Introduction
South Africa is a country which has had a difficult past and even though it has moved forward from the apartheid era into a democracy, the scars from the past still effect the growth of this country. In order to move forward so that South Africa may prosper a number of programmes have been implemented through the years in the hopes of creating social equality, improving the standard of living for all South Africans and growing our economy so that it can be strong enough to be a part of the global market but more importantly, to support all South Africans. These programmes have the expectation of helping those that were previously disadvantaged as well as ensuring that South Africa improves both economically and socially.

RDP (The Reconstruction and development programme)
The RDP is a socio-economic policy framework that strives to overcome the effects of the apartheid era and bring about a better future for all South Africans. The document was created by the government in 1994. It aims to bring South Africa forward into a society that embraces its democracy and all the benefits that come with being a democratic state.
Due to the negative effects of South Africa’s past, it has led to a great deal of inequality where finances were racially distorted and poverty and degradation were prominent in areas without any wealth in South Africa (Anon., 1994). The segregation that was imposed caused inequality and economic inefficiency as only the wealthy was able to benefit from the resources. The purpose of the RDP is to rectify these past grievances so that all South Africans may be able to live better lives as well as to ensure that all South Africans have an improved standard of living and quality of life.
RDP had a number of key programmes that were to be put forward in order to meet its goals (Anon., 1994): * Meeting basic needs such as ensuring that people had access to clean water, electricity, housing, jobs and transportation to help improve the lives of the people as well as the community were one of the programmes (Anon., 1994). * Developing human resources is another key programme which helps to empower people by giving them the opportunity to learn and gain new skill so that they can be a part of the decision- making that affects them. A key factor to this is education and training so that people can gain the skill they need to move forward. Empowering women and ensuring that they are treated equally is also a key factor so as to give women a chance to prosper and to contribute to our economy (Anon., 1994). * Building the South African economy so that it can develop and improve was another programme. This not only looks at improving the strong components of the economy such as the mining, agricultural and financial industries but also trying to improve on the weaknesses by ensuring that all South African are treated equally and has equal opportunity to participate in any role they choose in the economy (Anon., 1994) * Ensuring the democratisation of South Africa so that South Africa could embrace the principles of democracy and benefit from doing so. By adopting this policy, decision-making is reliant on the people rather than a minority thus the wellbeing of society is dependent on the decisions of the majority rather than a minority (Anon., 1994). * Implementation of RDP (Anon., 1994) so that the implementation is effective and efficient in order to meet the goals of this programme
There have been a few shortcomings in the implementation of the programmes due to the fact that it was not always implemented correctly. The document stated what needed to be done but did not have any a realistic timeline. One could say that the policy was over achieving in regards to sustainably developing South Africa. It simply stated what South Africa needed to do to change however it did not provide ways on how to implement those changes which is (Chikulo, 2003).
However, since the implementation of RDP, the government has provided running water to over three million people, provided electricity to over two million people as well as improved basic health care by creating more than 500 clinics as well as creating over seventy five thousand homes. The RDP has helped to improve the lives of many South Africans thus helping them to lead better lives so that they may be able to contribute to our economy; by empowering the people they in turn can create better futures for themselves (Munjoma, 2000).
GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution)
The GEAR strategy was created in line with the reconstruction and development plan, it was created in 1996. It is a macroeconomic policy that aims to provide a strategy to restructure South Africa’s economy as well as the implementation of the RDP policies.
The long term vision of GEAR was to (Govt, 1996): * Create a competitive fast-growing economy which creates sufficient jobs * Allow for the redistribution of income and opportunities in favour of the poor * Create a society in which sound health, education and other services are available to all * an environment in which homes are secure and places of work are productive (Govt, 1996)
GEAR makes use of an integrated strategy to improve South Africa’s economy by making use of an integrated strategy that allows for the growth of the economy as well as reducing the fiscal deficit as fast as possible. It aimed to improve international trade and increases economic competitiveness so that there could be an increase in exported goods. It also included the increased efficiency in capital spenditure and service delivery in the public sector as well as a greater labour market (Govt, 1996).
The fiscal deficit and inflation has decreased after the implementation of GEAR however the strategy the country’s growth rate has not increased all that much; as this increase is needed in order to reduce unemployment. The effect of this is that there aren’t enough jobs available and the distribution of income is not in favour of the poor. The assumption was that job creation would be able to come from redistribution however this was not the case, thus this was a shortcoming for GEAR.
The main focus of GEAR has been financial targets and this is in conflict with the policies of the RDP such as job creation and equal distribution of wealth (Knight, 2001). Even though there was a decrease in the country’s deficits, there was no improvement in the socioeconomic aspects of the country.
GEAR was implemented after RDP with the intention of following the policies that were set by the RDP. GEAR was somewhat successful as it enabled to reduction of the country’s deficits and encouraged the flow of trade. The global economic crisis of 1998 also resulted in a decline in world demand for South Africa’s exports thus having a negative impact on the economy (Chetty, 2012). However, it could not meet the socioeconomic aspects of the strategy as it was not able to produce enough jobs for South Africans and there was no discernible change socially even though the economy did change.
ASGISA (Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative)
This initiative came into fruition in 2006 and the objective of the initiative was to find ways in which to halve poverty, reduce unemployment by the year 2014 as well as ensuring that policies needed to achieve these goals are emphasised in economic policy decision making (Govt, 2006). Due to the increase of the growth rate at that time and good economic policies, it provided the opportunity to reduce unemployment and poverty.
The binding constraints that have been set for ASGISA are (Govt, 2006): * Volatility and level of currency * Cost, efficiency and capacity of national logistics system * Shortage of suitably skilled labour * Barriers to entry, limits to competition and limited new investment opportunities * Regulatory environment and the burden on small and medium businesses * Deficiencies in state organisation, capacity and leadership (Govt, 2006)
ASGISA aimed to achieve this by investing in infrastructure to improve the availability and reliability of infrastructure in order to meet the growing demand; improvement of education and skills development to meet the skills shortage that’s at hand (Govt, 2006). By doing so, both the public and private sectors will benefit from this as well as those who is seeking employment; eliminating the second economy by promoting smaller businesses and also to address macroeconomic issues such as the way in which budgeting is done by government to ensure that each sector receives the income that is should.
After the implementation of ASGISA, due to the high growth rate, employment increased which led to a decrease in unemployment (SAPA, 2008). This also led to an increase in the GDP as well as the rate of investment. The number of skilled workers also increased and creating new ways to increase the number of artisans. By effectively using resources and good management, the economy can prosper and less people will be unemployed as well as reducing poverty by giving people the opportunity to better their lives. The AsgiSA plan also introduced a new structure called the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). The puropse of this structure was to allow for the creatin of effective ways in which to address the problem of skills shortages and to provide the oppurtunity for people to be educated and learn skills that will be not only beneficial to them but also to the economy (SAPA, 2008).
However it is not clear as to who may benefit from this initiative. It needs to be shown that not only the rich sectors benefit and improve but also the marginalised and under developed area as it is these areas which need the help most. The growth should rather impact on the reduction of poverty so as to improve the standard of living for those who need it (Anon., 2006).
The focus of ASGISA was to reduce unemployment and poverty. Unlike GEAR, ASGISA was focussed on the creation of employment rather than revenue and the economy. Although ASGISA is in line with the idea of the RDP, it targets job creation thus it can be seen as more successful compared to the RDP as it has fewer objects compared to RDP.

NGP (New Growth Plan Framework)
The NGP was put forward in 2010 and the main aim of the NGP is to create a large number of jobs and to grow the economy. Even though the growth rate has improved, there are a large number of unemployed people who don’t have the adequate skills and training to be able to be employed (Andile, n.d.). Large investments in infrastructure and skills development, as well as cohesion with the private sector and good governance were needed in order to meet the goals of this framework. The main indicators of success will be the number of jobs created, the overall growth, reduced poverty and inequality as well as environmental outcomes (Andile, n.d.).
The framework aims to create jobs in 5 key sectors which are energy, transport, communication, water and housing. It looks to create jobs in areas where employment creation is possible, not just the core sectors such as mining and agriculture. The NGP also proposes a number of improvements for government such as improving skills development and increasing competition in the economy. The NGP puts in place measures that both benefit the state as well as the public sector to ensure economic growth.
The challenges facing the NGP is South Africa’s uncompetitive currency, backlogs infrastructure that is needed to meet demands, the lack of skills, economic concentration and price collusion, inadequate investments in productive sectors of the economy, balanced payments of payments deficits funded by short-term capital (Sanlam, n.d.).
The focus is to create jobs on a large scale and also for the policies to be sustainable. Thus it should look at ways to ensure long- term job creation as well as meeting the demands for jobs in the short term (Andile, n.d.). However, the NGP is a collection of broad objectives rather than concise objectives, which makes it difficult to achieve as the means to achieve the target are somewhat ambiguous.
The goals that have been set by the NGP are quite high and if reached will be transforming for South Africa however, this is highly unlikely. The NGP does not provide any higher level planning. For instance, it has not put forward any programmes that would surpass JIPSA in order to improve skills developments (Archer, 2011). It must also be taken into consideration that the government many not have the ability to go ahead with such plans as they don’t have the means or the skills to do so.
The NGP is focused on the creation of jobs however the implementation of its objectives to achieve this goal is somewhat ambiguous. It differs from the other programmes as it looks at creating jobs in outlying sectors rather than focusing on the core sectors as well as the development of higher level skills.

Conclusion
It can be seen that South Africa has come a long way since it first became a democracy. Through the creation of these programmes, it shows that a lot of effort has been put into the challenge of reducing poverty, creating jobs and reducing inequality amongst South Africans. However, poverty is continuing to increase as well as unemployment and the rift caused by inequality is continuing to grow larger (Jahed & Brey, n.d.). These programmes have been effective but not to an effective extent, they were well intentioned but not nearly as effective as they should have been. Policy makers should take into account how successful previous programmes were and what were the shortcomings of these programmes in order to try to build on that so that more people are able to benefit from such structures.

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