The gap for which both integrated development planning (IDP) and local economic development (LED) as municipal interventions have been designed for is to respond to the distortions and the characteristic features of apartheid planning. Those that have left most South African cities, towns and villages with profound developmental challenges. Both the municipal interventions are seen as power-twins without which the country's development agenda can not be achieved. Some of the aspects that explain these municipal interventions as power-twins are their dominance over other municipal programmes and interventions. The two shares a special bond and possess common characteristics that serve as a means with which integration at municipal spheres of government can be achieved. This article focuses on the essence of the relationship between the IDP and LED, the conceptualisation and contextualisation of the IDP and LED, the IDP - LED theor