According to a survey released last week, Wild Coast residents still don’t have the means to make a living
Marietjie Myburgh
‘I don’t have work and I don’t have money.” In 1997 this was the most common response to a survey that asked Wild Coast residents what their problems were. The survey was conducted to inform a government-backed spatial development initiative (SDI) that would kick-start economic activity in the Wild Coast. The SDI seeks to increase employment, particularly of women, through the creation of small businesses in agriculture and tourism.
The survey was conducted by CIET-africa (Community Information Empowerment and Transparency) and the Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council. About 2500 households took part.
At the end of last year, when a second survey was conducted, residents provided the same answer: they don’t have the means to make a living. This time the survey’s aim was to evaluate local economic development since the SDI project began. The results of the survey, released last week, showed that 66% of the people polled considered money and unemployment to be their biggest concerns, compared with 58% in the CIET baseline in 1997.
The report shows an increase in the retrenchment of migrant labour, resulting in thousands of men returning home. This means there are more people in the local labour market competing for very few jobs: the proportion of adults looking for employment increased from 48% in 1997 to 54% last year.
In addition to the increased pressure for jobs, the report shows a decrease in monthly salaries for certain categories of jobs: labourers from R744 to R566, sales and administration from R1733 to R795, taxi drivers from R1249 to R836 and government officials from R2053 to R1233.
Women have been most affected, with female formal employment dropping from 20% to 11% and male formal employment from 29% to 19%.
In the informal sector, the picture is not promising either. One in every 20 adults owns a business and most people say they have never even considered owning one.
CIET executive director Professor Neil Andersson says the deterioration of employment options is accentuated by a dramatic increase in the cost of living over the same period. The report showed that living costs measured by a basket of 15 commonly purchased commodities had increased by 17,5% in the SDI area between 1997 and last year.
However, Andersson says: “The really optimistic part of this story is that the government actually had the forthrightness to support a CIET impact assessment. A government less concerned with accountability would not have done so and these truths about the Wild Coast SDI would not have come out. The interim impact assessment puts the government in a position, fairly early in the game, to make decisive changes.”
The report recommends a radical shift to change the SDI from an investment-driven initiative to one with a focus on building local skills and creating incentives for development within the community.
To this end, a separate pilot was conducted in 1999 in 28 schools across the SDI by CIET and the Department of Education. This exercise documented every known small business in the area, testing the need for changes in curriculum and the possible role of senior secondary schools as nodes of skills development for small businesses.
Eastern Cape MEC for Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism Enoch Godongwana says the report will assist all role players in the SDI in planning according to the real needs of the region.
“As decision-makers, we need all the information we can get to know what type of interventions we should make to turn the situation around,” says Godongwana.
The Wild Coast SDI project manager, Mohammed Motala, says the SDI is moving towards investment promotion that is locally focused. He says key areas to be tackled are the re-routing of the N2, the formation of the Pondoland Park and the marketing and branding of the Wild Coast as a tourist destination.
Andersson was quick to respond to the new approach adopted for the SDI. He says the new objectives should be measured consistently as to their effectiveness from the viewpoint of the communities that are supposed to benefit. “The question to ask is how much of the current process is based on evidence that this is what would successfully change the socio-economic conditions in the Wild Coast.”
The CIET report was released to key players in the SDI, including community leaders, the departments of environmental affairs, trade and industry, agriculture and land affairs, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, NGOs and organised business.
Marietjie Myburgh works for CIET-africa as an economic development consultant. For full reports of the surveys visit www.ciet.org