Economics of South African Townships : Special Focus on Diepsloot

Mahajan, Sandeep

Washington, DC:World Bank Group

关键词: ACCESS TO CAPITAL;    ACCESS TO CREDIT;    ACCESS TO FINANCE;    ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES;    ACCESS TO FORMAL FINANCE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-1-4648-0301-7
RP-ID  :  89917

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Countries everywhere are divided intotwo distinct spatial realms: one urban, one rural. Classicmodels of development predict faster growth in the urbansector, causing rapid migration from rural areas to cities,lifting average incomes in both places. The processcontinues until the marginal productivity of labor isequalized across the two realms. The pattern of risingurbanization accompanying economic growth has become one ofthe most visible and self-evident empirical facts ofdevelopment across the world, with almost 200,000 peoplemaking the rural-to-urban trek every day, according to theUnited Nations. Cities across the world are powering growth,development, and modernization. The study then takes a closelook at Diepsloot, a large township in the JohannesburgMetropolitan Area, to bring out more vividly the economicrealities and choices of township residents. Althoughatypical in many ways, by the virtue of being newer, poorer,and more informal, with a bigger concentration of migrants(many of them foreign nationals), than the historicallyestablished townships, Diepsloot also retains many of theeconomic characteristics of South African townships: Issuesof joblessness, uneven access to basic public services, andoverwhelming levels of crime and violence are almost aspervasive in Diepsloot as they are in other T&IS. At thesame time, an emergent informal sector more visibly pervadesthe township than seen in the average township, which makesit a particularly useful place to study in order to developan understanding of the kinds of economic activities thatare feasible in townships. It focuses particularly on thenature of business activity in the township, the keyinvestment-climate constraints faced by its firms, incomeand expenditure patterns across households, and someaggregative social and human indicators. In a first attemptof its kind for a township, the report also develops aSocial Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Diepsloot for acomprehensive and consistent picture of the place, includingthe circular flow of income within the township, the natureof its interaction with the rest of the South Africaneconomy, and a simple multiplier analysis of its economy.