An examination of Local Economic Development (LED) in Bophirima District

Abstract

South Africa's Constitution attaches the promotion of social and economic development as one of the objects underpinning local government (Act 108, 1996). Most municipalities are however experiencing different developmental challenges particularly in relation to achieving infrastructural backlogs and stimulating local economic growth (dplg, 2000). Conspicuous discrepancies pertaining to the living standards of different racial groups resulted in repressed human and economic development particularly for the black majority in the country. Local Economic Development is thus one of the programmes government introduced in order to stimulate local economies through effective utilisation of local resources and skills for the locality's economic advancement. This process requires the active involvement of all local stakeholders with local government playing a facilitation, stimulation and coordination role (dplg, 2000). The Bophirima District is also faced with a number of developmental challenges experienced by most municipalities in the country including the implementation of the LED programme. The main objectives of this investigation therefore included: • Establishing whether municipalities in the Bophirima District understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to the LED programme.

• Establishing whether the district and its local municipalities have capacity to perform or implement the LED programme. • Establishing whether sufficient resources and support (financial and nonfinancial) are provided to municipalities to ensure successful implementation of the LED programme. • Establishing whether the concept local economic development (LED) is uniformly understood among municipalities and relevant stakeholders. Main Findings and Recommendations of the study It was revealed in the findings that despite the implementation challenges faced by municipalities in the Bophirima district, municipal officials do know what their actual roles and responsibilities in relation to the LED programme are. An overwhelming 71 % of those interviewed supported this finding. The most worrying factor however, is the 29% of municipal officials of which 18% indicated not knowing what their roles and responsibilities pertaining to the programme are as well as the 11 % that is also not sure. By implication, these officials are simply employed to do nothing or anything else irrelevant to the objectives of the LED programme. The challenge therefore is for Bophirima district municipalities to conduct a skills audit in order to assist in ensuring that the right skills and competencies are effectively utilised for the relevant positions.

Secondly, it was established that municipalities do not lack capacity but rather officials' ability to effectively implement the LED programme needs to be effectively harnessed. Thus there is a dire need for the improvement of practical implementation skills among LED officials within the district. The study further highlighted two very critical areas that require immediate intervention by municipalities in the Bophirima District. The stakeholders' understanding of LED as a concept and particularly as a programme needs reinforcement. Capacity building through relevant Sector Education and Training Authority (SET A) requires serious consideration. In the case of the local government programmes, the Local Government and Water Services Education and Training Authority (LGWSETA) is the most appropriate. It was further established that even with the availability of resources to support the LED programme, different comprehension of desired outputs leads to conflicting implementation strategies or approaches. This was implicitly highlighted in the findings between the way LED is understood among municipal officials and stakeholders respectively. Lastly, the oversight role of politicians in local economic advancement while it is constitutionally mandated, it somehow stifles officials' decision making capacity and ultimately delays effective service delivery. This was attributed to the council committee system which mainly is regarded as slow and inflexible.