Defense economic restructuring and conversion in South Africa

Abstract

The aim is to examine issues of defence economic restructuring and conversion in South Africa. Under the new government, overall restructuring of the South African defence sector is occurring. With diminished defence expenditure, the military industry is encouraged to convert production capability to non-military products. The geographical implications of defence economic restructuring and conversion in South Africa are analysed in the context of international experience and debates. The Gauteng region emerges as the national 'gunbelt' of South Africa and contains an incipient military 'industrial district'. In this particular region, the question of defence conversion is critically important for local policy makers and should be linked to new local economic development initiatives.

Contending With Defense Industry Reallocations: A Literature Review of Relevant Factors

“…Despite the known differences between military and civilian production, scholars have proposed dual use conversion as an economic strategy for nations with significant defense budgets, such as Russia (Adelman & Augustine, 1992;Alexeev & Sikorra, 1998;Bzhilianskaya, 1996;Cronberg, 1994), China (Brockhoff & Guan, 1996), or Europe (Nironen, 1995) and Africa (C. Rogerson, 1996). Sillers and Kleiner (1997) additionally suggested that with the thawing of the Cold War came new opportunities for global partners in former Soviet states and in Russia.…”

Local Economic Development and Post‐Apartheid Reconstruction in South Africa

“…Beyond the competition for government offices, this last LED approach also involves local lobbying on behalf of such activities as the defence sector which is heavily reliant upon government contracts. The defence sector provides a vital foundation to the local economies of Pretoria, Midrand and certain towns of the East Rand, which collectively form South Africa's "gunbelt" (Rogerson, 1996d). Another dimension of this final approach of urban entrepreneurialism is the competition between various places for the allocation of government development project funding in the form of grants targeted for RDP projects.…”