The aim of South African industrial decentralisation policy is to facilitate racial segregation by increasing the proportion of Africans resident in the ‘homelands’. Policy implementation is based on the concept of growth centres. There are theoretical deficiences in this concept, the most useful idea being that of an industrial complex of high‐linkage industries at a key location. This suggests that South Africa should have only two or three growth points. Instead, there is a multiplicity of growth points both in the ‘core’ and in the ‘homelands’. Since the theoretical foundations for such a dispersal of industry are weak, it is not surprising that the programme has yielded poor results. It is unlikely to reduce the flow of ‘homeland’ labour to the core or to play a major role in ‘homeland’ employment creation.