Industrial Decentralization and the Spatial Economy of Apartheid

Abstract

For nearly thirty years the South African government has consistently and with increasing vigour promoted a policy of decentralizing industry to peripheral regions where many blacks live in poverty, prevented from leaving by apartheid laws. Of the state’s resources devoted to economic development, a very substantial proportion has been set aside for the programme. The funds devoted to direct industrial decentralization incentives alone currently swallow about one-half of the budget of the Department of Industry and Commerce. If other budgetary allocations to decentralization are included, such as those allocated to financing the Development Bank of South Africa and other funds devoted to the infrastructural development that makes the programme possible, decentralization takes a large bite out of the South African government’s budget.