An appraisal and critique of land redistribution approaches in South Africa
- Authors: Phiri, M C S
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: University of the Western Cape. Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies , Land reform -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Agriculture and state -- South Africa , Reconstruction and Development Programme (South Africa) , Land reform beneficiaries -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991- , South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994- , South Africa -- Economic policy , Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Black people -- South Africa -- Economic conditions , Black people -- South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/149161 , vital:38810
- Description: This paper is in response to the PLAAS Land Conference held in February 2019 which aimed at discovering an alternative to how to solve the land question. The conference came at a time where land and agrarian reform re-emerged in South African socio-policy discussion. After twenty-five years of democracy the three land reform programmes have failed to restructure apartheid’s economic segregation, exclusionary land ownership patterns and to restore dignity to poor black South Africans. This study offers a detailed examination of the discourse of South African land reform, specifically the redistribution component with a focus on the land redistribution approaches presented at the PLAAS conference. Ultimately, the study puts forward a synthesized land redistribution approach as a hybrid solution to the land and agrarian crisis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Phiri, M C S
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: University of the Western Cape. Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies , Land reform -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Agriculture and state -- South Africa , Reconstruction and Development Programme (South Africa) , Land reform beneficiaries -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991- , South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994- , South Africa -- Economic policy , Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Black people -- South Africa -- Economic conditions , Black people -- South Africa -- Social conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/149161 , vital:38810
- Description: This paper is in response to the PLAAS Land Conference held in February 2019 which aimed at discovering an alternative to how to solve the land question. The conference came at a time where land and agrarian reform re-emerged in South African socio-policy discussion. After twenty-five years of democracy the three land reform programmes have failed to restructure apartheid’s economic segregation, exclusionary land ownership patterns and to restore dignity to poor black South Africans. This study offers a detailed examination of the discourse of South African land reform, specifically the redistribution component with a focus on the land redistribution approaches presented at the PLAAS conference. Ultimately, the study puts forward a synthesized land redistribution approach as a hybrid solution to the land and agrarian crisis.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
The impact of land restitution and resettlement in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: restoring dignity without strengthening livelihoods?
- Authors: Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Reparations for historic injustices -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Land reform -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96336 , vital:31264
- Description: Land reform in South Africa, which is comprised of land redistribution, land tenure reform, and land restitution, continues to be an emotive subject and has largely racially polarised South Africa. The slow pace of land reform, expropriation, the amount of land to be returned to black people, debates around the role of the Constitution in land reform, the market-based approach and the perceived negative attitude of white farmers have dominated the debates on land reform. There is, therefore, a huge chorus on the struggles for land acquisition and less on what happens when people are given land. A few studies on post-settlement livelihoods experience have managed to close this gap slightly in the literature by showing that land reform has contributed little or no material and livelihood benefits to beneficiaries and that many farms are lying idle after land reform, especially land restitution, projects. These studies on post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land reform beneficiaries have not managed to capture fully the “voices” of beneficiaries on land and livelihoods. This dissertation seeks to provide a sociological documentation of the post-settlement livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries. It does this by primarily tracing the ability and/or the inability of land restitution beneficiaries of Macleantown, about 40 kilometres northwest of East London, in the Eastern Cape to reconstruct livelihoods after resettlement, bearing in mind that these land restitution beneficiaries have been resettled twice, during forced removals in the 1970s and after land restitution, post-1994. Therefore, the study engages with questions of whether or in what ways land compensated restitution beneficiaries have managed to reconstruct livelihoods after land transfer. To capture the livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries fully, I also studied the Salem restitution case, which is 20km away from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Because land restitution involves resettlement, I decided to use two resettlement theories, namely Thayer Scudder’s four stages model and Michael Cernea’s Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction (IRR), to understand risks associated with resettlement. Additionally, since this dissertation seeks to understand and document livelihood reconstruction and poverty reduction within the context of restitution resettlement, I also utilised the Sustainable Livelihoods approach and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. This thesis is based on multiple research methods that include documentary study, focus group discussions, conversations, archival research, in-depth interviews, transect walks, participant observation and life histories. My findings show that land transfer under the land restitution programme has largely not enabled land beneficiaries in Macleantown and Salem to reconstruct land-based livelihoods after settlement. I also established that land restitution beneficiaries face risks that are identified by resettlement theorists such as lack of proper planning, resettling trauma, struggles in community reconstruction and poverty. Beneficiaries have not managed to reap any meaningful benefits from the land, meaning that restitution has not led to self-sufficiency for these beneficiaries because all land beneficiaries are heavily dependent on social grants. However, one needs to emphasize that land restitution has restored the dignity of beneficiaries because beneficiaries have accessed their forefathers’ land that they fought for. This is because beneficiaries believed that it was their duty to fight for their land on behalf of their ancestors. I reach the conclusion that the whole idea that restitution claimants who are scattered all over can be grouped into a Community Property Association (CPA) and farm collectively as a ‘community’ to improve livelihoods is a misleading romanticisation of the envisaged outcomes of the land restitution project. Time has passed after land dispossession and land claimants are different human beings to what they were before land dispossession, i.e. far from the agrarian society they were before land dispossession. Group dynamics, lack of adequate post-settlement support (PSS), land reform designs, lack of commercial agricultural skills, as well as entitlement syndrome, old age of beneficiaries, infighting and marginality of agricultural business has made it nearly impossible for restitution beneficiaries to reconstruct land-based livelihoods. Additionally, the government appears to be more interested in ‘correcting apartheid’ rather than creating viable farms. It is important to state that this thesis does not advocate for the erasure of the restitution programme or to belittle land beneficiaries but argues for the rethinking of the restitution model in the context of massive failures, as well as coming up with a new and flexible model of land restitution that will meet the modern needs of beneficiaries. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the risks and the challenges of livelihoods reconstruction faced by resettling communities through an investigation into the post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land restitution beneficiaries through ‘thick descriptions’.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Reparations for historic injustices -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Land reform -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96336 , vital:31264
- Description: Land reform in South Africa, which is comprised of land redistribution, land tenure reform, and land restitution, continues to be an emotive subject and has largely racially polarised South Africa. The slow pace of land reform, expropriation, the amount of land to be returned to black people, debates around the role of the Constitution in land reform, the market-based approach and the perceived negative attitude of white farmers have dominated the debates on land reform. There is, therefore, a huge chorus on the struggles for land acquisition and less on what happens when people are given land. A few studies on post-settlement livelihoods experience have managed to close this gap slightly in the literature by showing that land reform has contributed little or no material and livelihood benefits to beneficiaries and that many farms are lying idle after land reform, especially land restitution, projects. These studies on post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land reform beneficiaries have not managed to capture fully the “voices” of beneficiaries on land and livelihoods. This dissertation seeks to provide a sociological documentation of the post-settlement livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries. It does this by primarily tracing the ability and/or the inability of land restitution beneficiaries of Macleantown, about 40 kilometres northwest of East London, in the Eastern Cape to reconstruct livelihoods after resettlement, bearing in mind that these land restitution beneficiaries have been resettled twice, during forced removals in the 1970s and after land restitution, post-1994. Therefore, the study engages with questions of whether or in what ways land compensated restitution beneficiaries have managed to reconstruct livelihoods after land transfer. To capture the livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries fully, I also studied the Salem restitution case, which is 20km away from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Because land restitution involves resettlement, I decided to use two resettlement theories, namely Thayer Scudder’s four stages model and Michael Cernea’s Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction (IRR), to understand risks associated with resettlement. Additionally, since this dissertation seeks to understand and document livelihood reconstruction and poverty reduction within the context of restitution resettlement, I also utilised the Sustainable Livelihoods approach and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. This thesis is based on multiple research methods that include documentary study, focus group discussions, conversations, archival research, in-depth interviews, transect walks, participant observation and life histories. My findings show that land transfer under the land restitution programme has largely not enabled land beneficiaries in Macleantown and Salem to reconstruct land-based livelihoods after settlement. I also established that land restitution beneficiaries face risks that are identified by resettlement theorists such as lack of proper planning, resettling trauma, struggles in community reconstruction and poverty. Beneficiaries have not managed to reap any meaningful benefits from the land, meaning that restitution has not led to self-sufficiency for these beneficiaries because all land beneficiaries are heavily dependent on social grants. However, one needs to emphasize that land restitution has restored the dignity of beneficiaries because beneficiaries have accessed their forefathers’ land that they fought for. This is because beneficiaries believed that it was their duty to fight for their land on behalf of their ancestors. I reach the conclusion that the whole idea that restitution claimants who are scattered all over can be grouped into a Community Property Association (CPA) and farm collectively as a ‘community’ to improve livelihoods is a misleading romanticisation of the envisaged outcomes of the land restitution project. Time has passed after land dispossession and land claimants are different human beings to what they were before land dispossession, i.e. far from the agrarian society they were before land dispossession. Group dynamics, lack of adequate post-settlement support (PSS), land reform designs, lack of commercial agricultural skills, as well as entitlement syndrome, old age of beneficiaries, infighting and marginality of agricultural business has made it nearly impossible for restitution beneficiaries to reconstruct land-based livelihoods. Additionally, the government appears to be more interested in ‘correcting apartheid’ rather than creating viable farms. It is important to state that this thesis does not advocate for the erasure of the restitution programme or to belittle land beneficiaries but argues for the rethinking of the restitution model in the context of massive failures, as well as coming up with a new and flexible model of land restitution that will meet the modern needs of beneficiaries. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the risks and the challenges of livelihoods reconstruction faced by resettling communities through an investigation into the post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land restitution beneficiaries through ‘thick descriptions’.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The role of non-governmental organisations in land reform and post-settlement support in the Albany district of the Eastern Cape : a case study of Masifunde
- Nkosi, Nolwazi Nontombi Maria
- Authors: Nkosi, Nolwazi Nontombi Maria
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Masifunde Educational Project , South Africa -- Department of Agriculture , South Africa -- Department of Rural Development and Land Reform , Non-governmental organizations -- South Africa -- Albany , Land reform -- South Africa -- South Africa -- Albany , Land reform beneficiaries -- South Africa -- South Africa -- Albany , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3406 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020321
- Description: The purpose of this study is to explore the role of NGOs in land reform and post-settlement support in the Albany district of the Eastern Cape using a qualitative case study of Masifunde. To discover this role, civil society, land beneficiaries, Department of Agriculture and Department of Rural Development and Land Reform were proved to have interwoven relationships. The interactions and relationships between these entities underpinned their perceptions of each other. This study is set against the backdrop of a weakening land reform program due to frequent policy changes. Evidence presented showed how out of sync land reform is with its original mandate whilst civil society organisations have remained firmly rooted by theirs. The inability to have twin perspectives on this matter diverges the direction civil society and institutions involved in land reform take on. This separation in direction demonstrates the need for engagement between government and civil society in an attempt to assist in areas government is unable to reach or address. This thesis contends that there is definitely a role that NGOs do play and need to take on when it is evident that relevant actors are unable to deliver. Themes emerging from interviews necessitate civil society and government departments to combine their resources so as to maximise the impact for desired outcomes. These are views of both civil society and government, demonstrating that NGOs indeed do play a role in land reform and post-settlement support and need to continuously do so in an attempt to cushion the blows of uneven implementation of land reform policies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Nkosi, Nolwazi Nontombi Maria
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Masifunde Educational Project , South Africa -- Department of Agriculture , South Africa -- Department of Rural Development and Land Reform , Non-governmental organizations -- South Africa -- Albany , Land reform -- South Africa -- South Africa -- Albany , Land reform beneficiaries -- South Africa -- South Africa -- Albany , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3406 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020321
- Description: The purpose of this study is to explore the role of NGOs in land reform and post-settlement support in the Albany district of the Eastern Cape using a qualitative case study of Masifunde. To discover this role, civil society, land beneficiaries, Department of Agriculture and Department of Rural Development and Land Reform were proved to have interwoven relationships. The interactions and relationships between these entities underpinned their perceptions of each other. This study is set against the backdrop of a weakening land reform program due to frequent policy changes. Evidence presented showed how out of sync land reform is with its original mandate whilst civil society organisations have remained firmly rooted by theirs. The inability to have twin perspectives on this matter diverges the direction civil society and institutions involved in land reform take on. This separation in direction demonstrates the need for engagement between government and civil society in an attempt to assist in areas government is unable to reach or address. This thesis contends that there is definitely a role that NGOs do play and need to take on when it is evident that relevant actors are unable to deliver. Themes emerging from interviews necessitate civil society and government departments to combine their resources so as to maximise the impact for desired outcomes. These are views of both civil society and government, demonstrating that NGOs indeed do play a role in land reform and post-settlement support and need to continuously do so in an attempt to cushion the blows of uneven implementation of land reform policies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Understanding policy making and policy implementation with reference to land redistribution in South Africa : case studies form the Eastern Cape
- Mbokazi, Nonzuzo Nomfundo Mbalenhle
- Authors: Mbokazi, Nonzuzo Nomfundo Mbalenhle
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Land reform -- Case studies , Agriculture and state -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1961 , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1961-1991 , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991- , Reconstruction and Development Programme (South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3394 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018197
- Description: This thesis focuses on land reform in post-apartheid South Africa and specifically on land redistribution, as one of the main pillars of land reform. There have been many studies undertaken on land redistribution in South Africa and these studies offer deep criticisms of the prevailing land redistribution model (a market-led, but state-assisted model) and the ways in which this model has failed to meaningfully address colonial dispossession of land. Further, studies have focused on post-redistribution livelihoods of farmers and the many challenges they face. One significant gap in the prevailing literature is a sustained focus on the state itself, and particularly questions around policy formation and implementation processes pertaining to land redistribution. Delving into policy processes is invariably a difficult task because outsider access to intra-state processes is fraught with problems. But a full account of land redistribution in South Africa demands sensitivity to processes internal to the state. Because of this, it is hoped that this thesis makes a contribution to the existing South African land redistribution literature. In pursuing the thesis objective, I undertook research amongst farmers on selected redistributed farms outside Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, as well as engaging with both current and former state land officials. Based on the evidence, it is clear that the policy process around land in South Africa is a complex and convoluted process marked not only by consensus-making and combined activities but also by tensions and conflicts. This, I would argue, is the norm with regard to what states do and how they work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Mbokazi, Nonzuzo Nomfundo Mbalenhle
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Land reform -- Case studies , Agriculture and state -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1961 , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1961-1991 , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991- , Reconstruction and Development Programme (South Africa)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3394 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018197
- Description: This thesis focuses on land reform in post-apartheid South Africa and specifically on land redistribution, as one of the main pillars of land reform. There have been many studies undertaken on land redistribution in South Africa and these studies offer deep criticisms of the prevailing land redistribution model (a market-led, but state-assisted model) and the ways in which this model has failed to meaningfully address colonial dispossession of land. Further, studies have focused on post-redistribution livelihoods of farmers and the many challenges they face. One significant gap in the prevailing literature is a sustained focus on the state itself, and particularly questions around policy formation and implementation processes pertaining to land redistribution. Delving into policy processes is invariably a difficult task because outsider access to intra-state processes is fraught with problems. But a full account of land redistribution in South Africa demands sensitivity to processes internal to the state. Because of this, it is hoped that this thesis makes a contribution to the existing South African land redistribution literature. In pursuing the thesis objective, I undertook research amongst farmers on selected redistributed farms outside Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, as well as engaging with both current and former state land officials. Based on the evidence, it is clear that the policy process around land in South Africa is a complex and convoluted process marked not only by consensus-making and combined activities but also by tensions and conflicts. This, I would argue, is the norm with regard to what states do and how they work.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
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