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7th National Local Government Conference

During 24 – 26 April 2012, DDP held our seventh national local governance conference. This year’s conference focused on “Strengthening Local Economic Development in the Second Decade of Democracy in South Africa”.

160 participants from municipalities and provinces across South Africa, together with representatives from the business, donor and civil society sectors attended.

The conference dealt with the nuts and bolts of creating, sustaining and supporting local economic development. The context for the discussion was elaborated by our keynote speaker, Edwin Mashigo, spoke on harnessing the assets of communities. Sessions over the two and half days dealt the creation of an enabling environment; the roles of the three spheres of government, economic development agencies, private and donor sectors; rural development and traditional leadership; managing supply chain management processes to support LED; training and learning for LED practitioners, and monitoring and evaluating LED initiatives.

BB Biyela, Inka Mars, Prof Malcom Wallis and Adv Kamal Bhimma at the LED conference

Sustaining LED is certainly not a simple business. Challenges elaborated during the proceedings include: overcoming the inevitable completion between localities which tends to favour those who are already stronger; appropriate scaling and closing the gap between LED in rural areas, small towns and large centres; access to funding; lack of skills in communities, training programmes for practitioners and reliable data for LED planning; dealing with informal economies and overcoming procurement frameworks which do not promote LED.

Many ideas for improving the prospects of local economic development emerged. One of the overarching themes was that intergration between departments and spheres of government, as well as the business sector and civil society must be a priority. More research on LED, especially in rural areas, as well as sharing of good practice models and appropriate training for LED practitioners is needed.

Government must play its role in terms of promoting economic development agencies, reviewing procurement and supply chain management frameworks to encourage and support emerging business, and developing policy on communal resources (especially land) that increases utilization of the assets of rural communities without risking their livelihoods.

No DDP conference is complete without the highlight of a gala dinner. Guest to the dinner were treated to an address by His Worship the Mayor of eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Mr James Nxumalo, as well as entertainment by the young artists of DDP Arts Express and local band, the Wilderness Act.

Mayor Nxumalo joins Young Mambazo of DDP Arts Express on stage

Feedback from the participants was very positive. The conference provided many opportunities for learning, sharing experiences and networking. DDP would like to thank all speakers, chairs and attendees for their attention, focus and passion for the subject.
 

Presentations made at the conference can be accessed here.

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Recent Articles

Harnessing the Power of Local Economies in Building Sustainable Communities

by Edwin Mashigo, CEO of Ideafin Group, presented at the DDP Conference on Stregthening Local Economic Development in the Second Decade of Democracy in South Africa

I have chosen to address this conference on a Topic that is very close to my heart and that is: economic transformation thorough empowering local communities. I think a lot of solutions have been offered in the market place of ideas and policies ranging from Broad-Based Empowerment initiatives to grass-roots NGO initiatives which have all achieved different levels of success, according to different standards.

I thought I start by laying the foundation and painting a backdrop about what I understand to be a true community by reading a poem from an anthology by various poets. The poem is aptly titled: Man is a Community.

“We tend to think of man
As a collection of individuals,
Each complete in himself,
Who just happen to come together to satisfy certain needs…
Actually, however, there is nothing distinctively human
that can be exhibited by an individual in isolation…
Man is essentially a community,
His life is a communal affair,
He exists only where a plurality of individuals
Is in communication with one another,
And share a common life."

In this presentation, I will make a singular-dimension diagnosis of what is a multi-faceted problem in our country, a problem which has become cliché and that is the problem of: poverty, high unemployment and deepening income inequality in our society.

Many a paper has been written on this subject and I will not purport to have done any detailed study that will reveal new knowledge and revelations that are not already known to anyone. However, I will highlight what I think are the sources of poverty, high unemployment and income inequality from a philosophical if not ideological point of view.

South Africa is country with a rich history, more divergent than seven colors that we call a rainbow. Apartheid has left a legacy of a plethora of socio-economic issues that will take ages to undo but that does not excuse any form of inertia on the current and future generations in seeking to find innovative solutions.

As the poem advocates, “Man is essentially a Community and his life is a communal affair”. This includes the many South Africans who are yet to benefit from the fruits of economic emancipation brought by the post-1994, political and socio-economic dispensation.

According to the National Planning Commission’s diagnostic review, as at 2008 about 48% of South Africa’s population were found to be living on less than $2 per day or roughly R524pm per person. This factor is clearly illustrated by the fact that about 40% of the population only lay claim to 6%-7% of the national income, whilst the richest 20% account for about 70% of the country’s national income. This is despite almost 17 years of political freedom. With the majority of the country’s youth (Age: 15 – 34) being the most affected by unemployment at more than 80% of the current national level of unemployment at 26%, this is a recipe for a conflagration that could possibly manifest as a phenomenon popularly known in the Northern part of the African continent as the “Arab-Springs”.

Against this backdrop, the South African governments interventions in the fight against unemployment have been rendered almost ineffectual if not impotent, at least in the short to medium term, mainly because they are perceived to be “government-owned, run and managed” with communities as mostly target benefactors and not partners. This auto-dependency by communities on the government, is largely cultivated during the political campaigns in the form of “promises for a better life” that are characteristic during election years translated to mean free houses, free education, free healthcare, free grants etc.

Understanding the social structure of communities
An analysis of the social structure of communities, reveals that the basic cellular structure of communities are families. The social challenges of poverty, unemployment and tantamount income inequality manifest themselves at a family unit level first, where also the consequent shocks are felt and absorbed. Family members who have access to some income, cross-subsidise those who don’t, by sharing the little that they have in the form of food, clothing, shelter and other basic needs. In turn, where there are shortfalls, the family may receive support from extended family networks and ultimately those who have access to churches and other community groups may receive help from there as well and the cycle continues.  The labour and political organisations are merely coagulant structures of a macroscopic social activity in that they are viewed as agencies that lobby government support in the form houses, grants etc which are legitimate needs that “poor” families have that their immediate relatives and neighbourhood structures cannot meet.       Read More...

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