Butterworth: A Case Study of Apartheid Industrial Decentralisation and Democratic De-Industralisation, 1968 to 2007

This book takes the reader back to the era of industrialisation during the time of apartheid in South Africa, particularly in Butterworth in the Eastern Cape. Butterworth is a microcosm of the industrialisation policy of the apartheid government. Rural towns and townships were centres of economic development where black entrepreneurs were empowered to take over businesses that were started by white industrialists who were funded by government.

Butterworth makes a juxtaposition between the apartheid economic policy and job creation initiatives and those of the current democratic government which fails to stimulate the economy to create jobs for majority of South Africans. Those industrial sites are currently lying dormant as white elephants and have eventually closed down. Despite apartheid being a crime against humanity and also exploitative in paying lower wages especially to women, it had sound economic policies that created jobs for thousands of people via industrialisation. Therefore, there are valuable lessons that the democratic government can learn from the apartheid administration as far as job creation is concerned.

However, corruption is the biggest enemy of development and available funding does not filter down to entrepreneurs as it is diverted and looted by politicians via patronage. Economic development and job creation should not just be a prerogative of government alone; the private sector needs to invest in black businesses instead of investing in what politicians call 'white monopoly capital'. Equally, banks also need to participate positively by eradicating stringent requirements in issuing loans to black entrepreneurs to stimulate economic activity. See more