Research Articles (PLAAS)

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Smallholder Aagriculture and land reform in South Africa
(Institute of Development Studies, 2005) Lahiff, Edward; Cousins, Ben
How canland reformcontribute toa revitalisationof smallholder agriculture inSouthernAfrica?Thisquestion remains important despitenegativeperceptions of land reformas a result of the impactofZimbabwe’s “fast-track” resettlement programmeonagriculturalproduction.This articlefocusesmainly onSouthAfrica, whereahighly unequaldistributionof landcoexists withdeep ruralpoverty,but dominant narratives of the efficiency of large-scaleagriculture exert a s trangleholdon r uralpolicy(cfToulminandGuèye, this IDSBulletinfor WestAfrica).
More than socially embedded: The distinctive character of ‘communal tenure’ regimes in South Africa and its implications for land policy
(Wiley, 2007) Cousins, Ben
This article analyzes debates over tenure reform policy in post-apartheid South Africa, with a particular focus on the controversial Communal Land Rights Act of 2004. Land tenure systems in the ‘communal areas’ of South Africa are described as dynamic and evolving regimes within which a number of important commonalities and continuities over time are observable. Key underlying principles of pre-colonial land relations are identified, which in formed the adaptation and modification of tenure regimes in the colonial era and under policies of segregation and apartheid, and continue to do so today. Exploring the policy implications of this analysis, the article suggests that alternative approaches to that embodied in the Communal Land Rights Act are required. The most appropriate approach is to make socially legitimate occupation and use rights, as they are currently held and practised, the point of departure for both their recognition in law and for the design of institutional frameworks for administering land.
Should subsistence agriculture be supported as a strategy to address rural food insecurity?
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2009) Aliber, M; Hart, T. G. B.
At first glance South Africa’s black farming sector appears to contribute rather minimally to overall agricultural output in South Africa. However, despite the complexity involved in this sector and the often marginal conditions in which agriculture is practised it appears to be important to a large number of black households. Furthermore, the significance they attach to subsistence agriculture as means of supplementing household food supplies seems to heavily outweigh other reasons for engaging in agriculture. Some South African researchers have indicated the contribution subsistence production makes to household food security, despite the prevalent complexities and the low input nature of this production. Statistics South Africa’s Labour Force Survey data from 2001 to 2007 and a case study of subsistence farming in Limpopo Province are used to support the argument that, despite the complexity of this sector, the more than 4 million subsistence farmers, need and merit greater support.
Revisiting unresolved questions: land, food and agriculture
(University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2011) Hall, Ruth
This article explores three articles from the perspective of 2011. They are Makhosazane Gcabashe and Alan Mabin’s ‘Preparing to negotiate the land question’ (Transformation 11), Tom Bennett’s ‘Human rights and the African cultural tradition’ (Transformation 22) and Henry Bernstein’s ‘Food security in a democratic South Africa’ (Transformation 24). The author focuses on four themes: the politics of negotiations; the location of ‘rights’ in land and to custom; the political economy of agrarian change; and the multiple facets of the ‘land question’. In conclusion, it draws attention to enduring questions about how to confront agrarian dualism, dynamics of changing and deepening inequality in the countryside, tensions between the logic underpinning land and agricultural policies, and the need to recast agrarian change in a wider frame, in recognition of the profound ways in which what happens in South Africa’s rural areas are part of regional and global dynamics.
The next great Trek? South African commercial farmers move north
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2012) Hall, Ruth
This paper analyses the shifting role of South African farmers, agribusiness andcapital elsewhere in the Southern African region and the rest of the continent. Itexplores recent trends in this expansion, and investigates the interests and agendasshaping such deals, and the ideologies and discourses of legitimation employed infavour of them. While for the past two decades small numbers of South Africanfarmers have moved to Mozambique, Zambia and several other countries, thistrend seems to be undergoing both a quantitative and a qualitative shift. Whereasin the past their migration was largely individual or in small groups, now it isbeing more centrally organised and coordinated, is more frequently taking theform of large concessions for newly formed consortia and agribusinesses, and isincreasingly reliant on external financing through transnational partnerships. Byearly 2010, the commercial farmers’ association Agri South Africa (AgriSA) wasengaged in negotiations for land acquisitions with the governments of 22 Africancountries.
Money and sociality in South Africa's informal economy
(Cambridge University Press, 2012) Neves, David; du Toit, Andries
This article examines the interplay of agency, culture and context in order to consider the social embeddedness of money and trade at the margins of South Africa’s economy. Focusing on small-scale, survivalist informal enterprise operators, it draws on socio-cultural analysis to explore the social dynamics involved in generating and managing wealth. After describing the informal sector in South Africa, the article elucidates the relationship between money and economic informality. First, diverse objectives, typically irreducible to the maximization of profit, animate those in the informal sector and challenge meta-narratives of a ‘great transformation’ towards socially disembedded and depersonalized economic relationships. Second, regimes of economic governance, both state-led and informal, shape the terrain on which informal economic activity occurs in complex and constitutive ways. Third, local idioms and practices of trading, managing money and negotiating social claims similarly configure economic activities. Fourth, and finally, encroaching and often inexorable processes of formalization differentially influence those in the informal sector. The analysis draws on these findings to recapitulate both the ubiquity and centrality of the sociality at the heart of economy, and to examine the particular forms they take in South Africa’s informal economy.
Support for smallholder farmers in South Africa: Challenges of scale and strategy
(Routledge, 2012) Aliber, Michael; Hall, Ruth
The South African Government aims to expand the smallholder sector as part of its broader job creation strategy. However, research shows that government attempts to support smallholder farmers have generally been costly and ineffective. Using secondary data and case study evidence, this study investigated the problems of supporting this sector. One finding is that while budgetary allocations to the sector have increased impressively over the last decade and a half, the distribution and use of these resources are such that few farmers benefit and the overall impact is small. A strategic choice has to be made between two strategies: supporting a few selected farmers to become large-scale commercial farmers (‘accumulation for the few’), or supporting a large number and helping them to increase and diversify their produce so as to become sustainable commercial smallholders (‘accumulation from below’). Past experience and a new national initiative favour the latter, using geographically targeted generic support services.
South Africa’s Bantustans and the dynamics of “decolonisation”: Reflections on writing histories of the homelands
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2012) Evans, Laura
From the late 1950s, as independent African polities replaced formal colonialrule in Africa, South Africa’s white minority regime set about its own policy ofmimicry in the promotion of self-governing homelands, which were to beguided to full ‘independence’. Scholarly study of South Africa’s homelands hasremained largely apart from accounts of decolonisation in Africa. Aninterpretation of South Africa’s exceptional political path in the era of Africandecolonisation that has dominated the literature has meant that importantdebates in African history, which might helpfully illuminate the South Africancase, have been neglected. In seeking inspiration for new histories of thehomelands, this article looks beyond South Africa’s borders to processes of anddebates on decolonisation in Africa.
The politics of evidence: A response to Rulli and D'Odorico
(Routledge Taylor Francis Group, 2013) Scoones, Ian; Hall, Ruth; Borras Jr., Saturnino M.; White, Ben; Wolford, Wendy
We welcome Rulli and D’Odorico’s response to our introduction to the Journal for Peasant Studies (JPS) Forum on Global Land Grabbing(Scoones etal.2013) in which we discussed the ‘literature rush’ that has accompanied the global ‘land rush’. We outlined a series of concerns with the data being used in this literature – concerns both with the data itself and with its uncritical deployment in popular and academic studies. We called for a second phase of land grab research that would ground abstract calculations of imprecise global averages in favour of concrete, situated and transparent research that could address critical questions such as what is actually happening, who is winning and losing, and why. With our discussion of the ‘politics of evidence’ we called for research that would extend beyond the ﬁxation on ‘killer facts’–the headline-grabbing numbers. Instead, ground-truthing and generating traceable datasets are essential.
Forum on Global Land Grabbing Part 2: The politis of evidence: methodologies for understanding the global land rush
(Routledge Taylor Francis Group, 2013) Scoones, Ian; Hall, Ruth; Borras Jr., Saturnino M.; White, Ben; Wolford, Wendy
The most recent ‘land rush’ precipitated by the convergent ‘crises’ of fuel, feed and food in 2007–2008 has heightened the debate on the consequences of land investments, with widespread media coverage, policy commentary and civil society engagement. This ‘land rush’ has been accompanied by a ‘literature rush’, with a fast-growing body of reports, articles, tables and books with varied purposes, metrics and methods. Land grabbing, as it is popularly called, is now a hot political topic around the world, discussed amongst the highest circles. This is why getting the facts right is very important and having effective methodologies for doing so is crucial. Several global initiatives have been created to aggregate information on land deals, and to describe their scale, character and distribution. All have contributed to building a bigger (if not always better) picture of the phenomenon, but all have struggled with methodology. This JPS Forum identifies a profound uncertainty about what it is that is being counted, questions the methods used to collate and aggregate ‘land grabs’, and calls for a second phase of land grab research which abandons the aim of deriving total numbers of hectares in favour of more specific, grounded and transparent methods.
Governing global land deals: The role of the state in the rush for land
(Wiley, 2013) Wolford, Wendy; Borras Jr., Saturnino M.; Hall, Ruth; Scoones, Ian; White, Ben
Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in large-scale land deals, often from public lands to the hands of foreign or domestic investors. Popularly referred to as a ‘global land grab’, new land acquisitions are drawing upon, restructuring and challenging the nature of both governance and government. In the Introduction to this special issue, we argue for an analysis of land deals that draws upon the insights of political ecology, cultural politics and agrarian studies to illuminate the micro-processes of transaction and expropriation as well as the broader structural forces at play. We argue that ‘the state’ is often invoked as a key player in land grabbing but states never operate with one voice; rather we need to unbundle the state, to see government and governance as processes, people and relationships. To develop this approach, we focus on territory, sovereignty, authority and subjects not as static objects but as relationships produced in and through place, property, power and production. Understanding the dynamic nature of these relationships is critical to understanding the highly variable form and content of large-scale land deals in different settings around the world. The papers in this special issue help to develop this perspective and this Introduction highlights important areas of convergence among them.
Introduction: Agrarian change, rural poverty and land reform in South Africa since 1994
(Blackwell Publishing, 2013) Bernstein, Henry; Cousins, Ben; Peters, Pauline E.; O'Laughlin, Bridget
This introduction sketches the context and dynamics of agrarian change, rural poverty and land reform since the end of apartheid in 1994, drawing attention to structural continuities and new elements in the countrysides of South Africa, and of the Southern African region in which South Africa must be located. Two key historical and theoretical reference points help focus attention on some central issues: the ‘classic’ model of dispossession/accumulation in South(ern) Africa, and ‘decentralized despotism’ as the distinctive mode and legacy of colonial governance. In conclusion, we introduce the papers as contributions to answering some central questions which require further research and debate.
Women's land rights and social change in rural South Africa: the case of Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal
(Juta Law, 2013) Cousins, Ben
Changing marriage practices and a continuing decline in marriage rates are generating tensions in rural South Africa and prompting innovations in the character of women's rights to land. Empirical evidence of changing practices in relation to land access and marriage in Msinga, a conservative area in KwaZulu-Natal, is presented. Such processes have been characterised in recent scholarship in terms of 'living customary law', or 'living law' but this concept can obscure the underlying social dynamics that produce discrepancies between rules, practices and emergent social realities. An alternative model with greater explanatory power is Moore's analytical framework for understanding 'law as process', suggesting attention to processes of regularisation and situational adjustment, within a fundamental condition of indeterminacy. This framework is utilised to help make sense of data from Msinga on marriage practices and women's access to land, and to draw some lessons for policy.
Livelihoods after land reform in South Africa
(Wiley, 2013) Aliber, Michael; Cousins, Ben
Over the past few decades, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa have pursued redistributive land reform as a means to address rural poverty. The Livelihoods after Land Reform (LaLR) study was carried out between 2007 and 2009, to understand the livelihood and poverty reduction outcomes of land reform in each of the three countries. The South African component focused on Limpopo province, and investigated land reform processes, trajectories of change and outcomes in thirteen detailed case studies. This paper summarizes some of the main findings from the South African study, and briefly compares them with findings from Namibia and Zimbabwe. The paper argues that a fundamental problem affecting land reform in both South Africa and Namibia is the uncritical application of the Large-Scale Commercial Farming (LSCF) model, which has led to unworkable project design and/or projects that are irrelevant to the circumstances of the rural poor. Nevertheless, some ‘beneficiaries’ have experienced modest improvements in their livelihoods, often through abandoning or amending official project plans.
Efficacy of rights-based management of small pelagic fish within an ecosystems approach to fisheries in South Africa
(Taylor & Francis, 2013) Hara, Mafaniso
South Africa’s small pelagics fishery is moving towards a management strategy using an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF), with rights-based management (RBM) as the key rights allocation system. While EAF strives to balance between, among others, ecological and social-economic objectives, RBM is driving the sector towards economic efficiency. Within EAF itself, there are still underlying mismatches between the two top objectives, ‘human wellbeing’ and ‘ecological wellbeing’, in effect requiring a better balance between these objectives than there is currently. For example, fishers do not believe they should be competing with marine mammals and birds for allocation of the resource, yet this is one of the primary trade-offs that have to be made when setting the annual total allowable catches (TACs) under EAF. A balance between the two objectives could be achieved through acceptable trade-offs between them among all stakeholders within inclusive governance. Implementation of RBM has had both positive and negative effects on the objectives for EAF. Of concern are the negative effects of RBM on human wellbeing. For example, fishers feel that RBM has weakened their bargaining position, thereby reducing their benefits. In addition, RBM has resulted in job losses and insecurity of employment within the fisheries sector. The most affected have been the most vulnerable — the low level workers — who ought to be the key beneficiaries of RBM. Thus prioritising and protecting vulnerable groups and fishing communities need careful consideration when creating RBM, even in the context of EAF. Rights-based management has also had negative effects on ecological wellbeing through practices such as increased dumping and ‘high grading’ as part of industry’s drive for increased efficiency under RBM. Whereas scientists believe that variability is largely due to environmental conditions, fishers strongly feel that dumping, high grading and high fishing pressure are the main factors. One of the positive aspects of RBM has been improved understanding among rights-holders and fishers of the need to consider other organisms in the TAC and to protect these through establishment of marine protected areas, island perimeter closures and limiting bycatch, thereby impacting positively on ecological wellbeing.
Land beneficiaries as game farmers: conservation, land reform and the invention of the 'community game farm' in KwaZulu-Natal
(Taylor & Francis, 2013) Brooks, Shirley; Ngubane, Mnqobi
Scholarship on post-apartheid land reform includes research on land claims made to formal protected areas, such as national parks and state game reserves. Little attention has however, been paid to the question of land restitution claims on private lands, on which a range of nominally ‘conservation-friendly’ land-uses (including commercial hunting) have taken place. This article traces the emergence of the ‘community game farm’ as a product of land reform processes affecting freehold land in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Two groups of land beneficiaries who were granted title to former privately owned game farms used for leisure hunting are studied in detail. The article shows that a range of state and private actors, as well as traditional authorities, have worked to ensure the continuation of the land under conservation or game farming after transfer. The central argument is that in this process, a generic narrative is imposed which works to conflate or deny the distinct historical identities of the beneficiary groups. The article raises questions about the real efficacy of land restitution in this context, as well as the appropriateness of a community-based conservation narrative when applied in the context of small farms such as those considered here.
Small-scale fisheries governance and understanding the snoek (Thyrsites atun) supply chain in the Ocean View fishing community, Western Cape, South Africa
(Resilience Alliance, 2013) Isaacs, Moenieba
Postapartheid fisheries reform in South Africa, through the Marine Living Resources Act (MLRA) 18 of 1998, used individual transferable quotas (ITQs) to broaden resource access through allocating quotas to new entrants, even though the system has been created to reduce capacity through a reduction in the number of active fishers. The formal action space created through fisheries reform in South Africa left many artisanal fishers to operate in the informal action spaces, selling Thyrsites atun (snoek) to poor communities to sustain their livelihoods. Artisanal fishers were not recognized by MLRA of 1998 and through class action case brought against the ITQ system, and in out of court settlement with the claimants in 2007, 1000 interim relief permits will be allocated to artisanal fishes and the development of a new small-scale fisheries policy for South Africa. In this case study of a fishing community in Ocean View, Cape Town I examine a snoek fishery that operates differently, through a community supply chain and informal markets, than that of the high value ITQ regulated species, yet plays a significant role in the livelihoods of artisanal fishers and in the food security of poor households. The findings of this case study show the failures of existing policy frameworks and the implications for the implementation of the new small-scale fisheries policy in South Africa.
Shallow waters: social science research in South Africa's marine environment
(Taylor & Francis, 2013) Sowman, M.; Scott, D.; Green, L.J.F.; Hara, Mafaniso; Hauck, M.; Kirsten, K.; Paterson, B.; Raemaekers, S.; Jones, K.; Sunde, J.; Turpie, J.K.
This paper provides an overview of social science research in the marine environment of South Africa for the period 1994–2012. A bibliography based on a review of relevant literature and social science projects funded under the SEAChange programme of the South African Network for Coastal and Oceanic Research (SANCOR) was used to identify nine main themes that capture the knowledge generated in the marine social science field. Within these themes, a wide diversity of topics has been explored, covering a wide geographic area. The review suggests that there has been a steady increase in social science research activities and outputs over the past 18 years, with a marked increase in postgraduate dissertations in this field. The SEAChange programme has contributed to enhancing understanding of certain issues and social interactions in the marine environment but this work is limited. Furthermore, there has been limited dissemination of these research results amongst the broader marine science community and incorporation of this information into policy and management decisions has also been limited. However, marine scientists are increasingly recognising the importance of taking a more holistic and integrated approach to management, and are encouraging further social science research, as well as interdisciplinary research across the natural and social sciences. Possible reasons for the lack of communication and coordination amongst natural and social scientists, as well as the limited uptake of research results in policy and management decisions, are discussed and recommendations are proposed.
Gender, generation and the experiences of farm dwellers resettled in the Ciskei Bantustan, South Africa, ca 1960–1976
(Wiley, 2013) Evans, Laura
This paper examines the experiences of farm dwellers resettled in rural townships in theCiskei Bantustan during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on the oraltestimonies of elderly residents of Sada and Ilinge townships, the paper shows how genderedand generational inequalities within households were crucial factors shaping individuals’experiences of resettlement from the farms. The paper engages with an older literature thatregarded the abolition of labour tenancy and linked resettlement programmes as the finalstage of farm tenants’ proletarianization. It highlights the problems of this linear narrative,and argues that men and women experienced and understood this process in radicallydifferent ways. Male labour migration and the remnants of farm paternalism meant thatwhile resettlement cemented the status of migrant men, for women and non-migrant menthis process was characterized by contradiction: on the one hand, escape from the spatialhegemonies of farm paternalism and, on the other, heightened economic exposure.
Reshaping women’s land rights on communal rangeland
(National Inquiry Services Centre (NISC) (Pty) Ltd, 2013) Kleinbooi, Karin
This paper aims to contribute to the debates on communal rangelands and analyses the gendered dimension of land rights and land access in the rural areas of Namaqualand. The actual gender relations within rural communities and the emergence of strategies that are being pursued in communal land processes are obscured and often ignored in policies about communal rangelands, which over-emphasise ‘the ecological and economic impact’ and the balancing of these dimensions. As active, primary users, women play a central role in livelihoods supported by communal rangelands yet their access to land is mediated through their relationships with men, effectively circumventing women’s land autonomy. A wider debate is necessary to advance the largely superficial policy considerations of women’s position in relation to communal rangelands land and their social exclusion on the basis of traditional control of land, forms of access and claiming of use rights. The paper discusses the complexity of land rights under communal land tenure and argues that, despite traditional and policy barriers, women in traditional systems of male-dominated land rights have had some success in accessing communal rangelands. Greater policy impetus is necessary to leverage equitable and independent land access for women amid debates about management of communal rangelands.

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