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Interrogating the challenges of the Local Economic Development (LED) as aninstrument of poverty alleviation, in the case of eThekwini municipality, KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa.

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2022

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Abstract

Historically, rural-urban migration has remained a common factor in developing countries. This predicament is motivated by a mass movement of people from their places of origin searching for better opportunities. Therefore, this leads to massive urbanization and overcrowding in the city. In South Africa, the city of Durban is classified as a Metropolitan area and attracts the majority of people from different regions across the country. Studies show that rural-urban migration patterns often impact the service delivery of the receiving urban regions. Against the above background, this study aimed to investigate the impact of rural-urban migration on local government service delivery through the case study of eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. The researcher adopted the exploratory research approach and conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with six municipal officials from three eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality departments. The three departments interviewed are: electricity, human settlements and health. The results revealed that the in-migration in the city of Durban has some impact, particularly on service delivery. This causes a strain in the city municipality because of limited resources and high demands of basic services. Contrary to popular beliefs, some of the rural migration in eThekwini is caused by the failure to distribute resources in an inclusive manner that promotes rural areas within the eThekwini region. Although the study respondents revealed that the city municipality is doing its best to respond to high demands of services, the responses fail to meet the rate of rural-urban migration from a budgetary point. It is recommended that more resources be allocated to metropolitan municipalities to respond effectively to the needs of residents and migrants. Furthermore, the government should prioritize developing previously disadvantaged areas to avoid urbanization in cities.

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Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.

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