Planning for local economic development in spaces of despair: Key trends in South Africa’s ‘distressed areas’

South Africa’s distressed areas are the country’s spaces of despair. Alongside national government interventions designed to target spatial inequalities, there are Local Economic Development policy interventions taking place. The objective in this article is to analyse the state of current local economic development policy proposals in the municipalities that are categorised as part of South Africa’s distressed areas. After reviewing the roots and persistence of socio-economic and spatial inequalities in South Africa, attention turns to dissect the key challenges and directions of local economic development policy and planning across the distressed areas. The local economic development policy foci in distressed areas are described and set against a national profile for local economic development. Overall, it is argued that given the weak state of local economic development in South Africa, its constraints and limited successes, minimal prospects exist for local economic development plans across the distressed areas to impact substantially the structural nature of spatial inequalities in South Africa. New policy frameworks for local economic development in these areas are, therefore, needed.