A critical assessment of the economic strategy to develop the homelands of South Africa

Black, P. A (1976) A critical assessment of the economic strategy to develop the homelands of South Africa. MLitt(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

In this thesis an attempt is made to evaluate the policy of homeland development in South Africa. The Thesis is divided into three sections: section I looks of the major institutional and other changes that have been made during the recent past; section II is devoted to analysis of the employment problem and assesses the economic strategy and policies that have been employed to overcome the problem. In section II the employment problem is defined in terms of both the future growth of the homeland labour force as well as the adequacy of existing employment opportunities. The male and female labour force is estimated to increase by about 100,000 individuals each year between 1975 and 1985. In addiction, it is estimated that some 770,000 rural families or 65 per cent of the total rural population, and underemployed in the sense that they are not being fully utilised in the agricultural sector f the homelands. Although many of these families may receive additional income from such sources as the informal sector and temporary migration to the White areas of South Africa, there is little doubt that the employment problem is, from a policy point of view, a pretty formidable one. It does not follow however, that the provision of jobs to each now entrant and underemployed family will be itself solve the development problem; there is also an urgent need to raise income and to provide more health and educational facilities in the homeland. The main purpose of section III is to determine whether resources are being utilised in accordance with the relative resource endowment of the homelands. This is done both within a development as well as regional context. As far as the former is concerned, there seems to be general need to promote small-scale manufacturing and service industries which use relatively labour-intensive techniques of production. This is especially true of the agricultural development policy, the decentralisation policy and, to a lesser extent, of the loans policy of the development corporations. From a regional point of view, it appears that the growth of manufacturing and other employment opportunities is not likely to take place in accordance with the relative needs of the individuals homelands. This is because existing differences in the financial concessions are not enough to offset to corresponding differences in the costs of production between the various growth points and homelands. More generally, the growth and employment potential of the homelands appear to be limited by the fact that many of the growth points are situated on the borders of the homelands in proximity to existing White towns and cities. The Effect of this is that part of the induced effect of investment in the growth points tends to take place in the White towns and cities, rather than in the homelands.

• Item Type: Thesis (MLitt(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Advisers: E Rado; G Cameron
• Keywords: Economics, South African studies
• Date of Award: 1976
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1976-72669
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 11 Jun 2019 11:06
• Last Modified: 11 Jun 2019 11:06
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/72669