Abstract
At present, many national and local governmental programmes initiated to promote
greater economic growth as well as alleviating poverty and unemployment include,
among others, Local Economic Development (LED) poverty alleviation projects. LED
poverty alleviation projects which are the focus of this study typically concentrate on
empowering vulnerable groups, especially women and the disabled to improve their
livelihoods by providing them with rural infrastructure, employment opportunities as
well as training.
It is evident that the need to address poverty and inequality has been firmly placed
at the centre of the nation’s agenda. Several poverty audits have been undertaken,
and a range of policy documents and strategies have been developed to address
this crucial issue. The LED strategy is a locally driven process by which public,
business and the non-governmental sector partners work collectively to create better
conditions for economic growth and employment generation in order to sustain
livelihood and to improve future economic prospects.
This study explored the concept of poverty as understood globally and investigated
the perspectives and poverty alleviation approaches in developing countries and in
South Africa against the background of certain developing countries’ trends,
especially LED. The study also determined the meaning of the concept of LED within
the South African context and investigated the historical legislative milieu of LED, the
key role players and strategies as well as an investigation on how this relates to the
implementation strategy of LED implementation projects in the Thulamela
Municipality.
This study also assessed whether LED initiatives, and in particular, LED projects are
successful toward alleviating poverty in the Thulamela Municipality in the Limpopo
province. Specific critical issues addressed in this study include the determination of
the socio-economic development benefits derived by the projects’ participants in the
Thulamela Municipality towards unemployment and poverty alleviation as well as the
sustainability of the projects.
Prof. C. J. Auriacombe