Estimating the Role of Government in Socio-Economic Development in South Africa

The paper examines the relationship between government and socio-economic development in South Africa. The analysis focuses on 1996-2020. Various estimations were undertaken, through the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, to empirically examine the role of government in socio-economic development in South Africa. Because of the unit root that typically characterizes macroeconomic series, the unit root test using the Augmented Dick Fuller (ADF) test with constant, and trend was done. In addition, the ARDL bound tests were undertaken. The results confirm that government has an important role to play in the economy. However, results show that economic growth does not necessarily translate to socio-economic development although government spending does. In addition, results also confirm that institutions and educational spending are important for social and economic development. For instance, improvements in the quality of institutions increases the human development index. In the same vein, there is a strong positive correlation between increased socio-economic development and spending on education. Results show that the quality of institutions is important for both economic growth and socio-economic development. Overall, the findings support the view that governments should be active in facilitating social and economic development. This is more so in instances where economic performance weakens due to exogenous factors such as the coronavirus pandemic. It is worth highlighting that the baseline ARDL results show that the correlation between gross domestic product (GDP) and its prior values is statistically significant, indicating a meaningful relationship between GDP and socio-economic development

Poverty and the 'Second Economy' in South Africa: An Attempt to Clarify Applicable Concepts and Quantify the Extent of Relevant Challenges

This policy document was compiled based on the DPRU Working Paper 08/133, Poverty and the ‘Second Economy’ in South Africa: An Attempt to Clarify Applicable Concepts and Quantify the Extent of Relevant Challenges by Dr Vusi Gumede (Chief Policy Analyst in the Presidency’s Policy Co-ordination and Advisory Services in South Africa). This report was made possible by the National Research Foundation for the author’s post-doctoral grant

An empirical analysis of the role of imports in the South African economy.

Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1999.It is generally acknowledged that there is no sufficient, exhaustive and elaborate empirical examination of the quantitative impact of policies pertaining to import demand and economic growth in South Africa. In order to arrive at conclusive, sagacious and applicable policies on the economic growth potential of an economy, it is imperative to evaluate, empirically, whether envisaged economic growth rates and employment creation are feasible, given the socio-economic circumstances. The fundamental question of the constraint or rather effective constraints to high economic growth rates, measured by gross domestic product, has always desired urgent attention but has been neglected. There appears to be strong reasons to believe that the South African economy, like other middle-income developing economies, is subject to a "powerful balance of payments constraint that effectively aborts the growth process before it is able to deliver rising per capita incomes" (Industrial Strategy Project1, 1995:49 ). Furthermore, although this issue is widely recognized, there has been little systematic analysis of this important question. Many writings which, implicitly or explicitly, note the foreign exchange shortages as adversely affecting the economy's growth capacity have tended to focus and give enormous emphasis on exports and export expansion as a means to eradicate this economic dilemma. However, together with exports the demand for imports clearly determines the behavior of the trade account of the balance of payments as a whole. Consequently, this dissertation intends to consider one important aspect of the balance of payments constraint, namely, the determinants of the demand for imports in South Africa and the behavior of foreign trade. This study briefly examines the theoretical foundations of the savings and foreign exchange constraints using the 'two-gap' model. In that the main lesson is that the economy characterized by foreign exchange bottlenecks and/or lack of savings will not accomplish its perceived growth capacity. This is the background and motivation for the study of import demand elasticities as it gives impetus to the importance of both imports and exports in an economy. The dissertation derives the import demand function and employs the recent time-series techniques to modeling economic time-series. Prior to the empirical model, the study quantitatively describes the behavior of both imports, and exports, though more emphasis is placed on the former than the latter. In this section, simple quantitative techniques are utilized in order to determine the cyclical and trend behavior of import performance since the beginning of the 1970s. The study also briefly looks at the relationship between import of capital goods and investments into South Africa. Description of trade behavior involves examination of trade flows and their geographical destination by regional trading blocks. That is followed by an extensive literature survey conducted on import demand elasticities in South Africa and trade elasticities in general. This analysis gives a strong background to the time-series model of import demand estimated in this work. Time-series analysis examines the import demand at both aggregate and sectoral levels. Prior to the empirical model chapter there is an overview of time-series econometrics with regards to co-integration, error correction and non-stationary data. Import performance and import demand functions were studied in an economic policy context and the analyses were in some cases restricted by data constraints. Import behavior patterns and empirical results of the import demand models are discussed and international comparisons are drawn. 1 The Industrial Strategy Project (ISP) was authored by Joffe et al (1995). In this dissertation it is referred to as ISP (1995) although in the reference section I refer to Joffe et al (1995) as done in other publications. For instance, see Bell (1995). The same applies to the Normative Model Approach (NEM), in the text it is referred to as NEM (1993) while in the references it is reflected as Central Economic Advisory Services (1993)

Educational reforms and curriculum transformation in post-apartheid South Africa

Educational reforms and curriculum transformation have been a priority in South Africa since the establishment of the Government of National Unity in 1994. Education is critical in redressing the injustices of apartheid colonialism which created an inequitable and fragmented education system. Factors such as school access, governance, curriculum, teacher deployment and financial resources have also gone through the education policy mill. While relatively impressive progress is observed regarding legislative interventions, policy development, curriculum reform and the implementation of new ways of delivering education, many challenges remain. Key among the challenges relates to the quality of education, twenty two years since the dawn of democracy. To contribute to the debate on educational reforms and pertaining to the quality of education, the paper discusses the various curriculum reforms of South Africa’s education sector and provides a brief evaluation of the trends in policies affecting equity and quality in the South African education environment. The paper finds that the quality of education is critical for many reason

Poverty and 'Second Economy' in South Africa: An Attempt to Clarify Applicable Concepts and Quantify Extent of Relevant Challenges

In brief, the paper firstly summarises old and new theoretical and technical issues on measuring poverty, secondly analyses poverty from different perspectives and highlights various research findings on poverty trends in South Africa and thirdly clarifies the notion of "second economy" and attempts to "measure" it

Revisiting regional integration in Africa: towards a pan-African developmental regional integration

So much has been said and written about regional integration in Africa. And there have been many efforts and initiatives towards regionally integrating Africa. While acknowledging all the valuable attempts made towards achieving the regional integration agenda, this article problematises the efforts undertaken so far and points to what have been the missing links in the successful pursuit of regional integration in Africa. Indeed, there have been different schools of thoughts (originally the Casablanca, Brazzaville and Monrovia ‘perspectives’). Hence the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) wrestled with regional integration from these different perspectives. The African Union (AU) has also had to confront more directly which approach is ideal for ‘one Africa’: one big government or a geographically united continent of Africa versus the co-existence of the diverse peoples of Africa. The article makes a case for a pan-African developmental regional integration as a political agenda grounded in African nationalism, not an economistic affair aimed at increasing market access and associated factors. The pan-African developmental regional integration agenda has to do with regional integration for the political unification of Africa. In the main, people-to-people relations should be prioritised. The article also makes the point that the various imperialisms have to be confronted if true regional integration is to become a reality. Essentially, building infrastructure, improving capacity and ensuring market access are economistic issues that do not deal with the fundamental challenges faced by the African continent, although these factors can, to some extent, assist in dealing with unemployment and poverty. It is in this context that a pan-African developmental regional integration agenda is advanced

Editorial

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Exploring thought leadership, thought liberation and critical consciousness for Africa’s development

It is argued that any discussion of Africa’s social and economic development has to take into account the three critical issues that remain pressing constraints for the further advancement of well-being in Africa: thought leadership, thought liberation and critical consciousness. These three ‘ingredients’ should anchor aspects of the socio-economic development model. As I have discussed elsewhere, the twenty-first century will most likely be remembered as the Asian century fundamentally, and secondarily as a South American century. Africa will most likely miss the twenty-first century as its own and should be putting in place what is needed to ensure that Africa indeed captures the twenty-second century.It is in this context that this article argues that thought leadership, thought liberation and critical consciousness should ensure that Africa robustly addresses whatever constraints that limit Africa’s progress. The three ‘instruments’ – the trio – should be pursued concurrently, for thought leadership without critical  consciousness is useless. Thought leadership without a liberated mind is futile. Higher levels of consciousness, based on comprehensive understanding of  phenomena, make for a better thought leader. It is also argued that African thought  leadership must be able to produce not only a critical but also a conscious African citizenry that is grounded in pan-Africanist philosophies and driven to implement the African renaissance agenda. To do this and to successfully pursue other pertinent issues, Africa should build on its glorious past. The article also demonstrates the importance of knowledge production, its dissemination, organization and the implementation of revolutionary praxis

Radical land and agrarian reform on the horizon in South Africa : following Zimbabwe’s footsteps?

Abstract: Although the land question for South Africa appears similar to that of Zimbabwe from a historical sense, it might very well be that the current contexts require different sets of interventions

Editorial by a Guest Editor

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