Research Reports

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Covid-19 Impacts: Household Food Production, Agroecology, Rural Livelihoods and Alternative Food Systems
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2023-02) Mtero, Farai; Gumede, Nkanyiso
Climate change and rural livelihoods in Southern Africa: An agenda for policy-oriented research
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2022) Bennie, Andrew
This report is the outcome of an extensive review of the literature and the debates on climate change and landbased livelihoods in Southern Africa. In the context of the converging climate and food crises, it provides an overview of the politics of climate change, its impacts, and responses in Southern Africa, and sketches the outlines of PLAAS’s research agenda on the intersections of climate change, agrarian change and rural livelihoods. As such, it is an open-ended document, intended to identify and formulate questions, not to present answers. The purpose of the report is to set out in broad terms the way in which seek to connect our work on agrarian change and rural livelihoods to the questions raised by the climate crisis currently facing our societies.
Equitable access to land for social justice in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2021-11) Mtero, Farai; Gumede, Nkanyiso; Ramantisima, Katlego
This report analyses the trajectory of land reform in South Africa and its implications for equitable access to land. The report combines insights from empirical research and inclusive dialogues to analyse the extent to which land reform laws and policies adequately promote equitable access to land as provided for in Section 25 of the Constitution. These insights are based on in-depth interviews with land reform beneficiaries and different key informants in the land sector. A series of workshops conducted during the course of the research allowed different societal groups to articulate diverse and often contested ideas of what constitutes a successful and equitable land reform in South Africa. The dialogues were important in interrogating deeply entrenched and enduring assumptions about land reform, development and the overall trajectory of transformation in South Africa. Some of the enduring assumptions include the narrow focus on replicating the large-scale commercial farming model in land redistribution while neglecting the role of land in sustaining multiple and diverse livelihoods for the landless poor. ‘Productionism’ is also evident in the narrow focus on agriculture and neglect of the complex and differentiated land needs associated with the incessant process of urbanisation. Both the tendency to replicate the large-scale commercial farming model in land redistribution and the narrow focus on farming while neglecting multiple and diverse land needs of the landless poor undermine equitable access to land. The report argues that equitable land reform should account for the diverse land needs associated with a rapidly changing agrarian landscape where rapid urbanisation occurs amidst the decline of farming livelihoods, widespread unemployment, and complex urban-rural migration patterns. Accordingly, a broad framing of success is imperative, beyond the productionism that seeks to replicate the large-scale commercial farming model while neglecting the complex realities of a changing agrarian landscape.
PLAAS Annual Report 2019
(PLAAS, 2020-12-01) PLAAS
PLAAS had a successful 2019, contributing effectively to the University of the Western Cape’s mission as a research-led, community-oriented and engaged university.
Elite Capture in Land Redistribution in South Africa
(PLAAS, 2019-12-03) Mtero, Farai; Gumede, Nkanyiso; Ramantsima, Katlego
The research on elite capture in land redistribution in South Africa was conceived against the background of a significant decline in systematic research on land reform outcomes. Data on land reform outcomes and more specifically, evidence on who has been benefiting from South Africa’s land redistribution, is generally poor. Currently, land reform beneficiaries access land through the leasehold system, initially introduced through Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) in 2006, and operationalised through the State Land Lease and Disposal Policy (SLLDP) in 2013. The government introduced a new and revised SLLDP in 2019. This research specifically focuses on land reform projects commonly referred to as PLAS farms but are leased to beneficiaries on the basis of the SLLDP. Accordingly, we refer to these projects as SLLDP farms in line with the SLLDP which outlines the terms on which the state may agricultural land to land reform beneficiaries. Our research for this report sought to deepen our understanding of elite capture and to provide a more comprehensive picture of how elite capture unfolds in land reform. The key overarching questions framing this report include the following: who has benefited from South Africa’s land redistribution? Who have been the winners and losers in land redistribution and why? What are the criteria for beneficiary targeting and selection? This research shows that the net effect has been to redirect state resources originally intended for the poor, to the better-off.
Pressures on land in sub-Saharan Africa: Social differentiation and societal response
(Overseas Development Institute, 2012) Hall, Ruth; Paradza, Gaynor
This paper focuses on large-scale land acquisitions and the implications of these new trends for land tenure rights in sub-Saharan Africa. It highlights trends in legal and policy approaches; describes and analyses new pressures on land and related natural resources; provides an analysis of drivers of resource scarcity and competing uses; summarises what is known about better and worse practices in partnerships between local communities and external investors; and concludes with recommendations for development partnerships.
Women's land rights in Africa: Scorecard 2019
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2019) Mbaya, Sue
This Scorecard is for: MEASURING how committed governments are to women’s land rights in each country. COMPARING how women are confronting their governments about land rights. LEARNING how women are tackling their land rights issues. SHARING lessons emerging from efforts by women to tackle their land rights issues.
The contested status of ‘communal land tenure’ in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2015) Weinberg, Tara
Twenty years have passed since the Bantustans were reintegrated into South Africa. Yet for the 17 million people still living in these former homelands, the struggle for full recognition of their land rights persists. The post-1994 government refers to the former homelands as ‘communal areas’ (Communal Land Tenure Policy 2013). For most people living in these areas, their rights to land are uncertain and vulnerable. The right to security of land tenure – that is, the legal and practical ability to defend one’s ownership, occupation, use of and access to land from interference by others – is enshrined in Section 25(6) of the Constitution. The Constitution further prescribes that the government should enact a law to provide for the realisation of the right to security of tenure in Section 25(9). Land tenure reform is one of the three main areas of the government’s land reform programme – the other two are land redistribution (related to Section 25(2), (3) and (4)), which involves tackling the unequal distribution of land in the country resulting from the apartheid era, and restitution (Section 25(7)), which is about restoring land to or providing equivalent compensation to people who were dispossessed of rights to land as a result of racially discriminatory laws or practices.
Backing small-scale fishers: Opportunities and challenges in transforming the fish sector
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2015) Isaacs, Moenieba; Hara, Mafaniso
Globally, small-scale fisheries play a significant role in food security, poverty reduction and income generation (Béné et al 2007; Heck et al 2007; Béné et al 2010; FAO 2003). At the 2008 Global Conference on Small-Scale Fishing in Bangkok, Thailand, organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), it was indicated that small-scale fisheries contribute to more than half of the world’s marine and inland fish catch. The importance of this sector is further underlined as it employs over 95% of all men and women engaged in fisheries worldwide and that, of these, more than 90% are to be found in developing countries (FAO 2009). In Africa, it is estimated that the fishing sector provides income for over 10 million people engaged in fish production, processing and trade. And the sector contributes to the livelihoods and food security of over 200 million people on the continent1. In South Africa, however, fisheries have historically been dominated by the commercial marine sector.
Corporate concentration and food security in South Africa: is the commercial agro-food system delivering?
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2015) Greenberg, Stephen
Although the current agro-food system in South Africa has the technical and organisational capacity to meet domestic food needs, there are major problems with access to food and with the nutrient content of existing food supplies. The agro-food system is a product of apartheid and, as such, has social inequities built into it. This paper looks briefly at the main points of inequity and reflects on various attempts and proposals to alter the system to reduce social inequity.
Scoping study on the development and sustainable utilisation of inland fisheries in South Africa: Volume 2. Case studies of small-scale inland fisheries
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2015) Tapela, BN; Britz, PJ; Rouhani, QA
Small- scale fishing on inland waters is a widespread livelihood activity which has been overlooked in environmental policy and management arrangements flowing from South Africa’s democratic Constitution. This has perpetuated the Apartheid and Colonial era legacies of marginalisation of rural communities from natural resource access and, in the absence of clearly defined use rights, resulted in unmanaged and unsustainable fishing practises, and growing user conflicts. A major constraint to addressing the situation at policy level was identified as the lack of quantitative information on inland fishing for livelihood purposes.
Scoping study on the development and sustainable utilisation of inland fisheries in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2015) Britz, PJ; Hara, MM; Weyl, OLF; Tapela, BN; Rouhani, QA
South Africa’s inland fishery resource endowment has been overlooked as a means of supporting sustainable livelihoods in the democratic era, lacking a guiding policy and legislation aligned with the country’s rightsbased Constitution. The absence of an equitable inland fishing governance framework with defined use rights has resulted in growing unmanaged and unsustainable fishing practices, conflicts between resource users, and the perpetuation of Colonial- and Apartheid-era exclusion of rural communities from livelihood and economic opportunities linked to aquatic natural resources. In response to this problem, the Water Research Commission launched a solicited research project entitled “Baseline And Scoping Study On The Development And Sustainable Utilisation Of Storage Dams For Inland Fisheries And Their Contribution To Rural Livelihoods” to provide a knowledge base to inform the development of policy and institutional arrangements for inland fishery governance. The project was executed by a trans-disciplinary team of researchers with fisheries and social science backgrounds from Rhodes University’s Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science; the University of the Western Cape’s Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB).
Vulnerability and social protection at the margins of the formal economy
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2006) Neves, David; du Toit, Andries
This report sets out the results of an in-depth study of livelihood strategies and ‘coping mechanisms’ among poor people in one very specific, but highly significant context of poverty in South Africa. Its core concrete concern is with social grants and cash transfers; but it does not focus narrowly on how they are administered and used. Instead, it firstly focuses on the broader context of the livelihood strategies and coping mechanisms within which these are used – strategies that might be called ‘private social protection’ and which other researchers have referred to as ‘distal social welfare’. Secondly, it is motivated by a conviction that social protection and social grants should be aimed, not only at the important goal of alleviating poverty, but also supporting pathways out of it. While current research clearly suggests that the massive expansion in social welfare has made possible a significant reduction in monetary poverty, a decisive and further reduction in poverty requires attention to the structural conditions that interrupt or impede these pathways out of poverty. If these underlying structural issues are not addressed, there is a very real danger that social protection, and social grants in particular, may end up contributing only towards ensuring what might be called ‘managed poverty’ – in other words, a situation in which poverty is managed through the amelioration of its harshest effects – but not reduced in a sustainable manner.
Research Report to Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development in South Africa (PSPPD)
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011) Neves, David; Aliber, Michael; Mogaladi, Jan; du Toit, Andries
This report documents research conducted on small-scale informal self-employment at the margins of the South African economy. Despite high levels of poverty and unemployment South Africa has, by developing country standards, comparatively low levels of informal economic activity. Economic informality is therefore not only an issue of theoretical interest, but also one of significant public policy salience. The research combined qualitative and quantitative inquiry to understanding the contribution of informal self-employment to the livelihoods of impoverished households, along with factors that enable and constrain informal it. These empirical questions were examined in relation to current state policies and programmes targeted at the informal sector. The report concludes with policy recommendations intended to enhance the ability of policy makers to support the livelihoods of impoverished South Africans.
Self-employment in South Africa’s informal sector: Prevalence, prospects and policy
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011) Neves, David; Aliber, Michael; Mogaladi, Jan; du Toit, Andries
This text describes research undertaken to investigate small-scale self-employment at the margins of the South African economy. Despite high levels of poverty and unemployment South Africa’s informal sector is, by developing country standards, comparatively small. As economic informality is crucial to the livelihoods of many impoverished households, this is not only an issue of theoretical interest but of public policy significance. The research described in what follows drew on an integrated qualitative and quantitative inquiry in order to understand the contribution of informal self-employment to the livelihoods of impoverished households. The study sought to examine the factors that both enable and constrain informal self-employment, as well as state policies and programmes concerned with economic informality. The chapter concludes by discussing a number of policy recommendations intended to enhance the ability of policymakers to appropriately support the livelihoods of the poor. Since being coined almost four decades ago, the nomenclature of the ‘informal sector’ has been used to describe marginal and low-productivity economic activities, often outside the realm of state regulation and taxation (Hart, 1972). More recently enterprise-based definitions of economic informality have been eclipsed by employment-based conceptions, and refer to those who labour outside networks of employment contracts, protections and benefits (Jutting et al. 2007). However, in much the same way as the controversial concept of a ‘second economy’ (African National Congress, 2004), the moniker of the informal sector potentially invokes an overstated dualism. It overlooks the manner in which formal and informal are intertwined, and the manner in which the precarious employment conditions associated with informality are increasingly to be found at the heart of ‘formal’ enterprises and economies. These are increasingly manifest in practices such as outsourcing, casualisation and contractualisation. Although the concept of the informal sector enjoys much continued usage it is a contested and imprecise concept that potentially obscures as much as it reveals.
Livelihoods after land reform: The impacts of land reform on livelihoods in Namibia: Section B
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2010) Werner, Wolfgang; Odendaal, Willem
The first AALS farmers in Hardap obtained their land in 1992, and the most recent in 2003. In Omaheke, the first AALS farmer obtained his farm in 1992 and the most recent, a woman, in 2000. Thus in both regions the oldest AALS beneficiaries have been farming as such for 17 years. All 10 AALS farming households interviewed in Hardap Region were male-headed. Eight of the household heads were married with a civil marriage certificate, one was widowed and one was single. One farm was registered in a wife’s name while her husband waited for his AALS loan to be approved. All the others farms were registered in the names of the household heads. The AALS farm sizes ranged from 3 500 ha to 20 000 ha. In Omaheke, three male and two female household heads made up the AALS interview sample. The average age of the Hardap household heads was 52 years, with a median of 50. Twenty per cent were over 60 years of age. The average age of the Omaheke household heads was also 52, the youngest being 48 and the oldest 57. In Hardap, five farmers stated that they had received tertiary education, while the lowest standard of formal education attained was Standard 5 (Grade 7 under the new system). The other four attained standards ranging from Standard 6 to 8 (Grades 8-10). In Omaheke, two interviewees stated that they had completed their tertiary education while the other three had completed Standard 10 (Grade 12).
Livelihoods after land reform
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2010) Werner, Wolfgang; Odendaal, Willem
In 1990, Namibia emerged from colonial rule with a skewed distribution of agricultural land and high levels of poverty. The new government led by SWAPO Party initiated a process to address the land question within the first few months of Independence. A National Conference on Land Reform and the Land Question in 1991 was the foundation on which the Namibian government developed its land reform programme. The Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation started in 1990 to acquire freehold farmland for subdivision and allocation to previously disadvantaged Namibians. This component of redistributive land reform was complemented by the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme (AALS) established in 1992. The AALS provided subsidised loans to previously disadvantaged Namibians to acquire large-scale commercial farms under freehold title. The primary objectives of land reform in Namibia were to address injustices which largescale land dispossession had brought about, and to reduce poverty and inequality. However, little empirical work has been done to assess the impact of land redistribution on poverty levels and the livelihoods of beneficiaries. The most comprehensive survey on the impact of land redistribution was conducted by the Permanent Technical Team on Land Reform (PTT) in 2003/04. The primary objective of this survey on “livelihoods after land reform” is to add to the existing body of knowledge on land redistribution. Through case studies in Hardap and Omaheke Regions, the survey explored the extent to which land redistribution is reducing poverty and meeting livelihood improvement objectives.
Joint ventures in the flag Boshielo irrigation scheme, South Africa: A history of smallholders, states and business
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2015) van Koppen, Barbara; Tapela, Barbara Nompumelelo; Mapedza, Everisto
In the global debates on the modes of farming, including irrigated farming, that are viable for the majority of rural people, three models prevail: (i) smallholder family farming; (ii) farming led by agribusiness’ capital, technologies, and forward and backward linkages in an estate mode; and (iii) agribusiness-led farming in an out-grower mode. In South Africa, these three and more modes of irrigated agriculture have been implemented. In the colonial era, in most of the country, the state supported a white-dominated estate mode of farming based on wage labor. Smallholder family farming remained confined to black people in the former homelands. Smallholder irrigation schemes in the former homelands were out-grower schemes, managed by the colluding apartheid state, white agribusiness and irrigation industry. Since independence in 1994, the search for viable modes of farming and irrigation is high on the policy agenda. This is part of the envisaged transition of the state into a tripartite constellation of citizens, state and service providers that delivers accountable, outcome-based services.
Emerging rooibos farmer market access project
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011) Kruger, Sandra; du Toit, Andries; Keahey, Jennifer; Murray, Douglas; Raynolds, Laura; Ryser, Lisa
Global markets increasingly require rapid and coordinated response to standards and certification. Yet despite broad political transformations in post‐Apartheid South Africa, structural power relations limit emerging farmer capacity to effectively access certified markets such as fairtrade and organic. Within the Rooibos commodity network, inequitable functioning has prevented emerging farmers from fully developing critical market‐access skills and resources. While diverse groups have collaborated to achieve mutual interests, the cooperative building process has been marked by conflict. There is a need to involve producers in networks as this will help the industry to more effectively capture lucrative market opportunities. Successful community and emerging farmer network efforts are potential building blocks in which to inform further engagement. The South African Rooibos Council is working towards developing formal emerging farmer networking space as part of its Broad‐based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) portfolio. Diverse industry and organizational experts are increasingly invested in emerging communities and a core group has expressed interest in further collaboration. Commodity network efforts have been incrementally achieving goals, but more work needs to be done to ensure development sustainability and scalability.
The role of social security in respecting and protecting the dignity of lone mothers in South Africa: Final report
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2014) Wright, Gemma; Noble, Michael; Ntshongwana, Phakama; Neves, David; Barnes, Helen
This is the final report of a project entitled ‘Lone Mothers in South Africa: The role of social security in respecting and protecting dignity’. The project was inspired by research undertaken for the South African Department of Social Development (DSD) about attitudes to employment and social security (e.g. Noble et al., 2008; Ntshongwana, 2010a and 2010b; Surender et al., 2007; Surender et al., 2010). During the fieldwork for that programme of research, participants in focus groups repeatedly made the unprompted point that poverty eroded their sense of dignity. Given that the South African Constitution declares that people have inherent dignity and that dignity should be protected and respected (Republic of South Africa, 1996), we decided to design a project dedicated to exploring the role that social security currently plays in relation to people’s sense of dignity. Specifically we hoped to explore whether social assistance, as a financial transfer to low income people, serves to help to protect and respect people’s dignity, or conversely whether there are ways in which the country’s social security arrangements serve to undermine people’s dignity. Currently, there is no social assistance for low income people of working age unless they are entitled to claim the Disability Grant. There is however a commitment elsewhere in the Constitution to the progressive realisation of access to social assistance for people, and their dependants, who are unable to support themselves (Republic of South Africa, 1996: Chapter 2 section 27). It therefore seemed relevant to explore in addition whether people thought that – in the context of very high levels of unemployment ‐ some additional form of social assistance might be a worthwhile poverty alleviation measure that would help to protect and respect people’s sense of dignity, or whether it might serve to further erode people’s sense of dignity.

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