Rural Development in South Africa: Implications for Social Work Practice +

An attempt will be made in this paper to describe the shared characteristics of rural communities, especially the lack of resources which lead to a failure to gratify the aspirations of the inhabitants of rural areas. Community involvement or participa-tion may be utilised as a tool to conscientise rural communities about the need to change their deplorable situation. This could be done without necessarily disrupt-ing the existing pace of life in rural areas. Mention is also made of the types of resources which can be employed in rural development and the need to use these resources optimally. This could however only be achieved by overcoming some of the obstacles to rural development such as illiteracy dependency and apathy. Lastly the paper deals with rural development in a post-apartheid era. Common Characteristics of Rural Areas In South Africa a large percentage of the black population lives in the rural areas. Almost all of these areas do not have adequate resources such as water, educational facilities and employment opportunities. This is caused by the inequitable distri-bution of resources in South Africa which has resulted in urban areas enjoying a higher quality of life at the expense of the rural. Buxon (1976:29) defines a rural area as one: "...that lags behind inpopulation per square mile. in education. in a variety of experiences andfinally, in thepower to control its own destiny, compared to more urban areas." Bester (1994) states that rural areas are characterised by a primitive agriculture, low income and a lack of finances and technical skills, especially among black people. The above observations fit the description of rural areas in our country. We know that black people in South Africa have been unjustly treated by the system of apartheid. According to McKendrick: