Rural development within the context of development, sustainability and rural issues - some constitutional, policy and implementation perspectives

Abstract

In April 2009, with the advent of the Zuma Presidency, rural development became one of the key priority programmes for the next five years (2009-2014). The premise of this article is that the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (hereafter "the Constitution"), provides a binding framework for the planning, coordination and implementation of development (including rural development) as one of the key foundations of South Africa as a developmental state. In addition, South Africa also has international obligations relating to the implementation of the global objective of sustainable development and the narrowing of the significant inequalities relating to income1 that characterise the developing world (as against the developed world) of which South Africa is a member, due to its pervasive historically race-based domestic disparities.