A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Development Studies in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, 2017 / Local government structures have a particularly important role to play in harnessing national and regional resources to promote their areas and in facilitating strategic local partnerships to enhance and sustain economic growth. The study sought to examine the implementation of Local Economic Development Strategy implementation in Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM) in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa.
The sample comprised of BLM LED officials and at least 5 respondents selected from10 projects and these included the project management team and workers. The Chosen projects were chosen based on proximity and availability but maintaining balance to cover the entire municipality. This allowed the researcher to have a balanced view from both the municipal officials and people at the project sides. A purposive sampling method was used to select the sample for the study. The primary data was collected using interviews and structured observations. Secondary data was collected using the document analysis method. SPSS and the content analysis methods were used in the study. The study found that BLM has an LED strategy as prescribed in the municipal IDP and projects have been implemented to promote local economic development in the region. However, there is a knowledge gap from project participants as some have no access to information and cannot access and use the services from the LED offices to enhance their economic activities, due to their peripheral location. The BLM LED strategy is implemented following the Location Theory, projects were planned and positioned in places where they will maximise profit and minimise production costs by employing local ideas and resources, packing them to attract outside interest.
The participatory model adopted by the municipality in planning and implementing LED activities does not yield the desired results due to some projects that are unable to be part of the participatory planning processes. The consultative activities during the conception and planning should target the poor. The study recommends therefore, that LED in BLM has to be a participatory model which is based on a holistic approach to incorporate different activities from different areas based on their local potential and available resources to create economic Spin-offs. The study also makes a number of specific recommendations to facilitate the planning and implementation of LED strategy in BLM.First, participatory processes such as the IDPs at local municipal levels should be used to facilitate people’s participation in the whole process, from conception, planning, implementation and evaluation of all LED activities in the local municipality. The beneficiaries have to be active participants in their own development; hence this will ensure full and active participation. The study also discovered that there is lack of coordination among the stakeholders to create viable establishment of cooperatives development and to formalise their economic participation in order to promote sustainable SMME development, growth and sustainable cooperative movement.
Challenges of LED strategy implementation in BLM included that the municipality, like many others in the country, do not have adequate economic growth strategies, and if they do, it will only sound good on paper but the implementation on the ground does not happen as depicted in the strategy. This further perpetuates the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1586 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Nkuna, Lazarus Lucky |
| Contributors | Sabela, P.T, Isike, E.M |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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