South Africa’s ‘left behind’ spaces: The historical evolution of the former Bantustans

Over recent years, energetic debates in regional development have been ignited by and surrounded the concept of ‘left-behindness’ in the Global North. The problems of ‘left-behind places’ are not new and have accumulated for several decades. The core characteristics of ‘left-behind’ spaces are relative economic under-performance and decline, elevated levels of poverty and disadvantage as compared to national averages, out-migration, poor health, limited investment in economic infrastructure and reduced service provision. All these are defining characteristics of many economically distressed parts of South Africa. Applying an historical perspective, this chapter documents the evolutionary trajectory of the Bantustans and argues that in the new economic and political dispensation of post-apartheid South Africa, the former Bantustans spaces are ‘left behind’ spaces. Three sections of discussion are given: (1) the definition of the Bantustans and role in the apartheid project, (2) their broad historical evolution and situation in the political economy of capitalist development in South Africa and (3) policy initiatives for promoting economic development both for secondary industry and tourism.