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- Convenors:
-
Fred Hendricks
(Rhodes University)
Lungisile Ntsebeza (University of Cape Town)
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- Stream:
- Economy and Development
- Location:
- 50 George Square, G.05
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 12 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The land question in South Africa remains unresolved, and this panels seeks a way out of this impasse. The apartheid and colonially inherited racialized division of the land has not been transformed and the land reform policies of the democratic state have been woefully inadequate.
Long Abstract:
We invite papers addressing questions of land in five types of areas:
(i) urban land - where the land question is essentially a question of housing;
(ii) rural land under commercial agriculture - not only is there a real need to deracialise ownership of commercial farms, there is also an urgent need to address the ongoing oppressive labour conditions for farmworkers;
(iii) the former reserves, rural land under communal tenure - the land tenure of residents of these areas remains insecure, and much of the available arable land is un- or underutilised. There is a desperate need for more security of tenure in the context of traditional leadership;
(iv) church land - it is well known that churches, especially the Catholic and Anglican churches own large tracts of land across the country.
(v) state land - about 20% of the land surface in South Africa is owned by the government, often contrary to the interests of local residents.
In each of these areas there is an ongoing racialized pattern of access to and ownership of land and our efforts therefore have to concentrate on the most effective manner of moving towards a more equitable redistribution of the land. This panel hopes to promote discussion and debate around strategies for dealing with the crisis of land in any of these areas in South Africa, while simultaneously emphasising the connections between them in a coherent manner and keeping in mind the overarching land question in the country as a whole.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 12 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
This paper considers prospects of rural transformation in South Africa following the adoption by the General Assembly of a motion to amend the South African constitution to allow for expropriation of land without compensation. The focus will be on the former bantustans and commercial farms
Paper long abstract:
The endorsement by the African National Congress (ANC) of expropriation of land without compensation as policy at its 54th conference in December 2017 sparked a series of debates and discussions in South Africa, opening up prospects of more land becoming available for land reform in South Africa. Hitherto, the pace of land reform in South Africa had been disastrous and had almost come to a halt following the promulgation of the Pro-active Land Acquisition strategy Act of 2006 which allowed government to purchase land and lease it, rather than transfer ownership to land reform beneficiaries as was the case since the establishment of the land reform programme in 1994.
One of the key questions that comes up in debate and discussion is who will benefit from expropriated land.
This paper argues that as far as the countryside is concerned, expropriated agricultural land should address congestion and overcrowding in the rural areas of the former bantustans and landlessness affecting farm workers and dwellers. Land tenure in the countryside of the former bantustans is based on occupation rights that are precarious and farm workers and dwellers reside on land that is not theirs. Residents in both areas require not only tenure that is secure, but, for some, land to make decent livelihoods.
The criteria for deciding who should get land and for what are issues at the heart of the paper.
The broader issue that this paper is grappling with the dualism characterizing South Africa's countryside and how to address it.
Paper short abstract:
This paper deals with the AmaMpondo Malangeni Agricultual Project in Lusikisiki, South Africa
Paper long abstract:
After almost a quarter century of democratic rule, the former reserves, or areas under communal tenure remain places of extreme poverty and general underdevelopment, tied up in complicated ways with their differentiation from the rest of South Africa through a distinctive form of local government involving the power of the traditional authorities and a distorted version of customary land tenure.
In this context coupled with the implosion of the mining industry, a new commercial venture has been established in Eastern Phondoland. It is the AmaMpondo Malangeni Agricultural Project with the aim of putting arable allotments that had been lying fallow for several years, sometimes decades to productive use. It is an intriguing prospect, with big mining capital, in the shape of Ashanti-Gold investing in a project to farm commercially on communal land. It is full blown commercial agriculture using capital intensive methods with aeroplanes spraying insecticides across endless fields of maize, combine harvesters and huge trucks. The project has almost 600 hectares under cultivation. Basically, this represents a major change in the area, but there are number of questions about the project that remain unanswered and these will probably decide whether the project is sustainable in the long run. The first of these concerns the extent of community participation, buy-in and benefits. Secondly, of course, is the role of the chief as the chairperson of the trust set up to manage the project. Thirdly, the use of gmo seeds and the general thrust of agri-business so on.
Paper short abstract:
The livelihoods of rural residents in South Africa's former reserves are threatened by mining companies and agri-business who are grabbing productive land whilst promising economic development and food security. This reflects the unresolved land questions in rural areas of the former reserves.
Paper long abstract:
Rural residents in South Africa's former reserves are under siege from mining companies and agri-business who vie for access to productive lands in these areas. Although the land grabbing moves happen ostensibly to bring investments or to improve food production, the so called investments do not only cause divisions among the residents but also threaten the livelihoods of the residents. The land grabbing phenomenon is the source of current rural struggles by mining-affected rural communities in various parts of South Africa such as Xolobeni and Centane in Eastern Cape. The current rural land struggles also emanate from this phenomenon.
The land grabbing phenomenon is in line with the de-agrarianisation thesis promoted by commentators, scholars and politicians. Broadly, the thesis argues that rural people are less inclined towards productive land use - but their interests are on land for housing and jobs in urban areas. Such an argument fuels allegations that rural land lies fallow and unproductive, hence the offers by agri-business to improve production on rural areas.
However, the current rural struggles against the land grabs indicate the continued commitment of some rural residents to land-based livelihoods. Importantly, the developments and the ensuing rural struggles are reflective of the unresolved land questions almost 25 years into South Africa's democracy.
Paper short abstract:
'Informal' land markets are emerging in rural areas governed by customary tenure, driven by expanding commodity frontiers. This is providing de facto tenure security for a minority of well-positioned rural residents while opening up the opportunity for rent appropriation by traditional leaders.
Paper long abstract:
Contemporary discourses on customary land tenure in Africa, and South Africa in particular, tend to emphasise the socially embedded and flexible nature of customary land rights, recognising these as inherently more inclusive and 'pro-poor' than individual titling. Despite this, tenure insecurity remains high for rural residents in South Africa former homelands. Based on qualitative research in Venda, this paper aims to unravel how the expansion and commercialisation of orchards is reconfiguring land access arrangement, tenure security and customary land governance as a consequence. Findings show how land access arrangements for orchards have changed since orchards were first established during the apartheid era until the present and how these changes are situated in a context of dynamic and evolving customary land tenure systems. In a context of expanding commodity frontiers, rural land markets have emerged, fundamentally altering land relations in communal areas. This has presented new opportunities for rent appropriation by nondemocratic traditional authorities and emergent processes of land accumulation by a minority of small-scale capitalist farmers. The paper concludes that land rights in relation to orchards have become increasingly individual and exclusive, with access and use rights linked primarily to financial transactions. The paper argues that the increasing commoditization of land within communal areas and its specific character needs to be recognised if a more inclusive and socially just system of customary land governance is to be achieved.