Amongst other socio-economic challenges that South Africa has, unemployment still remains high; in July 2010 unemployment was at 25.3 percentage and in July 2011 it was at 25.7 percentage ; in a space of a year it grew by 0.4 percentage (Trading Economics, 2012). Even though South Africa has made some significant progress with its democracy; there is still significant socioeconomic problems. Poverty, lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups are amongst and lack of proper education are amongst some of these pressing challenges in South Africa. More than a quarter of South Africa's population currently receives social grants (Index mundi, 2011). The Eastern Cape Province is still faced with significant socio-economic challenges such as high unemployment rate. 74 percentage unemployed are the economically active group as they are under the age of 35 (ECDC, 2011:22). “More than a quarter (26.4 percentage) of households in the Eastern Cape relies on government grants as their main source of income. Nationally, the youth unemployment rate is estimated to be close to 35 percentage, with more than three million young people out of work. Youth unemployment in the Eastern Cape averages 41.4 percentage. This is more than twice the adult unemployment rate (18.4 percent). A total of 695,175 young people have been without work every year in the Eastern” (ECDC, 2010-2011: 23). Besides, this province has a third largest number of people who are living with HIV/AIDS in the country. These statistics have a major significance on the province’s economic prospects and progress (ECDC, 2010-2011:22). The RSA Constitution 1996, the White Paper on Local Government 1998 has mandated local governments to facilitate LED. South Africa adopted LED as a way of fighting poverty and stimulating economic growth and development for local residents. LED is promoting skills development, SMMEs and tourism to encourage economic development. However the success of LED has received mixed views in that; some successes of LED were recorded in urban or metropolitan municipalities. Few successes have been recorded of LED projects in rural municipalities. Some of the constraints of LED consist of capacity problems within the municipalities, understanding the role of LED in the municipality and lack of funding. In Makana Municipality, about 23 percentage of households live below poverty line of (R800.00 – R9600 a year). Most of the population earns between R801.00-R1600.00 per month with 24.7 percentage. A mere 0.6 percentage earn R204801.00 or more compared to 12.7 percentage with no income. Inadequate infrastructure poses as a threat to attracting and retaining investment in this municipality. In light of the above paragraphs, this thesis evaluated the impact assessment of the LED projects within Makana Municipality. The premise of this thesis is that realization and significant support of LED projects would impact positively on unemployment and poverty rate that this municipality is facing and subsequently; the burden of unemployment and poverty will be reduced in the region, province and country.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9062 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Bottoman, Phathiswa Esona |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | ix, 68 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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