A Profile of the Gauteng Province: Demographics, Poverty, Income, Inequality and Unemployment from 2000 till 2007

The Gauteng agricultural sector is a dynamic and livelihood sustainable sector. Approximately 0.46% of the Gauteng value added gross domestic product comes through agriculture and 0.61% of the population in Gauteng is working in this sector. There is thus a need for macro-economic research in order to investigate potential and current challenges and opportunities. This paper examines several of these challenges namely demographic compositions, unemployment, income distribution, poverty and inequality. It will provide results from the Labour Force Surveys from 2000 until 2007 with a more in-depth look into 2007. Population and labour force statistics provide the foundation for further analysis. This paper indicates that unemployment is being dominated by the African individuals and that employment in the Gauteng agricultural sector was on a decreasing trend, but is increasing again. It shows further that income distribution is highly skewed which leads to high levels of poverty and inequality. Agricultural incomes are lowest across all races compared to non-agricultural incomes except for the White farmers/farm workers who earn more than their counterparts in other sectors. Poverty is extremely high for African workers in the Gauteng agricultural sector but has decreased since 2000 to 2006, with an increase in 2007. One of the principal concerns is that of inequality. It shows no improvement, actually a widening in the inequality gap since 2000, with a high in-between race inequality and lower within race inequality in the Gauteng agricultural sector. Throughout the report the Gauteng agricultural sector is compared to the non-agricultural sector, Gauteng overall and South Africa for a better understanding of the Gauteng agricultural sector’s position. This report indicates that the Gauteng agricultural sector could benefit from intervention and support to correct the present state of decreasing employment, low income, and high poverty and inequality levels.Demographic Trends and Forecasts, Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure, Agricultural Labor Markets, Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital, J11, J21, J43,

Telling Stories - A History of Growth Management in the Gauteng Province (South Africa)

The sprawled nature of major South African cities can be attributed to a variety of reasons. The 1994 (post-apartheid) political shift, however, prompted cities and regions to plan for more equitable and accessible cities. Together with its three metropolitan municipalities, the Gauteng Province proved to be a pioneer in adopting an urban growth management approach (the Gauteng Urban Edge). Against the backdrop of a Provincial Spatial Development Framework, a Provincial Urban Edge was delineated within which local authorities were awarded the opportunity to refine a custom-made growth management strategy. In the absence of clear provincial direction, these strategies achieved various levels of success. This paper explores the urban growth management movement, its approaches and its expressions as witnessed in the case of Gauteng

An Overview of South Africa's Metropolitan Areas - Dualistic, Dynamic and under Threat…

The article explores the threats posed to metropolitan viability and resilience in South Africa which is faced by continued spatial and economic concentration and duality - a trend also evident in a number of Central European countries. Examples are provided of trends and challenges impacting the resilience of South Africa's metropolitan regions, as identified in recent empirical studies conducted by the authors.1 The paper argues that the agglomeration challenges facing South Africa's metropolitan regions and complications brought about by intra-metropolitan inequality are key aspects underlying the resilience of these regions. The article also suggests that there might be value in greater collaboration in research and knowledge-production and sharing in metropolitan planning, development and governance, between South African metropolitan regions and those in Central European countries

Betting on Dog Racing. The Next Legalised Gambling Opportunity in South Africa? A Cautionary Note from the Regulation of Greyhound Racing in Great Britain

This article commences with a brief overview of the history of dog racing in South Africa. It provides a synopsis of South Africa’s current legal position on dog racing and the betting thereon. The main question this article addresses is whether there is any policy reason why dog racing and wagering should not be legalised and regulated. Furthermore, some comments are included discussing how such regulation should fit into the broader existing gambling regulatory framework should the legislature make the decision to legalise dog racing and wagering. The article concludes with a discussion of the greyhound racing industry in Britain and the recent developments in that jurisdiction. The rationale for the choice of this jurisdiction as a comparison is that a successful greyhound racing industry has existed in Britain for decades. Yet, notwithstanding the successes of dog racing in Britain, an independent review was commissioned to investigate the sport after two high-profile animal welfare incidents in 2006. In December 2007, Lord Donoughue of Ashton, on behalf of the British Greyhound Racing Board and the National Greyhound Racing Club, published a report with recommendations for change titled, Independent Review of the Greyhound Industry in Great Britain. Although the Donoughue Report focuses exclusively on greyhound racing in Britain, this article submits that the principles used in Britain could be useful for any and all types of dog racing and could provide some useful guidelines for the decision concerning the possible legalisation and regulation of the South African dog racing industry

Population growth, migration, economic growth and poverty in Gauteng since 1970

To describe the trends in migration, population growth and urbanization and their effects on the demographics of magisterial districts and to analyze them in relation to levels of poverty and poverty alleviation in the Gauteng Province.

Towards a developmental state? Provincial economic policy in South Africa

This paper explores the meaning of the developmental state for spatial economic policy in South Africa. Two main questions are addressed: do provincial governments have a role to play in promoting economic prosperity, and to what extent do current provincial policies possess the attributes of a developmental state? These attributes are defined as the ability to plan longer term, to focus key partners on a common agenda, and to mobilise state resources to build productive capabilities. The paper argues that the developmental state must harness the power of government at every level to ensure that each part of the country develops to its potential. However, current provincial capacity is uneven, and weakest where support is needed most. Many provinces seem to have partial strategies and lack the wherewithal for sustained implementation. Coordination across government appears to be poor. The paper concludes by suggesting ways provincial policies could be strengthened

A Profile of Gauteng: Demographics, Poverty, Inequality and Unemployment

This paper forms part of a series of papers that present profiles of South Africa's provinces, with a specific focus on key demographic statistics, poverty and inequality estimates, and estimates of unemployment. In this volume comparative statistics are presented for agricultural and non-agricultural households, as well as households from different racial groups, locations (metropolitan, urban and rural areas) and district municipalities of Gauteng. Most of the data presented are drawn from the Income and Expenditure Survey of 2000 and the Labour Force Survey of September 2000, while some comparative populations statistics are extracted from the National Census of 2001 (Statistics South Africa). The papers should be regarded as general guidelines to (agricultural) policymakers as to the current socio-economic situation in Gauteng, particularly with regards to poverty, inequality and unemployment.Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital,

Water Development in South Africa

A report on South African water development: South Africa's water resources are, in global terms, scarce and extremely limited: average rainfall (450 mm per year) is well below the world average (of about 860 mm), evaporation is comparatively high, no truly large or navigable rivers exist, the combined runoff (of 49 billion cubic metres per year) is less than half of that of the Zambezi River, the closest large river to South Africa. In addition South Africa is also poorly endowed with groundwater and the natural availability of water across the country is highly uneven with more than 60% of the river flow arising from only 20% of the land. Four of South Africa's main rivers are shared with other countries, which together drain about 60% of the country's land area and contribute about 40% of its total surface runoff (river flow). Most urban and industrial development took place in locations remote from large watercourses, dictated either by the occurrence of mineral riches or influenced by the political dispensation of the past. Some irrigation were also established during times that water was still relatively abundant and little incentive existed for seeking the most beneficial application thereof. As a result, in several river basins the requirements for water already far exceeds its natural availability, and widely-spread and often large-scale transfers of water across catchments have therefore, been implemented

Integration and Equilibrium in the Maize Markets in Southern Africa

For most countries in southern Africa, food security has been addressed through self-sufficiency, traditionally attained through widespread government involvement in the input and output markets for major food commodities. Food policies through the 1980s have been characterized by input subsidies for farmers; fixed, pan-seasonal and pan-territorial farm level pricing systems, mainly implemented through parastatal marketing boards; as well as subsidies and price controls at the wholesale and retail levels. Under Structural Adjustment Programs of the 1990s, most of those policies were abandoned for more market oriented policies. During the same period, many countries in the region joined the multilateral trading system, and on a regional level, two regional free trade agreements were ratified and bilateral preferential trading agreements continue to be negotiated. Those policy shifts have left in their wake a region characterized by a blend of food policies, with greater openness and a market-led economy in some countries, while substantial government involvement persists in others. In this policy environment, food supply volatility, price instability and weak coordination of trade policies remain fundamental problems. As the southern Africa region grapples with recurrent food shortages, reference is often made to increased intra-regional trade as an important integral component of a comprehensive food strategy. The assumption is that as countries reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, they become more integrated and more efficient, facilitating commodity movement at lower transfer costs, hence lower prices to the final consumer. In the southern Africa region, research efforts have focused on analyzing market integration at an intra-country level (Abdula 2005, Tostão and Brorsen 2005, Alemu and Baucuana 2006, Penzhorn and Arndt 2002, Traub et al 2004, Mabaya 2003, Mutambatsere 2002, Barrett 1997) . Limited work has evaluated how well integrated or efficient the food markets are at the regional level, to ascertain if in fact trade is a viable food security strategy given existing market systems. In this paper, we evaluate the extent to which maize market systems in the region have become integrated and efficient, and identify the nature of inefficiency where it exists. The analysis employs the Parity Bounds (Baulch 1997) and Barrett-Li (Barrett and Li 2002) models, in collaboration with comprehensive non-parametric descriptions of market pairs, to provide a holistic assessment of pair-wise market interaction, in the process also providing a comparison of the methods as measures of integration and efficiency. Specifically, this paper investigates pair wise spatial integration and efficiency for five central markets in southern Africa: Gaborone in Botswana, Gauteng in South Africa, Blantyre in Malawi, and Maputo and Mocuba in Mozambique. The analyses use monthly retail level data on commodity prices, trade flows, and transfer costs, for the period June 1994 to December 2004. The study seeks to evaluate the nature of price and trade relations, establish the level of regional spatial integration, and evaluate the level of efficiency in these markets. Results reveal significant frequency of market integration, indicating tradability of commodities and contestability of markets. Efficiency holds less frequently, although non-trivially; we observe that for those markets characterized by near continuous trade, returns to arbitrage are exhausted about 25% of the time. Often however, when trade is observed, efficiency appears to be weakened by insufficient arbitrage. For those markets, positive trade is occasionally observed when arbitrage returns are negative. Where trade is not observed, efficiency holds with a slightly higher frequency, so that the lack of trade is often justified by the lack of positive arbitrage returns. Here again, efficiency is occasionally compromised by insufficient arbitrage, whereby trade sometimes fails to occur even when arbitrage incentives appear favorable. In order of frequency, we observe a high occurrence of positive returns imperfect integration (regime 3 in the Barrett-Li Model) and segmented equilibrium (regime 6), followed by a regular occurrence of perfect integration (regimes 1 and 2), and irregular segmented disequilibrium (regimes 4) and the negative returns type of imperfect integration (regime 5). Our results suggest a need for public policy in the areas of improved production to take advantage of unexploited arbitrage opportunities, as well as addressing structural barriers to trade that prevent market entry especially where positive returns are currently observed. Results highlight an important contribution to the trade food policy debate for the southern Africa region: that although restrictive transfer costs are observed in enough cases, the dominant form of inefficiency in regional markets is insufficient arbitrage, likely resulting more from supply side constraints, non-cost barriers to trade (infrastructural or regulatory) and imperfect information, than from restrictive tariffs. In some cases however, the lack of trade is an efficient outcome (indicating limited or negative arbitrage profits) that probably requires no immediate policy response.Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,