in Southern Africa. The country's reaction to crises in Zimbabwe and Swaziland over the past 20 years is a strong indicator of the limits of South Africa's statecraft in this regard. These engagements highlight the inevitable clash between the country's principled preference for ‘non-interference’ in the affairs of sovereign states and its constitutional mandate to respect and promote human rights. Despite eschewing the role of ‘regional hegemon’, there is an expectation that South Africa will play an integral role in securing regional stability. Yet there is little evidence to suggest that the country chooses to approach resolving regional challenges with a co-ordinated political and economic approach. This paper argues that, to be more effective in spreading a progressive regional agenda that encourages democracy, governance and human rights, South Africa needs to incorporate a stronger element of positive economic statecraft in its foreign policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Modern South Africa has become a major recipient of refugees from sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. The safe integration and protection of refugees and asylum seekers in the country is undermined, however, by the presence of widespread xenophobia in the country. Such animosity has motivated anti-immigrant riots, violence, and prejudice which has negatively impacted refugee protection. Despite the seriousness of the problem, scholars have not effectively mapped the attitudes of the South African population towards granting refugees protection. The determinants of such attitudes have not been adequately explored at the national level. This paper will provide a quantitative analysis of public attitudes towards granting refugees protection in South Africa. I will use nationally representative data collected during the fifth round of Afrobarometer Survey, and employ multivariate techniques for the analysis. Using this data, I will assess the predictive power of economic competition and conflict over important symbols of the nation in determining attitudes. The political alienation hypothesis, which suggests that the politically isolated are more predisposed towards restrictive immigration attitudes, will also be tested. The findings of this study will allow us to better understand what interventions can be put in place to improve attitudes towards refugee protection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on migrant livelihoods in South Africa reveals links between social exclusion and migrant ‘cosmopolitan tactics’, including multi-sited socialities, diverse spatial business strategies and orientations precluding integration into a ‘xenophobic’ host society. Drawing on 10 months of ethnographic research, this study explores how Somali migrants’ business practices and tactics of mobility within and beyond Gauteng Province, South Africa (which encompasses Johannesburg and Pretoria) articulate with both broader transnational flows and investments in the local economy. Since the end of apartheid, Somalis and other migrants from the Horn of Africa have carved out an economic niche in peri-urban townships where high risk and frequent movement characterise workers’ lives. The Somali enclave in the neighbourhood of Mayfair, Johannesburg, links local and national circulations of people, goods and money to international circuits of the Somali ethnic economy—an economy that also involves non-Somali groups, mainly from Kenya and Ethiopia. These diverse dynamics of human mobility and financial circulation complicate bounded conceptualisations of transnationalism and also illustrate how tactical cosmopolitanisms may be grounded in spatial and social arrangements. The convergence of migrant mobility and financial flows produces distinctive patterns of livelihood embedded in a multi-scalar geography of movement, remittance, investment, risk and opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Medical tourism is a well-established sector in developing countries, and attracts a significant number of tourists from developed countries. Medical tourism is a strong driver of economic growth, but some argue that this kind of tourism promotes inequality in terms of access to healthcare facilities in both developing and developed countries. Whilst research has been conducted on medical tourists travelling to South Africa, no research has focused on the geography of South Africans travelling abroad for medical tourist activities. This study therefore sought to obtain first-hand information from Indian-South African citizens who have partaken in medical tourism in India. Data was gathered through personal, semi-structured interviews conducted with 54 individuals. It was ascertained that the majority of the individuals interviewed in this study travelled to India primarily for medical treatment, while tourist activities were a secondary objective. A smaller proportion of interviewees travelled to India for vacation, with medical care being a secondary motivation, or an impulse due to the low cost of treatment and convenience. Medical tourism by Indian-South Africans travelling to India highlights various shortfalls in South African medical care, including a lack of treatment availability, a poorer quality of service, medical expertise abroad, and the higher cost incurred locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal economy is a vibrant and growing phenomenon, offering both opportunities and lessons on resilience and innovation. When considering global social, economic and environmental challenges, resilience and innovation are valuable response strategies. The notion of a green economy has similarly inspired a number of ideological, geopolitical and institutional responses, yet a review of the dominant approach indicates the propensity to undervalue or ignore the informal economy. Within the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, connecting the informal economy with the green economy is imperative. This paper explores possible connections between the green economy and the informal economy in South Africa and argues that by engaging the informal economy in discussions on the green economy, a more informed policy and planning environment may ensue, resulting in more socially equitable and environmentally sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because information about the livelihoods of indigenous groups in Africa is often missing from colonial records, the presence of such people usually escapes attention in quantitative estimates of colonial economic activity. This is nowhere more apparent than in the eighteenth-century Dutch Cape Colony, where the role of the Khoesan in Cape production, despite being frequently acknowledged, has been almost completely ignored in quantitative investigations. Combining household-level settler data with anecdotal accounts of Khoesan labour, this article presents new estimates of the Khoesan population of the Cape Colony. Our results show that the Khoesan did not leave the area as a consequence of settler expansion. On the contrary, the number of Khoesan employed by the settlers increased over time, as the growth of settler farming followed a pattern of primitive accumulation and drove the Khoesan to abandon their pastoral lifestyle to become farm labourers. We show that, in failing to include the Khoesan population, previous estimates have overestimated slave productivity, social inequality, and the level of gross domestic product in the Cape Colony. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper adopts a Nigerian perspective to South Africa's position in global economic governance, particularly in relation to its role in the BRICS and G20. It is informed by the challenge of transforming Africa's current marginal role in global economic governance, and the kind(s) of regional partnerships that Africa's largest economies can strategically develop and use to place the continent on a higher economic pedestal globally. The paper places challenges confronting Africa in context, exploring how South Africa, by negotiating a strategic partnership with other continental economic powers outside of the BRICS, such as Nigeria, stands to leverage Africa's role and global position on a ‘win–win’ basis. It concludes by noting the costs and potential benefits of such a partnership, and offers some suggestions on the way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa's foreign policy has evolved through various presidents, from Nelson Mandela to Jacob Zuma. One characteristic lacuna through the various administrations has been the weak linkage between foreign economic strategies and domestic economic objectives. There is a gap between what is expressed in rhetoric and the actual execution of foreign policy. Further, since the dawn of democracy there has also been a gradual shift from a foreign policy that exhibited strong normative expressions, inclined to the West, to a more pragmatic foreign policy that is aligned with the new rising powers. Yet, beyond the tilt, there seems to be a lack of clarity of ideas that inform the various decisions and activities associated with foreign policy activities. This paper takes a closer look at these changes in South Africa's foreign policy, with particular focus on foreign economic strategies as played out in the country's role in multilateral economic processes such as the World Trade Organisation, the G20 and the BRICS, which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The socio-economic well-being of South Africa is largely dependent on reservoir lakes. Contrastingly, the country lacks reservoir management skills and training, with a generation having passed since there was limited activity in this field. This review introduces two new, independent analyses which, using in-lake total phosphorus or satellite-measured chlorophyll-a, respectively, reveal that between 41% and 76% of total storage is eutrophic or hypertrophic. This is in stark contrast to a claimed 5% made by the responsible government agency (Department of Water and Sanitation). Data and information on the incidence and toxicity of cyanobacterial blooms are sparse, yet severe problems exist. There is a concentration of focus on water quantity, with absent parallel consideration of the additional limitations posed by poor water quality. The most seriously impacted reservoirs are located in the economic heartland of South Africa, which has an extant regional water quality crisis. The reasons behind the startling lack of attention to reservoir limnology, despite clear and long-standing warnings, are examined and placed in the perspective of an acknowledged and impending water crisis. It will take considerable time to up-skill South African limnologists to meet the needs highlighted by worsening reservoir water quality, and to offset the social and economic impacts that will transpire, if not timeously ameliorated. The responsible agency urgently needs to establish a reservoir-management programme that embraces remaining individual and institutional memory, integrates all available relevant knowledge and scientific findings, prioritises needs and acquires those skills and resources necessary to meet what is likely to become a crippling legacy of inaction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The plague of inflation eating into investor returns is one that is experienced universally by all investors. Gold has historically proven to provide good inflationary hedging ability, due to its appreciating prices in times of high inflation. However, the recent period of price depreciation from 2012 amidst rising inflation in South Africa, has brought its usefulness as a hedge into question. The purpose of this study is therefore to thoroughly examine the use of gold as an inflationary hedge in the South African environment. In South Africa, the problem of inflation is a particularly severe one, with inflation rates reaching double figures periodically. The necessity of a hedge against inflation is therefore imperative to South African investors, to mitigate their diminishing real returns. The study extends over the period of 2000 - 2014, to incorporate for the Monetary Policy Committee in South Africa's introduction of the inflation targeting regime. In South Africa, there are two popular alternatives when purchasing gold - one is gold bullion, whilst the other is known as the Krugerrand. The Krugerrand is minted from 22 carat gold, and is a popular vehicle for private gold investment in South Africa - and therefore easily accessed by both private and institutional investors. We therefore utilized both gold and the krugerrand as possible hedges in order to evaluate whether there is any difference in their respective hedging ability, and in particular, which one is more appropriate. We also decomposed inflation into the different types, which are: actual, expected, and unexpected inflation. Testing was conducted on the data over both the short run and long run, by making use of OLS regressions for the short run analysis, and Johansen's Cointegration for the long run analysis. The results of the short run statistical tests found that whilst both gold and the krugerrand were found to be statistically significant against unexpected inflation, their sign was negative - which indicate that when unexpected inflation increases, the gold price decreases, which is contrary to the way in which a hedge should perform. The long run analysis found that both gold and the krugerrand were able to hedge against both actual and unexpected inflation, but not anticipated inflation. The results overall also found that gold had the superior hedging ability from the two alternatives. This may indicate that for investors who are concerned with the long run effects of inflation on their portfolios, they can include gold as a potential hedge against its negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Half of the 20 million credit-active consumers in South Africa (out of 53 million residents) were, by the 2010s, experiencing over-indebtedness. ‘Impaired credit’ ratings soared to the point that ratings agencies were compelled to restore the borrowing capacity of 2.3 million (albeit without forgiving outstanding loans). The increase in the rate of unsecured credit extensions by a variety of lenders hit extreme levels and led to demands for a ban on garnishee orders. Underlying the surface explosion of consumer credit and resulting increase in social tension was the overall economic downturn since 2008. This reflected not only the prior five years of dramatic over-borrowing, but a generalised condition of ‘financialisation’ that emerged during capitalist crisis management in the context of political democratisation. The retail financial sector witnessed an unprecedented degree of liberalisation, especially higher interest rates and new credit products. Moreover, theNational Credit Actof 2005 stressed the role of debt counsellors rather than shared liability for debt workouts. The growing contradictions in consumer credit have in the past generated fierce resistance. A quarter century earlier, a more aggressive collective default strategy characterised a similar era: the ‘bond boycott’. Whether the contradictions generate a similar collective reaction depends upon political agency, and the emergence of a 'United Front' can potentially relink labour and community self-interests in a decisive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study features the concept of 'context' and how various macro, meso and micro features of the social system play themselves out in any setting. Using South Africa as an example, it explores the features that may constrain or enable professional development, quality teaching and the work of teaching and learning centres at eight universities in varied socio-cultural settings. The article draws on the work of critical realists and their explication of the concepts of structure, culture and agency. The research design was participatory, where members of teaching and learning centres at the eight institutions defined the aims and key questions for the study. They collected the data on which this article is based, namely a series of descriptive and reflective reports. The findings clustered around six themes: history, geography and resources; leadership and administrative processes; beliefs about quality teaching and staff development; recognition and appraisal; and capacity, image and status of the TLC staff. These features play out in unique and unpredictable constellations in each different context, while at the same time, clusters of features adhere together. Whilst there is no one to one, predictive relationship between university type and outcome, there is a sense that socio-economic contextual features are salient and require greater attention than other features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) group of states as a new geopolitical power bloc has received substantial coverage in the media. South Africa’s inclusion in the group has been particularly controversial, and media attention tended to focus on the country’s relationship with China against the backdrop of the BRICS alignment. The media industry itself has also been a part of global movements of people and capital. This article seeks to establish how this relationship has been represented in the South African media, and to explore the attitudes of senior journalists and editors towards South Africa’s position within the changing global geopolitical landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the political economy of energy transition in South Africa. An economic model based around a powerful ‘minerals-energy complex’ that has previously been able to provide domestic and foreign capital with cheap and plentiful coal-generated electricity is no longer economically or environmentally sustainable. The paper analyses the struggle over competing energy visions, infrastructures and political agendas in order to generate insights into the governance and financing of clean energy transitions in South Africa. It provides both a rich empirical account of key policy developments aimed at enabling such a transition and provides reflections on how best to theorise the contested politics of energy transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For well over a century and a half coal has played a vital role in South Africa's economy and currently bituminous coal is the primary energy source for domestic electricity generation, as well as being the feedstock for the production of a substantial percentage of the country's liquid fuels. It furthermore provides a considerable source of foreign revenue from exports. Based on geographic considerations, and variations in the sedimentation, origin, formation, distribution and quality of the coals, 19 coalfields are generally recognised in South Africa. This paper provides an updated review of their exploration and exploitation histories, general geology, coal seam nomenclature and coal qualities. Within the various coalfields autocyclic variability is the norm rather than the exception, whereas allocyclic variability is much less so, and allows for the correlation of genetically related sequences. During the mid-Jurassic break up of Gondwana most of the coal-bearing successions were intruded by dolerite. These intrusions are important as they may cause devolatilisation and burning of the coal, create structural disturbances and related seam correlation problems, and difficulties in mining operations. Whilst many of the coalfields have been extensively explored and exploited, those in the north of the country have until recently received much less attention. Four coalfields occur partly or wholly within the Limpopo Province of South Africa and these may contain as much as 70% of South Africa's remaining coal resources. These coalfields in particular have been the focus of recent exploration due to the presence of large coking and thermal coal resources, as well as for their coal bed methane potential, and these resources need to be unlocked with regards to creating maximum benefit and minimal environmental degradation. South Africa's coals have also been recently addressed as palaeoclimate archives recording Gondwana's postglacial climate amelioration by major changes in land plant communities, and proving high-resolution palyno-stratigraphy as a crucial tool to decipher climate change during the Permo-Carboniferous. This aspect of the coals of South Africa is also reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the link between mobile termination rate reductions and retail prices. It draws on in-depth case studies of South Africa, Namibia and Kenya where regulators have reduced termination rates towards the cost of an efficient operator. To varying degrees these have all led to lower retail prices and significant market expansion. While retail prices in both Namibia and Kenya dropped following substantial termination rate reductions, the South African case demonstrates that termination rate reductions are not always passed on to consumers as is hoped by such regulatory interventions. In South Africa, it was only after the second reduction in March 2012 that smaller operators were able to reduce their off-net prices to a level that could tempt the subscribers to dominant operators to switch. All the case studies confirm nevertheless that retail prices do not go up in response to termination rates going down as contended by dominant mobile operators around the world. This is in contrast to a body of literature stating that termination rates and mobile retail prices constitute a two-sided market and that termination rate reductions will lead to a so-called “waterbed effect”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article examines the relationship between unemployment, family structure, and labor allocation in rural South Africa. Chronic joblessness has meant that many young, unemployed adults remain in the parental home. However, their productive labor is often not utilized in family farming. Using detailed ethnographic data on intra-household social relations, I argue that the prohibitive cost of marriage, and its consequent decline, has led to the erosion of obligations formerly implied by the “conjugal contract”. Young, unmarried adults often have limited responsibilities to provide labor or income to the parental home, diminishing the overall viability of small-scale farming. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Artisanal, or small-scale mining, is widely recognised as a key, but often controversial, survival strategy adopted by low-income communities in the global South. This paper examines how members of one community in South Africa, that of Indwe, in a desperate effort to create self-employment, have initiated micro-level coal-mining enterprises, which have had the downstream effect of supporting local transportation and brick-making operations. Government concerns over the legality of these activities overlie the recent depletion of the local resource and the involvement of a mining corporate in the region. In terms of the way forward, the paper explores the uneasy compromise which has emerged between the corporate's social responsibility initiatives and the suspicions of the artisanal miners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the current constructs which theoretically underpin foreign policy for this country are either overblown or incoherent; they do not appropriately define or advance or prioritise South Africa's national interests abroad, nor do they acknowledge the tensions embedded in the clash between normative policies andrealpolitik. Drawing from ‘real time’ experiences in international diplomacy, this lecture explores some of the dilemmas that South Africa, as a middle-range power in the world, confronts in its international engagements. The cost-effectiveness of South Africa's global projection is also examined, and some practical reforms to achieve better results in the current age of austerity suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local economic development agencies (LEDAs) have been initiated to support the goals of local economic development (LED) in several developed and developing countries. In South Africa, LEDAs have become established as part of the LED landscape in the country. This article analyses the establishment, existing state and challenges that confront LEDAs in South Africa. It is argued that the development agency model potentially has a pivotal role to play in managing, directing and coordinating economic development activities in certain local spaces. The success of LEDAs is challenged, however, by several factors including local economic potential, capacity and resource challenges and the institutional readiness of both the agency and parent municipality to manage local development outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based forest management (CBFM) is the internationally recognised model in which sustainable use of communal forest resources is assured. However, some authors have asserted that policy makers should understand the values communities hold towards forests before recommending strategies for CBFM. This study used Principal Component Analysis to identify the values rural households in KwaZulu-Natal hold towards forests. The Multinomial Logit Model was then used to investigate whether the values households hold towards forests, among other socio-economic and institutional factors, influence households’ decisions to participate in self-initiated CBFM programmes. The study found that households’ decisions to participate in community forest management depend, not only on the values they hold towards forests, but also on the forest management strategy being pursued. If a protection-oriented management strategy is pursued, households that hold more bio-centric values are more likely to participate, while households that hold more anthropocentric values towards forests are more likely to participate in managing forests when a utilisation-oriented strategy is pursued. Since rural households in KwaZulu-Natal are poor and overwhelmingly hold anthropocentric values towards forests, it was recommended that following the utilisation-oriented forests management strategy to meet the utilitarian needs of the communities would improve household participation, while reducing poverty and ensuring sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent global recession, caused by the financial crisis of 2008–2009, resulted in a significant drop in global merchandise trade. However, international trade in agricultural and food products seemed more resilient. This poses the question as to what extent recent and previous economic recessions have had an effect on the trade flows of these specific products. An understanding of this connection will assist the agricultural sector to pro-actively strategize for future economic downturns in their respective export markets. Hence this study uses South Africa's exports of fresh fruits and wine as a case study and applies an import demand model to analyse the relationship between export flows, several demand factors and economic shocks in its traditional export markets over the last 28 years. The results reveal that change in real per capita income is a much more significant determinant of import demand for South Africa's fruit and wine than the incidence of an economic recession. Contrary to general perceptions, economic downturns even positively affected the import demand for wine and apples. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study tests the policy irrelevance proposition in the inflation targeting monetary policy environment in South Africa, as well as in the context of a dichotomy between anticipated and unanticipated policy shocks. Findings from estimates of monetary policy reaction function confirmed that an open economy implicit Taylor rule characterised the monetary policy instrument in South Africa, providing evidence that suggests that the monetary policy has, indeed, been conducted systematically on the basis of information from past inflation and the output gap. While aggregates of evidence invalidates rational expectations' PIP proposition in South Africa, doubts exists about the capacity of inflation targeting monetary policy in curbing inflationary pressures in the economy. For policy, this study supports calls for supplementing the inflation targeting framework with targets for other real variables, such as output and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corporate divestment movement is generally acknowledged as one of the catalysts that transformed South African society from apartheid rule to a democratic social order. However, the dream that the abolition of apartheid would bring prosperity to a majority of South Africans has proven to be elusive. Even though democracy has delivered the much-anticipated universal franchise to all, questions still linger about the redistribution of economic power, which still largely remains concentrated in the hands of those who had it before. What lessons can be learned from the experiences of sanctions and divestment from South Africa as an instrument for the socioeconomic transformation of the country? In this article, we discuss the merits of the divestment strategy, offer our observations about current disparities in postapartheid South Africa, comment on the initiatives by the new government to restore equity, and conclude with some final thoughts and reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]