GENDER, STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT AND INFORMAL ECONOMY SECTOR TRADE IN AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF WOMEN WORKERS IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR OF NORTH WEST PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

The role and process of economic programs in reviving the South African economy as part of efforts to promote social development shows the complexity and the diversification of strategies of translation of neo-liberal policies into practice at single national levels. Thus the adoption of neo-liberal orientation by the government can be considered as a response to factors such as popular expectations after 1994 democratic elections, resistance from opposition and crisis of developmental state projects.
South Africa adopted elements of the neo-liberal agenda enthusiastically with the first post apartheid national economic program called the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP). The RDP did retain some redistributive elements in
terms of improved health services and reducing unemployment for all the population. However, this redistributive program was rapidly abandoned in favour of a purely neo-liberal economic program called the Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) program. In 1996 due to neo liberal influence the government framed GEAR, as a macroeconomic policy strategy...