Factors inhibiting rural development in the Amahlathi Local Municipality

In South Africa, since 1994 when democratic government came into power, the issue of development was raised as one of the priorities of government. Government promised citizens livelihoods to be improved through quality, effective and efficient services. Rural development was identified as one priorities of government to ensure better life for all the citizens. The issue of rural development was still a challenge in South Africa especially in the Eastern Cape Province. Amahlathi local municipality is not an exception from these challenges. Transformation of rural communities in this area through rural development is very slow. It is quite evident that although rural development was a priority initiative this municipality is still facing challenges. There are factors and constraints inhibiting rural development. The primary objective of this research was to obtain a better understanding of poverty and development in rural areas and also to identify the underlying factors and challenges inhibiting rural development. The study had three objectives. The first objective was to identify factors inhibiting rural development in the Amahlathi Local Municipality; the second objective was to identify the constraints on economic activities in Amahlathi Municipality. The third objective was to ascertain what has been done to address the needs of rural people in Amahlathi Local Municipality by agents of development, such as government and non-governmental organisations. The study employed a qualitative approach for an in-depth understanding and verification. Source of documents included academic and non -academic books, journal articles published and unpublished dissertations, official documents of the government and the magazines and the internet were used as sources of secondary data. The main finding in terms of the research objective is that there a number of factors inhibiting rural development include lack of basic infrastructure, lack of access to markets, low employment, and training and capacity building. Infrastructure such as roads, transport and irrigation is crucial for improving and stabilising the livelihoods of rural households and providing access to markets and key social services in the Amahlathi Municipality. The recommends that a serious interventions by the states should be employed and also has to encourage investment in infrastructure using labour-intensive methods to reduce service backlogs in underserviced areas in Amahlathi. Government has to develop service-improvement programmes that generate income and employment in order to reduce poverty in Amahlathi Municipality. This includes empowerment of people