scholarly journals Structural Transformation, Economic Power, and Inequality in South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 165-188
Author(s):  
Sumayya Goga ◽  
Pamela Mondliwa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Structural Transformation ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Wealth Effects ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Persistent Inequality ◽  
Rules Of The Game

This chapter examines how economic power, understood as control over accumulation, has influenced the poor progress of structural transformation in South Africa, which, in turn, has impacted on inequality through income and wealth effects. The chapter argues that the failure to diversify and develop downstream capabilities in manufacturing in South Africa reflects, among other things, the entrenched advantages of incumbent upstream firms, as well as the lack of a policy agenda for transformation that incorporates a recognition of the economic power of these upstream firms. The inability to change the patterns of accumulation underlies the persistent inequality in income and wealth. The chapter involves an analysis of interests in the South African economy within key industry groupings (specifically the metals and plastics value chains) and how these interests have set agendas and shaped policy and regulation to set the rules of the game for the benefit of upstream firms. The analysis shows that economic structure is a source of economic power, and that the relative strength of the upstream industries means that their interests are better served than those of diversified downstream industries.

Nature and Impact of Chinese and South African Engagement on the Development of the City of Lusaka

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Hangwei Li ◽  
Gilbert Siame
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
South African ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
The Other ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Private Capital ◽  
Chinese Investment ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The City

Abstract As Zambia’s chief administrative centre and a major financial, transportation, and manufacturing hub for the country, the City of Lusaka has become one of the fasted growing cities in Southern Africa. Encouraged by the Chinese government’s ‘going out’ policy, Chinese investment and trade with Zambia have risen dramatically since the 2000s. Chinese investment is increasingly shaping the growth of Lusaka City and its hinterland in significant ways. On the other hand, South Africa as a regional geo-economic power has also amplified its strategic engagement with Lusaka. The paper explores how these two geo-economic powers have shaped the development of the City of Lusaka. Findings show that investments from South Africa into the City are private capital backed and are predominantly in the retail and real estate sectors. Chinese engagement in the city are dominated by large government-related construction projects, which have often been state-backed. Analysing the findings through the lens of urban assemblage and polarisation, the paper argues that the City is increasingly becoming more socio-spatially divided with the poor being more adversely affected by the nature and location of investments.

scholarly journals Levinas, Social Vulnerability, and the Logic of South African Racism

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-101
Author(s):  
Robert Bernasconi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Vulnerability ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Poor Whites ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor White ◽  
The Way

The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas was at the forefront of the promotion of the idea of vulnerability in philosophy. For Levinas, my primary vulnerability concerns not my pain, but my pain at the other’s pain. Vulnerablity also has an ambiguous character in so far as it is not easily separated from my self-absorption in enjoyment. In this paper I show how Levinas’s account can illuminate the way that the idea of vulnerability sometimes operates within racist societies to maintain existing divisions. In particular I focus on the Carnegie Commission’s 1932 study The Poor White Problem in South Africa where concern for the vulnerability of poor whites concealed a tendency to naturalize the vulnerability of South African Blacks. Keywords: Carnegie commission, poor whites, racism, vulnerability, Emmanuel Levinas,South Africa

scholarly journals Rural education: Reimagining the role of the church in transforming poverty in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo Thesnaar
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rural Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Johann Baptist Metz ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

The desire to remember the plight of the poor in South Africa has reduced in the last 20 years after the transition from apartheid to freedom. To a large extent, Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) and the religious society at large have lost their ‘dangerous memory’ which keeps us mindful of those who suffered and whose plight is usually forgotten or suppressed. In this contribution the conditions of poor farm school children in multigrade rural education will be scrutinised by unpacking the contextual factors that cause us to forget their plight. This article will seek to reimagine the role of the church in poverty-stricken South Africa by engaging with the work of Talcott Parsons, the practical theologian Johannes A. Van der Ven, as well as the work of the political theologian Johann Baptist Metz in order to affirm the focus of Practical Theology to transform society and to contribute to the quest for justice and liberation for the poor in rural education. This reimagining discourse has a fundamental responsibility to challenge the social, political and economic realities that shape the lives of human beings within rural education, remembering the plight of the poor, and participating on their journey towards liberation and healing. It is proposed that if the church can activate its ‘dangerous memory’ it will be able to reimagine its role by transforming our poverty-stricken South African society, open new avenues for breaking the cycle of poverty and contribute to rural education.

Exploring Social Entrepreneurship for the Creation of Sustainable Livelihoods in South Africa

2017 ◽  
pp. 1010-1036
Author(s):  
Gnanam Pillay ◽  
Sylvia Kaye
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Slow Development ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
The World ◽  
Entrepreneurial Development ◽  
Poverty Levels

Although social entrepreneurship has grown rapidly in developed and many developing countries around the world, it is still in its infancy in South Africa. To date, there is limited research available about social entrepreneurship in South Africa. While there are many reasons for its slow development in this country, a significant reason is the poor understanding of the concept, which would preclude investment in programmes, policies and research. This chapter presents an overview of South African issues and analyses how social entrepreneurial development can address some of the problems and issues. The more pressing problems include extreme inequality, high poverty levels and unemployment, a weak Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) sector, fragmented communities and an economic system that needs to strengthen both social and economic development. The chapter presents the model developed as a result of research that contextualizes social entrepreneurial development for a South African market.

scholarly journals A comparative study of different segments in the South African lending industry

2003 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Volschenk ◽  
N. Biekpe
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
South African ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Financial Industry ◽  
The South ◽  
Significant Agreement ◽  
Global Problem ◽  
The Poor

The efficiency and availability of financial services for the poor is a global problem, and has only recently started to attract attention in South Africa. This paper aims to examine the South African microfinance industry by comparing sector-related differences in the ranking of specific problems. Tests for the significance of differences (in the location of specific populations) indicate significant differences in perceptions regarding certain intra-industry segments within the microcredit industry. The recent arguments in favour of a single regulator imply that the financial industry as a whole (commercial and microlending sectors) is homogeneous in its priorities. However, the results in this paper suggest that there is no significant agreement between the priorities of the commercial and microlending industries.

scholarly journals THE JANUS FACE OF INSURANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA: FROM COSTS TO RISK, FROM NETWORKS TO BUREAUCRACIES

Africa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Bähre
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Insurance Policy ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Opening And Closing

ABSTRACTThis study examines the consequences of the rapid and unprecedented expansion of insurances for the poor in South Africa. Over the last ten years, South African insurance companies established a myriad of policies in order to incorporate the previously excluded, mostly African, poor and lower middle classes. While poverty, violence and AIDS put state institutions and social relations under pressure, insurances enable people to manage risks in hitherto unthinkable ways. The article examines the development of this new regime of risk as a Janus head, after the Roman god of opening and closing. At the heart of access to insurance were the incongruencies that were caused by the ‘translation’ of risk into the seemingly neutral concept of costs and the inability of brokers and intermediary organizations to navigate these translations successfully. Access to insurance – here not defined as having an insurance policy but as making a successful claim when confronted with the insured risk – was fraught with the contradictions of complex high-tech bureaucracies and the poor's social networks.

scholarly journals Church and South African realities today:Towards a relevant missiology of radical discipleship

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
ST Kgatla
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Extreme Poverty ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Democratic Election ◽  
Constituent Elements

South Africa is one of the last African states to attain liberation from colonial rule. It was ushered into democratic order after one of the most prolonged and painful racial struggles. In 1994 it was heralded as an example of peaceful transition with one of the best constitutions in the world. It was called the “Rainbow Nation” and Madiba Magic. At that stage, the world looked at the new state as the shining example for the rest of Africa. But today, the country has the greatest gap between the rich and the poor in the world. Extreme poverty, inequality, and unemployment are at the centre of the economic ills of the country. In fact, South Africa is reckoned to have one of the largest gaps between rich and poor in the world. The important question is: How did the country decline to the position where it finds itself today? This paper attempts to analyse the trajectory the country took after 1994’s first democratic election to where it is today. Extreme poverty, violence, corruption, greed, bitterness, entitlement mentality and political opportunism are the constituent elements that are plaguing the country.

scholarly journals An Employer's Recourse to Lock-Out and Replacement Labour: An Evaluation of Recent Case Law

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Monray Marsellus Botha ◽  
Motsoane Lephoto
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
South African ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Recent Case ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Rights And Interests ◽  
State Of Affairs

South African labour affairs are in a volatile state. Conflicting rights and interests as well as the balancing of these rights and interests are contributing to this state of affairs. In recent years, the contentious issues of workers' right to use their economic power to put pressure on employers and employers' recourse to lock-out and replacement labour have come under the spotlight again. Prolonged, violent and unprotected strikes have raised the question whether our industrial relations framework should be revisited, and have complicated matters even further. The question whether employers may use replacement labour and have recourse to lock-outs when an impasse exists during wage negotiations has come to the fore again and is evaluated in the context of the adversarial collective bargaining framework in South Africa.      

scholarly journals A Critical Investigation of the Relevance and Potential of IDPS as a Local Governance Instrument for Pursuing Social Justice in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Oliver Njuh Fuo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Local Government ◽  
South African ◽  
Basic Needs ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Integrated Development ◽  
The Poor

Unlike the situation in the past, when local government’s role was limited to service delivery, local government is now constitutionally mandated to play an expanded developmental role. As a “co-responsible” sphere of government, local government is obliged to contribute towards realising the transformative constitutional mandate aimed at social justice. South African scholars and jurists share the view that social justice is primarily concerned with the eradication of poverty and extreme inequalities in access to basic services, and aims to ensure that poor people command sufficient material resources to facilitate their equal participation in socio-political life. In order to enable municipalities to fulfil their broad constitutional mandate, the system of integrated development planning (IDPs) came into effect in South Africa in 2000. Each municipality is obliged to design, adopt and implement an integrated development plan in order to achieve its expanded constitutional mandate. The IDP is considered to be the chief legally prescribed governance instrument for South African municipalities. The purpose of this article is to explore and critically investigate the relevance and potential of IDPs in contributing towards the achievement of social justice in South Africa. This article argues inter alia that the multitude of sectors that converge in an IDP makes it directly relevant and gives it enormous potential to contribute towards social justice because, depending on the context, municipalities could include and implement strategies that specifically respond to diverse areas of human need. In this regard, the legal and policy frameworks for IDPs provide a structured scheme that could be used by municipalities to prioritise and meet the basic needs of especially the poor. Despite its potential, it is argued that the ability of IDPs to respond to the basic needs of the poor is largely constrained by a series of implementation challenges partly attributed to the underlying legal and policy framework.

Exploring Social Entrepreneurship for the Creation of Sustainable Livelihoods in South Africa

2016 ◽  
pp. 240-266
Author(s):  
Gnanam Pillay ◽  
Sylvia Kaye
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Slow Development ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
The World ◽  
Entrepreneurial Development ◽  
Poverty Levels

Although social entrepreneurship has grown rapidly in developed and many developing countries around the world, it is still in its infancy in South Africa. To date, there is limited research available about social entrepreneurship in South Africa. While there are many reasons for its slow development in this country, a significant reason is the poor understanding of the concept, which would preclude investment in programmes, policies and research. This chapter presents an overview of South African issues and analyses how social entrepreneurial development can address some of the problems and issues. The more pressing problems include extreme inequality, high poverty levels and unemployment, a weak Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) sector, fragmented communities and an economic system that needs to strengthen both social and economic development. The chapter presents the model developed as a result of research that contextualizes social entrepreneurial development for a South African market.

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