Abstract
South Africa continues to face a difficult task to fight the high unemployment rate and an ever-increasing number of time-related underemployment. The situation is not only prevalent amongst the less educated people, but even among the educated. The South African government has committed to respond to these challenges through inclusive growth policies that embrace the prominent role played by localised developmental methods. These methods have mostly required a strong delegation of authority to lower levels of government, and this requires that local authorities have the capacity and ability to efficiently mobilize local economic potential, resources and assets in order to build their economies from inside-out. A source of funding would be the corporate social investment programmes (CSI) of corporates. This study investigated whether private companies with CSI projects consider local economic development programmes when they design and implement CSI in the communities. The study also investigated the extent to which local government officials consider CSI projects when they design and implement development projects. Data were collected from 19 companies and organisations who are implementing CSI projects in Gauteng, local government officials and CSI consultants. The study found that there are forms of interactions between different companies and local government, and that most companies (18/19) are aware of the National Framework for Local Economic Development. However, most companies indicated that their CSI strategies are driven by the alignment of CSI to their overall business strategy when designing CSI initiatives. The study further identified that, implementation of local economic development projects in the different municipalities is impeded by lack of resources. In this regard, all municipalities in the study felt that private companies could assist local government in terms of capacity building and expanding knowledge sharing platforms to improve the implementation of the LED Framework. The study recommended that local government invest in the different ways that they can create an environment in which private companies will consider making investments that can benefit communities at large, while also leveraging on all available support from companies with CSI projects.
M.Com. (Local Economic Development)