Importance Of Rural Development In South Africa

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Rural development in South Africa
After president Zuma’s State of the nation address in which he highlighted the importance of rural development and its priority in the South African government, it was then realised by many South Africans that the state of rural life is in distress. Rural development is the process in which the economic state of living in sparsely populated and the quality of life is being improved by focusing on the key factors of rural development, which are; education, employment, infrastructure (both physical and social), entrepreneurship and health care services.
The impact of Apartheid on rural settlements
The difficulty in improving rural areas in South Africa is mainly because of the racial segregation that took place …show more content…

Counter urbanisation can also increase the number of people who can commute (work close to home), or allow people to work from home. And some of the successes of counter-urbanisation is the growth in agriculture and farming because as people move to rural areas, it means that there are more people nearby to supply crops to, strengthening farming in the region. It can also cause schools to flourish because of the increase in students. Counter urbanisation also improves the cultural essence of an area, this can increase tourism rates in the area but also expose raw materials available in that area which can be sold to benefit the country at …show more content…

And small businesses start failing as they are unable to compete with larger companies. Another shortfall is that traditional and cultural values of that area start to decrease, also impacting the tourism rates in the country. And some of the disadvantages are that; the cost of living increases greatly, holiday homes are bought in such areas and have no occupants for most of the year. There will also be a decrease in the use of public transport, which will disadvantage the elderly who are unable to drive to certain places and public transport drivers and owners. Smaller/local businesses are forced to close down as they are no longer needed or used by the

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