An analysis of the development model for ex-farmworkers and adjacent communities in the Indalo association of private game reserves in the Eastern Cape
- Authors: Tessendorf, Samantha Millicent
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Game reserves -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land use -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Land use -- Citizen participation , Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Rural development -- Citizen participation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3399 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018547
- Description: Over the past fifteen years there has been an extensive conversion of land use from traditional farming practices to conservation and private game reserves. It has been suggested by Langholz and Kerley (2006:2) that privately owned preserved areas can engage in ecotourism initiatives by protecting biodiversity, succeeding financially and contributing to social upliftment. However, ecotourism has to operate within the context of historical land dispossession of the majority black population and current land reform initiatives to address this problem. In view of the economic, social and environmental importance of ecotourism based private game reserves (PGRs) in South Africa, particularly the Eastern Cape, the main goal of this research is to examine the Indalo association of private game reserves in the Eastern Cape Province’s development model for ex-farmworkers and adjacent communities. This was done through a literature survey and analysis of existing studies and by interviewing the managers of the Indalo PGRs and a few farmworkers to get their opinions of the tension between what they are doing and the imperatives of land reform. This involved an exploration of their community development work, particularly around issues of job creation, participation in decision-making, capacity building and sustainability. The thesis comes to the following conclusions. The first is that the establishment of PGRs have a significant positive impact on the local areas in which they are established. As a land-use, ecotourism based game reserves are an economically and ecologically desirable alternative to other land uses. Therefore the ecotourism based private game reserve industry with its extensive community development focus for farmworkers and local communities is a viable and sustainable alternative to conventional land reform. The second is that the Indalo PGRs development work has built capacity in the communities it has served. However, community participation, particularly in decision-making is limited and needs more attention if productive and sustainable development is to be achieved. Lastly, communities rely heavily on external support for their development and upliftment. However, the majority of the PGRs have/or are putting measures in place to ensure the continuation of community development projects to ensure the long-term sustainability of projects.
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- Date Issued: 2015
Changes and continuities in the labour process on commercial farms in post-Apartheid South Africa : studies from Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces
- Authors: Kheswa, Nomzamo Sybil
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Apartheid -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3366 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011978 , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Eastern Cape (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) -- Rural conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal -- Social conditions , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Apartheid -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis examines the agricultural labour process on commercial farms in post-apartheid South Africa with a particular focus on systems of labour control on these farms. Considerable literature exists about the labour process in capitalist society but the capitalist labour process does not exist in any pure form. Rather, different labour processes exist and the specific form they take depends on spatial and temporal conditions. Additionally, labour processes are often economic sector-specific. Because of variation in capitalist labour processes, differences in systems of labour control (or labour control regimes) also arise. Historically, up until the end of apartheid in 1994, the labour control regime on commercial farms in South Africa was marked by a paternalistic despotism of a racialised kind. This in part reflected the fact that commercial farms were simultaneously sites of both economic production and social reproduction and, further, they were very privatised agrarian spaces largely unregulated (specifically with regard to labour) by the state. Since the end of apartheid, commercial farms have been subjected to multiple pressures. Notably, the South African state has strongly intervened in labour relations on commercial farms, and commercial farms have been subjected to ongoing neo-liberal restructuring. This has led to the prospects of changes in the prevailing labour control system on commercial farms. In this context, the thesis pursues the following key objective: to understand changes and continuities in the labour process on commercial farms – and particularly labour control systems – subsequent to the end of apartheid in South Africa. It does so with reference to four farms in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Farm wages and working conditions in the Albany District, 1957-2008
- Authors: Roberts, Tamaryn Jean
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Agricultural laborers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural wages -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Agricultural laborers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa , Agricultural laborers -- Protection -- South Africa , Agricultural laws and legislation -- South Africa , Labour laws and legislation -- South Africa , Labour economics -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: vital:978 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002712
- Description: Agriculture is a major employer of labour in South Africa with about 8.8% of the total labour force directly involved in agricultural production (StatsSA, 2007a). Farm wages and working conditions in the Albany district were researched in 1957 by Roberts (1958) and 1977 by Antrobus (1984). Research in 2008, involving face-to-face interviews of a sample survey of 40 Albany farmers, was undertaken to update the situation facing farm labourers and allowed for comparisons with the work previously done. Farm workers were governed by common law until 1994 when the government intervened with legislation. The introduction of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (1997) for farm workers, amended in 2002 to include minimum wage legislation, and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) of 1997 impacted the supply and demand of farm workers. Other impacts have been due to the Albany district experiencing an increase in the establishment of Private Game Reserves and game-tourism with a simultaneous decline in conventional farming. It was concluded from the survey conducted that minimum wage legislation decreased the demand for regular and increased the demand for casual labour, which incur lower costs including transaction costs, than their regular counterparts. The ESTA of 1997 contributed to a decreased number of farm residents, which had spin-off affects on the supply of labour. Farmers experienced a simultaneous price-cost squeeze, which furthermore decreased the demand for labour. Studying the working and living conditions showed that farm workers had limited access to educational and recreational facilities which negatively impacted the supply of labour.
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- Date Issued: 2010