The Complexities of Development: The South African National Industrial Participation Programme in Perspective

National Planning, Industrial Policy and the New Statism in Contemporary South Africa

“…There is also a shift in part of certain higher-end tertiary and secondary industrial production away from Durban to Johannesburg and environs, and, though to a lesser extent, to Cape Town (Kaplan 2007;Haines 2011). Government openly acknowledged in 2003 'that it needs to do more to improve the coherence of existing strategies to promote a more equitable geographic spread of investment and economic activities' (DTI 2003, p. 28).…”

“…DTI attempted to guide certain strategic investments into certain of the IDZs, but the implementation record left much to be desired (Dunne and Lamb 2004;Dunne and Haines 2001;Holden 2008Haines 2004. The record of successfully implemented projects in the rural and peripheral areas of South Africa was equally problematic (Haines 2004(Haines , 2011. Ironically, the international defence firms or 'obligors' with previous experience in international defence deals, ensured that the South African defence procurement essentially incorporated the offset price into the price of equipment (see i.a.…”

“…Improved co-ordination of the relevant activities of such structures is imperative for more efficacious development policy. The DTI has also in the past been hampered by capacity issues on programmes such as the NIP initiative (Haines 2004(Haines , 2011Kaplan 2007;Bond 2010). A recent audit report on the arms deal, declared that the DTI concurred that 'no methodology' was developed to multiply the actual investments and that the main criterion was the 'perceived importance of the project' (City Press, 16 February 2014).…”

The decline of South Africa’s defence industry

“…60 More specifically, there are those who argued the package was ill conceived, representing an enormous waste of resources that yielded little in the form of positive returns. 61 Furthermore, job creation was nowhere near the government's promised target of 65,000, with the lower range of estimates falling between 26,000 62 and just 12,000. 63 The cost per job created through IP was estimated to be 20 times higher than the average for the local defence industry; 64 the cost escalating due to Rand and interest rate fluctuations, and the payment period more than doubling from eight to 18 years.…”