Planning economic diversification: A local economic development strategy towards economic base restructuring in South Africa.

Abstract

Municipalities in South Africa have undergone rigorous change that has not only manifested in terms of structural adjustments, but included expansion of roles to respond to the changing expectations of roles to respond to the changing expectations of communities. Municipalities have had to engender massive development interventions to respond to their domestic legislative obligations and a plethora of international treaties. Recent legislative obligations not only necessitate municipal philosophies of integration, development, people-centeredness, transparency and accountability, but catalysts that conduct business in an unusual way. Local economic development (LED) is among the municipal drivers to facilitate growth. Municipal LED initiatives would be ineffective if they failed to incorporate economic diversification which is deemed a useful tool for local economic-base restructuring. Although the article refers to a South African municipality as a research focus area, the findings of the research apply to municipalities with a rural nature country-wide.