Industrial policy implementation challenges in the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa

Abstract

The Government of South Africa is currently faced with high rates of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Through departments like the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), government aims to reduce these high rates. The dti's mandate aims to transform the economy through supporting industrialisation. After 1994 government has introduced a number of economic policies, of which the Reconstructive Development Programme (RDP) was introduced first. Implementation of the RDP has realised a number of challenges like lack of coordination amongst departments. The Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) was then introduced to reduce government's debt so that money saved could be used to address issues of service delivery. Shortcomings of GEAR forced government to develop a new policy called Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA). In order to implement AsgiSA, the National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF) was introduced. The dti is the custodian of the NIPF, which is a policy framework providing the tools for industrialisation. The NIPF highlights priority sectors that South Africa need to focus on in order to stimulate the economy to grow. According to the NIPF, the Minister of Trade and Industry should annually develop industrial policy action plans (IPAP) in partnership with other government departments, to stimulate manufacturing and trade that will address race-based poverty, unemployment and inequality. The dti includes a number of Key Action Plans (KAPs) in IPAP that have to be reported to Parliament on an annual basis. The IPAP's annual reports indicate that the dti is failing to meet targeted KAPs annually. This study aims at investigating challenges experienced by the dti senior managers when implementing industrial policies of the dti. The study focuses on Policymaking and policy implementation theories. Emphasis is put on standards for community engagement and phases of policy cycles. Understanding these theories helped the researcher to identify challenges that the dti experience when implementing industrial policies.