ABSTRACT

This paper explores the question of scaling Just Transition community projects, blending historical and empirical perspectives. Through an assessment of the the design, funding, implementation and maintenance of such projects, the paper articulates the constraints and opportunities for South Africa’s historically disadvantaged communities. South Africa is indeed not new transition projects and, in some ways, can be argued to still be going through a version of its original post-Apartheid transition. Thus, by incorporating a historical perspective on South Africa’s transitions, the paper reveals that there exist both contradictions and continuities which, unless addressed differently, risk producing outcomes that will reproduce the exclusion of the communities most in need of support. The conclusion, therefore, proposes ways of doing community development differently, across the value chain of project delivery. It is argued that by adopting an alternative approach to thinking about and implementing community development projects, the possibility exists to use the Just Transition as a catalyst to fulfilling the broader socioeconomic objectives of the National Development Agenda, in step with the demands and urgency of the 2030 agenda.