Growth and development strategies in the City of Cape Town : a comparative analysis

This thesis acknowledges the extent to which the South African society has been polarised by the policies and practices resulting from Apartheid. The safeguarding of rights, equal access to and the guarantee of service delivery to all South African citizens became one of the cornerstones of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) and one of the vehicles of change and redress. The legislative framework created guides the manner in which the three spheres of government achieve these objectives as one in which they work in a cooperative manner to secure its developmental objectives as captured by the United Nations in the Millennium Development Goals. The growth and development strategies, for which the three spheres of government are responsible, are identified, outlined and analysed to demonstrate the common developmental thread of the three spheres of government. A case is built for the use of the Human Development Index (HDI) as one of indices that could be used as a means of assessing human development. It is further described as an effective methodology in determining the developmental level of people. This methodology is used as an illumining tool to provide support for the provisional comparative analysis of the growth and development strategies of the three spheres of government on the City of Cape Town and the alignment of these strategies to the MDG. The writer will calculate the HDI of the inhabitants of the City of Cape Town and compare these to the provincial and national HDI. The results and findings will be analysed and recommendations and conclusions will follow. The calculations and provisional tentative findings of the HDI of the three spheres of government are provided in Appendix A. Interrelatedness of strategies and deliberate cascading of objectives will be emphasised in terms of the benefit of directive focusing of energies for all three spheres of government. The writer will demonstrate the degree to which these strategies have been deliberately integrated and jointly coordinated by the three spheres of government. The difficulty experienced in accessing adequate data sets has emphasised the need for all three spheres of government to prioritise the coordinated collection, compilation and making data available to ensure that the policy options that are chosen are evidence based and outcomes focussed. This is a significant concern since UN based funding is dependant on well-documented and researched policy options. Findings and recommendations with respect to the comparative analysis are presented in the final chapter with recommendations for future study.