An Assessment of the Karoo-Hoogland Integrated Development Plan

Abstract

Ingle, M (2010), An Assessment of the Karoo-Hoogland Integrated Development Plan, Politeia 29(2): 85-102.

The Karoo-Hoogland Local Municipality is situated in the extreme south of the Northern Cape, perched atop the escarpment, and consists of the three small towns of Sutherland, Fraserburg and Williston. The municipality’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP) provides an interesting example of a very small municipality that deliberately restructured itself to give effect to a rather novel, do-it-yourself approach to planning. After providing some contextual background, this case study analyses Karoo-Hoogland’s distinctively ‘home grown’ IDP with a view to assessing its strengths and weaknesses as a strategic planning tool. The evaluation uses a range of criteria that local government practitioners may find useful in performing similar exercises. It is found that, notwithstanding an undue emphasis on the touristic potentials held out by the Southern Africa Large Telescope (SALT ) for Sutherland, the municipality was remarkably prescient in identifying its intangible assets, and astute in positioning itself to capitalise on these. It is concluded that this IDP embodies the spirit of real local engagement which the IDP process aspires to nurture within communities.

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