The King Cetshwayo District Municipality (KCDM) is constituted in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 as a Category C municipality that shares municipal executive and legislative authority with Category B municipalities with in a specific area. The King Cetshwayo District Municipality has developed different strategies for the district, including the 2006 LED strategy, the SMME strategy (2010) and the Benchmark Implementation Plan (2013). The 2016 LED strategic plan indicates that this District Municipality has prioritised manufacturing, mining, mineral processing, agriculture and agri-processing, tourism, maritime, blue economy, skills development and revitalization of the township economy in order to meet the national targets. From the Spatial Development Framework, it can be seen that most of the area in the King Cetshwayo District Municipality is available for development with 59 percent of the land having high to good potential. In this study two Category B municipalities were used that
134 fall under the King Cetshwayo District Municipality (Category C municipality) namely, the uMhlathuze local municipality and the uMfolozi local municipality. Local municipalities are municipalities that are closer to the people, they are a service delivery vehicle for the people and their main goal is to improve the quality of life of the people through service provision. The uMhlathuze local municipality has a growing population with a relatively high density and a fairly high level of urbanisation. The uMhlathuze and uMfolozi local municipalities are the only municipalities in the King Cetshwayo District that have experienced a net population increase between 2001 and 2011. Their population increase has been significantly more than 14 percent with the uMhlathuze local municipality at 15.65 percent (LED Strategy Review, 2016).
Figure 5.1: Development plan for the uMhlathuze municipality
Source: Economic Development Strategic Plan, 2016
The UMhlathuze Local Municipality, which is located within the King Cetshwayo District, north-east of Kwazulu-Natal has the most developed economy and has the largest population within the district which is estimated to 370 579 (Census, 2016). This municipality is faced with a number of development challenges which include unemployment with the rate of unemployment remaining unacceptably high. Other primary economic challenges within the municipality include low income, disinvestment
135 and business closure (uMhlathuze LED Strategy, 2013-2017). It is on this basis that the uMhlathuze local municipality has prioritized the three key areas namely, economic development, economic transformation and job creation. Figure 5.1 above illustrates the areas where developments have taken place and in some areas the development is still in progress. South Africa is currently facing and is projected to continue facing very serious economic challenges in the forthcoming year. The year 2016-2017 saw an unresolved global economic crisis with features that threatened the growth and productivity of many economies including South Africa. However, the uMhlathuze municipality is trying to resolve the economic crisis within the area by developing a strategic roadmap for job creation, and economic development and transformation.
Nwankwo and Ozor (2008) highlight that development is a means to further the human potential recognized in all people and aims to strengthen the abilities of people in addressing their own problems in harmony with the community environment. Local Economic Development is founded on the idea of stimulating local employment opportunities in sectors that improve the standard of living of the local community, using existing human, natural and institutional resources (Storey, 2010). uMhlathuze is largely a young municipality, considering that four in every ten residents (40 percent) are teenagers (under 19 years). Also, when the age band is expanded, roughly three quarters (72 percent) of the population is aged below 35 years. Only 4 percent have reached retirement age (65 and above) and this indicates the need for employment opportunities particularly for young people as they are dominant in this municipality.
UMfolozi local municipality is a rural municipality that is situated in an environment suitable for industrial and residential development. The only urban zone in this municipality is KwaMbonambi which is situated approximately 33km north of Richards Bay. Its economy constitutes 18 percent of that of uMhlathuze and only 12 percent of that of the King Cetshwayo District Municipality. The total population is estimated to 124 889 of which the majority is classified as youth, 50 percent of the young people are unemployed and only 30.3 percent of the population in this municipality have matric. The uMfolozi municipality review strategic plan (2015) highlights that LED in the uMfolozi local municipality seeks to utilise existing resources to promote sustainable livelihoods and this is in agreement with Storey (2010) who stipulated that LED is about stimulating the local economy using existing resources. The 2006 LED strategy of the uMfolozi municipality identified six sectors to develop their economy and they are presented in
136 Table 5.1 below. Some of the projects listed below are still part of the current implementation strategy of the uMfolozi municipality and there are some other additional new projects that the municipality is implementing that will be presented under the Results section. There are different stakeholders that are working with the municipality to implement these projects, such as different governments departments, government agencies, community-based non-profit organisations, cooperatives, private companies and Local Economic Development Agencies.
Table 5.1: Projects identified in the LED strategy
Sector Project
Agriculture Vegetable production
Manufacturing Sewing
Tourism Craft Emporium projects
Informal Economy Mechanics
Catering Spaza shops
Formal Businesses Fuel filling stations
Containers
Construction Building
Road construction
The 2015/16 uMfolozi IDP identified challenges hindering LED in the uMfolozi municipality which include the following:
Low level of access to running water
Poor road infrastructure
Poor use of arable land
Inadequate research on agri-business development
Lack of funding for the establishment of value-added initiatives
Inadequate youth and women empowerment
Inadequate environmental management capacity.
The field research work was done over a period of three days at the offices of both municipalities (uMhlathuze local municipality and uMfolozi local municipality) and
137 another three days were spent collecting data from community organisations and community members from 28 June - September 2017. The process of collecting data took longer than expected because of focus group discussions held for community members and cooperatives. This study also involved a document review of various official documents developed by the municipalities including, the uMhlathuze Strategic Plan (2016), the uMfolozi LED Strategy Review Plan (2015), the IDP Review Document for the 2016-2017 financial year, the Spatial Development Framework – SDF Review and the Tourism Development Strategy (2017). The first section of the data analysis contains the participants’ demographic data which is described in the form of a table, and the following section presents the responses from the participants pertaining to the research questions, and the findings are presented according to themes which emanated from the research objectives.