South Africa has started to mine its tax records in a bid to produce highly localised spatial economic data that will offer city and municipal policy makers far greater visibility of the geographic distribution of both industries and jobs within their boundaries, as well as key developmental disparities. The information is being analysed under the aegis of the newly launched Spatial Economic Activity Data – South Africa programme, which is spearheaded by the National Treasury, the Human Sciences Research Council and the Cities Support Programme, but is also supported by several other departments and institutions, as well as the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
