A critical analysis of the approach to local economic development (LED) in South Africa

Abstract: The advent of the new constitutional dispensation in 1994 heralded signifi cant transformational and governance reform in South Africa. In particular the Government White Paper on Local Government of 1998 formally introduced the concepts of local economic development (LED) and of developmental local government into the South African vernacular, consistent with the evolving national zeitgeist of the developmental state. LED therefore had its genesis in, and was from the start in effect largely consigned by statute to the local government sphere – in the South African context arguably the governmental sphere least equipped to deal with it. From the inception the narrative of LED in South Africa was infl uenced less by sound economic prescript than by a complex of ideological and welfare considerations. It has been observed that typically in practice, “…(l)ocal economic development is a highly complex matter, and there is no clear conceptual model available that incorporates all of its potentially important dimensions” (Smoke 1997). There currently is no evidence of the employment in South Africa of systematic methods in the determination of LED goal sets that are informed by coherent theories of change and of action. The article argues for a fundamental re-conceptualisation and demystifi cation of South Africa’s approach to LED based on structured integrative engagement within a value chain approach that harnesses cooperative effort across jurisdictions and governmental spheres in..