Abstract
This study aimed to analyze and interrogate the role and contribution of subnational governments, including through their cross-border partnerships, to the Maputo development corridor (MDC), a micro-regionalism project initiated by the governments of South Africa and Mozambique in 1996. Focusing mainly on the Mpumalanga province and its border municipalities of Mbombela and Nkomazi, the study paid particular attention to examining how these provincial and local governments have used their cross-border relations and partnerships with their Mozambican counterparts to achieve and localize the socio-economic benefits of the MDC for local communities. This was a qualitative interpretative study, which used a combination of primary and secondary documentary sources as well as semi-structured interviews with subnational officials and other actors with knowledge of the MDC and the cross-border activities of these subnational governments. The study found that Mathews Phosa, the first premier of Mpumalanga, is believed to be one of the brains behind the MDC, suggesting strong incentives, interests and involvement of subnational governments right at the inception of this initiative. However, because the MDC also embodied the neoliberal market logic of regional integration, its institutional design and actual implementation created little space for the involvement of subnational governments. Despite these institutional constraints the provincial government in Mpumalanga and the local governments in Mbombela and Nkomazi have over the years adopted a number of initiatives, including through cross-border collaboration with their counterparts in Mozambique, in an attempt to localize the socio-economic development objectives of the MDC. The findings of the study support the dominant perspective in the literature that suggests that a mutually reinforcing relationship exists between state-led regionalism and bottom-up regionalization initiatives such as those of subnational governments. From a policy perspective, the study’s findings underscore the need for regional integration projects in Africa to be designed in such a way that they are able to leverage on and catalyze the regionalization capacities and initiatives of non-state and sub-state actors.