The Role of the transport sector in the linkages between Northern Cape and the rest of South Africa: An economic base and network analysis approach

Northern Cape has been one of the provinces that make a relatively small contribution to South Africa's gross domestic product. However, there is room to improve the province's contribution through enhanced connectivity with the rest of the provinces and targeting specific industries with high concentration. The question that remained unclear was how the transport sector facilitates the linkage within the Northern Cape and between the Northern Cape and the rest of South Africa. This paper investigated this issue using an approach that employed Network and I-O analyses. The economic analysis reveals that Northern Cape's Other mining and quarrying sector is the most concentrated. However, the ‘transport and storage’ cluster is also among the strong sectors in the Northern Cape. Network analysis shows that the mining industry, metals, and agriculture are Norther Cape's anchors, while transport and storage are among the few sectors that show significant intra- and inter-regional linkages. The results of this study provide important insights into the industries that should be actively cultivated to maximise their economic contribution. Policymakers can categorise the sectors into different clusters as 'mature', 'star', 'transforming', and 'emerging'; each cluster necessitates a customised policy decision.