South African land reform: Case-studies in 'demand' and 'participation' in the free state

African Affairs

Volumn 96, Issue 383, 1997, Pages 187-214

  Murray, Colin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPING COUNTRY; LAND ALLOCATION; LAND REFORM; LOCAL PARTICIPATION;

SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 0031444458     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a007825     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Department of Land Affairs (DLA), Green Paper on South African Land Policy (Pretoria, 1996); C. Murray, 'Land reform in the eastern Free State: Policy dilemmas and political conflicts', Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2/3 (January/April 1996), pp. 209-244.
2. Department of Land Affairs (DLA), Green Paper on South African Land Policy (Pretoria, 1996); C. Murray, 'Land reform in the eastern Free State: Policy dilemmas and political conflicts', Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2/3 (January/April 1996), pp. 209-244.
3. For references see H. Bernstein (ed.), The Agrarian Question in South Africa, special issue of Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2/3 (January/April 1996).
4. R. Levin and D. Weiner, "The politics of land reform in South Africa after apartheid: Perspectives, problems, prospects", Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2/3 (January/April 1996), pp. 93-119.
5. This is illustrated in graphic detail in, for example, W. Beinart, 'Strategies of the poor and some problems of land reform in the Eastern Cape, South Africa', paper presented to the ASAUK Biennial Conference, University of Bristol, 9-11 September 1996.
6. Land and Agriculture Policy Centre, Down to Earth (Indicator Press, Durban, 1996).
7. My most recent fieldwork in the Free State was undertaken in March 1996 and November 1996. I would like to thank all those individuals and officials in the province who responded generously to questions on their experience.
8. R. Palmer, 'Land Reform in Southern Africa in the 1990s: Progress Report', February 1996; 'The Threat to People's Land in Southern Africa: The current crisis', (Oxfam UK/I, August 1996).
9. R. Palmer, 'Land Reform in Southern Africa in the 1990s: Progress Report', February 1996; 'The Threat to People's Land in Southern Africa: The current crisis', (Oxfam UK/I, August 1996).
10. W. Beinart and C. Murray, 'Agrarian change, population movements and land reform in the Free State' (Land and Agriculture Policy Centre, Johannesburg, 1996); Murray, 'Land reform in the eastern Free State', pp. 220-231.
11. W. Beinart and C. Murray, 'Agrarian change, population movements and land reform in the Free State' (Land and Agriculture Policy Centre, Johannesburg, 1996); Murray, 'Land reform in the eastern Free State', pp. 220-231.
12. At the Glen meeting, each group was invited in turn to present and justify its proposals for the disposition of the land.
13. 'Fisiese Situasie op Botshabelo Plase' [Physical Situation on Botshabelo Farms], Glen Agricultural Development Institute, October 1995.
14. Planning Committee: 21 Farms 26/10-24/11/95, Minutes of meeting of 10 November, pp. 4-5.
15. Interviews, Naomi 'Masefa Matsau, Diepwater, 16 March 1996; Qhesi Albert Matsau, Botshabelo, 3 December 1996.
16. Planning Committee, Minutes of meeting of 10 November, p. 6.
17. Interviews, Ntebaleng Molelekoa, Botshabelo, 6 October 1995; Margaret Rakgogo, Botshabelo, 27 November 1996; Ntebaleng Molelekoa and Nthabiseng Nchake, Botshabelo, 3 December 1996.
18. Interview, Ntai Khoete, Uefdefontein, 16 March 1996.
19. Murray, 'Land reform in the eastern Free State', p. 225.
20. Since the repeal of the segregationist Land Acts of 1913 and 1936, black entrepreneurs who have capital resources of their own or access to commercial credit may proceed freely to purchase land on the Open' market without state assistance. Such purchases do not qualify as 'land reform', but politicians will no doubt wish to record them in reoorting overall progress in reducing the extremely racially inequitable distribution of land in South Africa. Some transfers of this kind have taken place in the Free State, mainly near the eastern border with Lesotho. The entrepreneurs concerned are large-scale traders or transport operators based in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, who have now diversified into farming. The number of farms transferred is small and the pattern is necessarily haphazard, since it is the outcome of separate individual market transactions.
21. DLA briefing paper, 'Grants to Service Land Redistribution'.
22. The market value of land is the price actually paid by a willing buyer to a willing seller in a 'free' market. The agricultural value of land reflects the annual income that may be derived from arable and pastoral activities thereon, as estimated by agricultural officials. Market values have been generally higher than agricultural values in South Africa, although the differential has narrowed since the mid-1980s with the decline of farmer subsidies. However, the discrepancy between these values reflects many different variables, some of which are highly volatile in present circumstances. In respect of one farm west of Bloemfontein, for example, the vendor expected a market price of R400/ha towards the end of 1995, and put the asking price up to R700/ha on hearing that the state might help people to buy the farm. The Department of Agriculture estimated the agricultural value of the farm at R250/ha, while the Land bank estimated the prevailing market value in the area at R286/ha.
23. DLA, Green Paper, p. 27.
24. L. Botes, S. Krige and J. Wessels, 'Informal settlements in Bloemfontein: A study of migration patterns, socio-economic profile, living conditions and future housing expectations' (The Urban Foundation, Bloemfontein, March 1991).
25. Business Day, 4 November 1996.
26. South African Maize Producers' Institute. The fascinating story of the machinations of various factions of white organized agriculture in the interests of 'King Maize' in recent decades is outlined in H. Bernstein, 'How white agriculture (re)positioned itself for a "New South Africa": the politics of economics vs the economics of polities', Critical Sociology (forthcoming).
27. 'A Draft Proposal on Kutlwanong Farmer Settlement Project' (DLA file, Bloemfontein).
28. Consultation on the Agricultural Development Corporations in the Free State Province, commissioned by the Land and Agriculture Policy Centre on behalf of the Free State Department of Agriculture and Conservation, 16-21 October 1994.
29. Detailed analysis of this episode cannot be undertaken here, but is important to an understanding of political tensions within the ANC and between national and provincial governments. Superficial press analysis may be found in successive issues of the Weekly Mail and Guardian, October, November and December 1996; and Sowetan, 2 December 1996. The attack on Agri-Eco appeared in Volksblad, a Bloemfontein paper. See also Sunday Times, 15 December 1996.
30. Detailed analysis of this episode cannot be undertaken here, but is important to an understanding of political tensions within the ANC and between national and provincial governments. Superficial press analysis may be found in successive issues of the Weekly Mail and Guardian, October, November and December 1996; and Sowetan, 2 December 1996. The attack on Agri-Eco appeared in Volksblad, a Bloemfontein paper. See also Sunday Times, 15 December 1996.
31. Detailed analysis of this episode cannot be undertaken here, but is important to an understanding of political tensions within the ANC and between national and provincial governments. Superficial press analysis may be found in successive issues of the Weekly Mail and Guardian, October, November and December 1996; and Sowetan, 2 December 1996. The attack on Agri-Eco appeared in Volksblad, a Bloemfontein paper. See also Sunday Times, 15 December 1996.
32. Detailed analysis of this episode cannot be undertaken here, but is important to an understanding of political tensions within the ANC and between national and provincial governments. Superficial press analysis may be found in successive issues of the Weekly Mail and Guardian, October, November and December 1996; and Sowetan, 2 December 1996. The attack on Agri-Eco appeared in Volksblad, a Bloemfontein paper. See also Sunday Times, 15 December 1996.
33. Interview, Moemeledi Skosana, Qwaqwa National Park, 24 November 1996.
34. Murray, 'Land reform in the eastern Free State', p. 214.
35. DLA, Green Paper, p. 34.
36. Land Update, No. 53, November 1996, p. 2.
37. Murray, 'Land reform in the eastern Free State', pp. 214-219.
38. Interviews, Philemon Tsese, Bloemfontein, 28 February 1996, 7 March 1996, 4 December 1996.
39. C. Murray, Black Mountain: Land, class and power in the eastern Orange Free Stale, 1880s to 1980s (Edinburgh University Press, 1992), pp. 201-203.
40. Murray, Black Mountain, Chapter 4.
41. The effect was comparable, perhaps, to the effect of estate agents and building societies 'red-lining' some urban residential areas, so that bonds cannot be obtained and property cannot be conserved or improved, inducing a vicious circle of depreciation, degeneration and panicky exodus by those who can afford it.
42. For elaboration of this profoundly important point, see M. Mackintosh, 'Abstract Markets and Real Needs', in H. Bernstein, B. Crow, M. Mackintosh and C. Martin (eds,), The Food Question (Earthscan, London, 1990); and, in relation to the South African maize industry, H. Bernstein, 'The political economy of the maize filiere', Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2/3 (January/April 1996), pp. 120-145.
43. For elaboration of this profoundly important point, see M. Mackintosh, 'Abstract Markets and Real Needs', in H. Bernstein, B. Crow, M. Mackintosh and C. Martin (eds,), The Food Question (Earthscan, London, 1990); and, in relation to the South African maize industry, H. Bernstein, 'The political economy of the maize filiere', Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2/3 (January/April 1996), pp. 120-145.