Volume II - The Northern Cape Provincial Spatial Development ...

Northern Cape PSDF
Volume 2
Office of the Premier &
Department of Rural Development & Land Reform
SECTION F: ECONOMY
SECTION CONTENT
December 2011
This section addresses the key aspects of the economy of the Northern Cape with specific reference to the:
a) Economic sectors that are the drivers of the economy and the generator of the Financial (Monetary) Capital
which plays a critical role in any economy, enabling the other types of capital to be owned and traded, for
example, through shares, bonds or banknotes.
b) Key issues to be addressed in order to ensure the ongoing growth and sustainability of the various economic
sectors and the economy as a whole.
NOTE: There are significant discrepancies between the estimates provided by the LED Strategy and the PGDS with
regards to the importance percentages of the different economic sectors in the province. For the purpose of this
document the figures and estimates provided by the LED Strategy are used.
F.1 ECONOMIC SECTORS
The Northern Cape economy has shown significant recovery since 2000/2001 when it had a
negative economic growth rate of ‐1.5% (LED Strategy). The provincial economy reached a high of
3.7% in 2003/2004 and remained the lowest of all provinces. The Northern Cape is also the
smallest contributing province to South Agfrica’s economy (only 2% to South Africa GDP per region
in 2007). The figure below illustrates the GDP per region from 2001 to 2009 of the Northern Cape
and South Africa.
Figure F.1: The Northern Cape growth rate of the GDP per region between 2001 and 2009
(Source: PGDS).
From figures provided by the LED Strategy the community, social and personal services sector is
the biggest employer and industry in the province at 23.1%, followed by the agricultural sector
(19.5%), wholesale and retail trade (15.4%), manufacturing (11.2%) and mining and financial
118
Dennis Moss Partnership