ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates whether Local Economic Development (LED) was a reality in the Eastern Cape prior to the post-World War II era of state driven regional development. It deals with developments in an era of municipal interventionism in the Eastern Cape in the first half of the twentieth century which preceded the enhanced levels of state control which characterised the post-World War II period, as is detailed in the next chapter. A detailed examination of the state archival holdings revealed that LED type practices were applied by several local authorities in the Eastern Cape prior to the apartheid era. The specific centres investigated in the Eastern Cape are the only ones in the province which, according to archival records, had developmentally orientated local authorities which practised LED. The chapter examines the role played by LED in East London prior to the apartheid era and the associated initiation of rigid state control.
