History of Industrial Decentralization in South Africa (part II): Historical Development and the Impact of the Policy

Abstract

This research deals broadly with the history and development of industrial decentralization in South Africa. It provides a basic analysis of a number of inseparable historic, political and economic issues, and is presented in two parts. The first part firstly traced the economic forces that generated current concentrated patterns of economic activity in South Africa, and secondly, reviewed the origins of the industrial decentralization policy. It concluded that despite a relatively rigid natural regional economic structure that developed historically, and despite the continued presence of the economic forces that brought this structure about, the government began with a policy of industrial decentralization in 1960. The second part of the research, published here, firstly assesses the development of the policy in an attempt to indicate reasons for major changes, and secondly discusses the impact of the policy with reference to current evidence. It concludes that the industrial decentralization policy may have had serious economic consequences to date, but may nevertheless have a continued role in the ongoing political development of the country. The approach throughout has been to provide a relatively compact'chronology of the policy and its antecedents.