Empowerment through Economic Transformation is the third in a trilogy of volumes commissioned by the HSRC to study the transformation process in post-apartheid South Africa. It follows two studies published in 2000 entitled Infrastructure Mandates for Change and Empowerment through Service Delivery.

This volume opens with an examination of some of the theoretical issues around the concepts of transformation and empowerment, supplemented by 15 case studies that look at the prospects for empowerment through the transformation of the South African economy. These studies focus on such topics as public-private partnerships, spatial development corridors, labour market, small business and poverty-alleviation strategies, and infrastructure development in such areas as water management.

The collection reaches two main conclusions. One, that the radical proposals contained in the original Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) have been undermined by the switch to the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) and two, that the goals of empowerment and transformation in South Africa are further undermined by such legacies of the apartheid past as limited technical and human skills compounded by the negative consequences of the globalisation process.

• Chapter 1: Empowerment and Transformation in South Africa – Khosa
• Chapter 2: South Africa and Globalisation – Bouare
• Chapter 3: Globalisation, Economic Crisis and South African Vulnerabilities – Bond
• Chapter 4: Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Overview of International Economic Relations (1994-1999) - Rangasamy
• Chapter 5: Interest Group Participation and Democratisation: The Role of the National Economic Development and Labour Council - Houston
• Chapter 6: Towards an Institutional Framework for Managing Agricultural Export Trade Promotion - Khosa
• Chapter 7: First Employment Experiences of Graduates – Moleke
• Chapter 8: Poverty Alleviation, Employment Creation and Sustainable Livelihoods in South Africa – Adelzadeh, Alvillar & Mather
• Chapter 9: Tracking South Africa’s Spatial Development Initiatives – Rogerson
• Chapter 10: Towards a Framework for Rural SMME Development in South Africa – Rogerson
• Chapter 11: The Politics of Water Management: The Case of the Orange River development Project – Emmett & Hagg
• Chapter 12: Drought and Floods in Post-Apartheid South Africa – Bond & Ruiters
• Chapter 13: Public Appraisal of Social and Economic Infrastructure Delivery - Khosa
• Chapter 14: Public-Private Partnership, Public Infrastructure Investment and Prospects for Economic Growth in South Africa – Manchidi & Merrifield
• Chapter 15: Rethinking Gender, Empowerment and Development – Miles
• Chapter 16: The Empowerment Challenge: Not Yet Uhura? - Khosa
• List of figures
• List of maps
  
  Contributors:
  Meshack M. Khosa was until recently Executive Director of the Democracy and Governance Research Group of the Human Sciences Research Council. He holds a doctorate from Oxford University and is a leading social scientist, research expert and strategist with international experience.
  
  Endorsements:
  

  “The editor, Meshack Khosa, has brought together contributions from eighteen well-qualified researchers from varied disciplinary backgrounds, including geography, economics, political science and building management. The clarity of these contributions makes for a highly readable volume. Theory and practice are combined in a spirit of constructive and critical engagement with government and policymakers.”
  Dr Anthony Lemon
  Fellow of Mansfield College, and Lecturer in the School of Geography Oxford University, United Kingdom

  “This book is an excellent introduction to the economic and social costs associated with the process of transition in South Africa 9and elsewhere, for that matter), specifically when transition takes place in the context of the globalising world. This book should be read by one and all, not only in South Africa but also in other parts of the world, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America where globalisation has had a similar impact – that of increasing inequality.”
  Sujata Patel
  Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology
  University of Pune, India

  “An impressive array of sixteen papers has been assembled for this book, mostly written by highly accomplished authors. All the chapters in the book tie into a central theme – consequences of service delivery to South Africa’s poor. In addition to practitioners, students of political science, sociology, politics, geography and economics will find this book useful and interesting, and often provocative.”
  Professor Stephen Hosking
  Professor of the Department of Economics and Economic History
  University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa