SA remains a country plagued by an array of past imbalances, pre- and post-colonial, leaving us with a lingering residue of unequal economic development.
The need to deal with this residue is a prerequisite to a thriving and inclusive economy, and a number of resolute actions should characterise our broader economic development agenda to decisively rid SA of these historic imbalances.
Much talked-of legislation on land restitution remains a mere blueprint and framework, translating to little if at all in terms of moving us closer to a spatially equal society.
It seems to have lost momentum in public discourse lately, as well as in law-making institutions, and the issue of a distorted spatial formation remains a constant reminder of our unjust past. And all the while several decades of democracy indicate a painfully slow course to redress these injustices.
Cries by the far left are to radicalise this redress while the right wing calls for a reconciliatory stance. But for the largely land-dispossessed masses, the protracted and bloody systematic conquest of indigenous communities by colonial rulers does not equal the efforts so far advanced by the current system to redress the cause.
It therefore comes as no surprise that the “civil” stance by the right-wingers has to date yielded few tangible outcomes for South Africans to derive any pride or sense of achievement.
If anything, the current system continues to design peripheries for the dispossessed while ensuring continued comfort for the privileged few.
The privileged, some of whom got land through a history of dispossession, use their spoils as collateral to further qualify for state privileges in the name of creditworthiness and financial soundness.
Scores of displaced communities are still subjected to these systematically designed peripheries, off the beaten track, left out to dry and fend for themselves with nothing to hang on to but the promise of rural development, township economy and all the other patronising initiatives meant to create an elusive sense of comfort in their newly found boundaries.
This is as if to say “you are just perfect where you are, we will make you comfortable and economically active in your own special way, you special people”.
To rub some proverbial salt into the wound, townships and outskirts are decorated with tags such as “township culture” from which these dispossessed masses must take pride and preserve in perpetuity.
The general promise to prioritise state infrastructure investment and catalytic development spending in rural areas and lagging regions so as to urgently address spatial economic inequalities and exclusion remains just that — a promise.
Otherwise, millions of South Africans would not be flocking to urban areas in search of jobs. There is still a lack of focus on physical infrastructure investment in growth nodes and corridors on basic services and social investment in poverty-stricken areas.
Although home to more than half of SA's population, townships and urban outskirts still function in isolation from the mainstream economy and are still a starkly evident reference to racial segregation, exclusion and poor provision of services and economic opportunities.
This is despite post-democratic development strategies such as the reconstructive development programme (RDP), which sought to redress these past spatial imbalances. In essence they have done little but further confine these marginalised communities in their economically defunct corners. There are no radical plans to rid SA of these historic spatial injustices and economic exclusions.
Although the national development plan places emphasis on transformation of human settlements and the national space economy, spatial injustices emanating from colonial and apartheid laws on property rights, unjust land ownership and geographical displacement is still the reason scores of local communities remain economically marginalised to date.
The continuing state of decay in township and rural socio-economies indicates that spatial development policies have failed.
Distribution of resources becomes increasingly inequitable, with more and more allocated to affluent suburbs.
The real architect of unemployment and poverty in SA continues to be a substantially misdiagnosed phenomenon. Deliberate spatial exclusion of certain groups from the mainstream economy is the reason for unequal access to economic opportunities, thereby widening the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots".
So far one I have argued that spatial equality is a horribly deferred project. Therefore to rid SA of its dual economy there is a need to reconsider geographical settlement of displaced people in relation to the mainstream economy as a primary goal.
If that fails, as it seems to already have, at the very least its laws should be able to compel the state’s commitments on infrastructure development in these peripheries with strict timelines.
It is through this barometer that the so-called township economy should be able to absorb rising levels of unemployment and poverty.
If promises of township economy and rural-based economic development are really pro-poor, as they ought to be, the dwellers should never have to travel beyond their newly found spatial confines to be actively engaged in the mainstream economy.
Ayanda Sondara is a local economic development practitioner. He writes in his personal capacity