Mining Value Chains and Green Growth in South Africa: A Conflictual But Intertwined Relationship

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaylor Montmasson-Clair
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Green Growth

Value Chains and Industrial Development in South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 374-395
Author(s):  
Mike Morris ◽  
Justin Barnes ◽  
David Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Automotive Industry ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
African Region ◽  
Skill Intensity ◽  
Import And Export ◽  
Managerial Capabilities

This chapter focuses on the dynamics of global value chains (GVC) engagement and industrial development in South Africa through two case studies—the automotive and textiles/apparel sectors. The further industrialization and development of South Africa and of the Southern African region will depend heavily on further developing their engagement in GVCs and simultaneously upgrading their capacities into higher valued and more skill and intensive activities. The automotive industry is import and export intensive, offering the potential for technological advancement, increasing skill intensity and upgrading, and positive economic spillovers. Apparel is domestic market oriented, sourcing domestically, regionally in Southern Africa, and from Asia. It is an example of a low technology, labour intensive industry, exhibiting lower levels of managerial capabilities and skills. It is challenged by raising capabilities to meet new value chain requirements and extending the supplier base to increase value addition (and by implication employment) in the economy.

scholarly journals Black entrepreneurs, local embeddedness and regional economic development in Northern Namibia

2003 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hege M. Knutsen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Black Entrepreneurs ◽  
Local Embeddedness

The article addresses possibilities and barriers to economic activity and development in the Oshana region of Northern Namibia. The focus is on the role of local embeddedness of economic activities in attaining economic development. A network perspective, based on theories of value chains that are embedded both in social relations and spatially, is selected as the analytical framework. The value chains of local black entrepreneurs in the study area are short. Moreover, the analysis reveals that social obligations may impede economic development, but that such practices are diminishing. The economic dominance and competition from South Africa is the main impediment to economic development in Northern Namibia. Local political embeddedness is shallow and political measures have not significantly reduced the implications of this dominance.

scholarly journals Understanding regional value chains through the interaction of public and private governance: Insights from Southern Africa’s apparel sector

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Pasquali ◽  
Shane Godfrey ◽  
Khalid Nadvi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Private Governance ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Trade Regimes ◽  
Private And Public

Abstract Regional value chains (RVCs) and South–South trade are increasingly considered key features of 21st-century globalisation. This article investigates how RVCs are shaped by the interaction of private and public governance. It evaluates how this interaction unfolded in Southern Africa’s apparel RVCs, exploring trade, investment and labour regimes across three levels of analysis: national, regional, and global. The paper draws on trade data, secondary literature, and interviews with suppliers and institutions in Eswatini and Lesotho (the largest exporters to the region), and lead firms in South Africa (the largest regional importer). The findings underline the critical role of public governance in shaping retailers’ and suppliers’ participation in RVCs through: (i) regional ‘trade regimes’ protecting regional exporters from global competitors, and recent shifts in global trade regimes; (ii) national and regional ‘investment regimes’ facilitating investment flows from South Africa to Lesotho and Eswatini, and the more recent shift of US-oriented suppliers towards regional markets; and (iii) ‘labour regimes’, including lower wages, less comprehensive labour legislation and weaker trade unions in Lesotho and Eswatini compared to South Africa. The article concludes by considering the policy implications of the interaction of private and public governance for existing and future RVCs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Financialization in South Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1012-1030
Author(s):  
Ewa Karwowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
South African ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Global South ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Financial Centre ◽  
The Social

Financialization has become a popular concept across the social sciences, usually defined as the increasing role of financial motives, financial markets, financial actors, and financial institutions in the operation of the domestic and international economies. Financialization researchers highlight the detrimental consequences of an excessively large and powerful financial sector on economy and society. In South Africa, financialization has been shaped by its colonial and apartheid past, especially the strong links of South African corporations and banks to the international financial centre of London. Low growth and investment, an outcome of the finance-led accumulation regime, have also resulted in the continuity of extreme inequality and high levels of unemployment. In the Global South, financialization mainly affects emerging economies since they possess relatively developed financial markets in comparison to poorer countries. South Africa is the only African economy for which there is a substantial financialization literature. In comparison to other emerging economies, South Africa is relatively strongly financialized as stock market capitalization is extremely high, making Johannesburg one of the top financial centres in the Global South. Furthermore, financial inflows into the country are comparatively large, JSE-listed companies are well integrated into global value chains and household debt is high.

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