Towards collective business action and cross-sector collaboration in responsible competitiveness clusters in southern Africa

Responsible competitiveness clusters are cross-sector collaboration initiatives focused on identifying and acting upon synergies between sustainable development and economic competitiveness objectives. By means of three case studies in southern Africa this paper investigates the incentives, opportunities and challenges encountered in the emergence of such clusters. The first case study focuses on a regional response to the development challenges encountered in a South African mining area, the second describes efforts to make the Malawian agriculture sector more inclusive and competitive and the third discusses options for enhancing the competitiveness of the Lesotho textile sector. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role of international trade networks, the institutional framework, public sector support and internal governance processes as key factors influencing the initial level of success of these initiatives.     

Performance of land reform projects in the North West province of South Africa: Changes over time and possible causes

Anecdotal evidence as well as selected studies on the performance and progress of South Africa’s land reform programme generally present mixed to rather negative results. Few longitudinal studies exist on the progress of redistributed farms, resulting in an incomplete picture of the performance and progress of land reform projects. In this article, we report on the progress and performance of a group of land reform projects in the North West province of South Africa over five years. As part of a comprehensive audit of land reform projects in the North West province, 43 farms were studied in 2005 to assess their performance, based on their production status. Five years later, in 2010, 37 of these farms were visited again to review their progress. The results indicate that the production status (and thus performance) of land reform projects is not static. Although some projects either improved or maintained their initial production status, the overall trend shows deterioration in performance. Numerous factors are responsible for the decline, including group characteristics where farms are owned by groups of beneficiaries. This article is thus the first to use two surveys of a group of land reform projects to show the true status of farms in their post-transfer phase in South Africa.     

Directional trends in selected aspects of rural poverty in the Eastern Cape Province: changes during the first ten years of South African democracy

This study analysed changes in demographic, gender, basic service access and agricultural production patterns in the rural black Eastern Cape Province between 1993 and 2002 in order to offer advice for future poverty alleviation strategies. It used secondary data from national surveys and the 2001 census and stratified the Eastern Cape districts into former Transkei, former Ciskei and commercial farming district sub-regions, in accordance with the pre-1994 developmental scenarios. The results showed that the demographic and basic service access changes were positive, but that pre-existing sub-regional differences had been reinforced, indicating that the populous former Transkei was being marginalised. There has been little development for rural women, agricultural production is almost negligible and employment in commercial farming has declined. Geographically targeted interventions seem to be warranted for the demographic, gender development and basic service accessibility aspects of Eastern Cape rural poverty, but improving rural production appears to be the major challenge.