Abstract
On a global scale, the challenges of confronting unemployment, poverty and inequality continue to dominate the development agenda. Local economic development (LED) strategies’ ability to empower local people has earned favour with development practitioners and national government of South Africa. South Africa has adopted and implemented a developmental approach that enables the country to try to achieve a more equitable and sustainable economy. The success of the implemented development strategies should result in creating employment, alleviating poverty, and reducing inequality.
This research project examines the LED strategy implemented by the Lekwa Local Municipality to reduce the increase in youth unemployment. The municipality facilitates temporary employment as a mechanism to resolve this. The focus of the research is on the individual’s experiences of temporary employment and identifying factors that could support temporary youth employment as a mechanism for a sustainable LED strategy. The research employed a qualitative methodology and collected data from two focus-groups. The researcher made use of an interpretivism philosophy to understand how the individuals in each focus-group experienced temporary unemployment and how it contributed to their day-to-day lives.
The research findings revealed an inability by the municipality to create sustainable jobs and a communication gap between the youth of Thuthukani township and the Lekwa Local Municipality. It is anticipated that the findings of this research project will assist the municipality to be better prepared for the needs of the youth of Thuthukani township. Secondly to assist the municipality with conceptualising LED strategies to create a sustainable local economy and enhance the local community’s standard of living through job creation.
Key words: municipality, local economic development, Thuthukani, sustainability, temporary youth employment, local people.