Democratization and Traditional Authorities in the New South Africa

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 19, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 83-94

  Ntsebeza, Lungisile ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRATIZATION; LAND TENURE; LOCAL GOVERNMENT; TENURE SYSTEM;

SOUTH AFRICA;

EID: 0033512197     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-19-1-83     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. See L. Ntsebeza and F. T. Hendricks, "Democracy and Despotism in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Role of Chiefs/Traditional Authorities in Rural Local Government," (1998); Paper presented to a conference on Comparing Experiences on Democratization Between South Africa and Nigeria, Center for African Studies, University of Cape Town, May 30-June 2; C. Walker, "Women, 'Tradition' and Reconstruction in South Africa," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, XV, 1, (1995), pp. 58-71.
2. See L. Ntsebeza and F. T. Hendricks, "Democracy and Despotism in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Role of Chiefs/Traditional Authorities in Rural Local Government," (1998); Paper presented to a conference on Comparing Experiences on Democratization Between South Africa and Nigeria, Center for African Studies, University of Cape Town, May 30-June 2; C. Walker, "Women, 'Tradition' and Reconstruction in South Africa," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, XV, 1, (1995), pp. 58-71.
3. The term "traditional authorities" needs explanation. During the colonial period and up to the National Party's electoral victory of 1948, traditional authorities were called chiefs. Apart from chiefs, headmen were appointed. With the introduction of the Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 by the apartheid regime, tribal authorities were established at the local level. These were made up of chiefs and headman, with sub-headman at the village level. At the regional level were paramount chiefs. This hierarchy of individuals was marketed by the apartheid regime as the "traditional" leaders of Africans. It is in this context that the term "traditional authorities/leaders" emerges. In the current post-1994 period, the unresolved question is whether headmen and sub-headmen are traditional authorities.
4. I. B. Tabata, The Awakening of a People (1961); G. Mbeki, South Africa: A Peasants Revolt (International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1984); F.H. Hendricks, The Pillars of Apartheid: Land Tenure, Rural Planning and the Chieftaincy (Uppsala: Acta Univ. Ups. Studia Sociologica Upsaliensia, 1990); Tabata and Mbeki were leading activists in the Transkei during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. For more on this see A. Drew, "The Theory and Practice of the Agrarian Question in South African Socialism, 1928-1960," Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2-3, (Jan.-April 1996), pp. 53-92.
5. I. B. Tabata, The Awakening of a People (1961); G. Mbeki, South Africa: A Peasants Revolt (International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1984); F.H. Hendricks, The Pillars of Apartheid: Land Tenure, Rural Planning and the Chieftaincy (Uppsala: Acta Univ. Ups. Studia Sociologica Upsaliensia, 1990); Tabata and Mbeki were leading activists in the Transkei during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. For more on this see A. Drew, "The Theory and Practice of the Agrarian Question in South African Socialism, 1928-1960," Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2-3, (Jan.-April 1996), pp. 53-92.
6. I. B. Tabata, The Awakening of a People (1961); G. Mbeki, South Africa: A Peasants Revolt (International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1984); F.H. Hendricks, The Pillars of Apartheid: Land Tenure, Rural Planning and the Chieftaincy (Uppsala: Acta Univ. Ups. Studia Sociologica Upsaliensia, 1990); Tabata and Mbeki were leading activists in the Transkei during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. For more on this see A. Drew, "The Theory and Practice of the Agrarian Question in South African Socialism, 1928-1960," Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2-3, (Jan.-April 1996), pp. 53-92.
7. I. B. Tabata, The Awakening of a People (1961); G. Mbeki, South Africa: A Peasants Revolt (International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1984); F.H. Hendricks, The Pillars of Apartheid: Land Tenure, Rural Planning and the Chieftaincy (Uppsala: Acta Univ. Ups. Studia Sociologica Upsaliensia, 1990); Tabata and Mbeki were leading activists in the Transkei during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. For more on this see A. Drew, "The Theory and Practice of the Agrarian Question in South African Socialism, 1928-1960," Journal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2-3, (Jan.-April 1996), pp. 53-92.
8. N. M. Stultz, Transkei's Half Loaf - Race Separation in South Africa, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), p. 51.
9. M. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 23.
10. See also H. Bernstein's review of Mamdani's book in Development and Change, 29 (1998), and "Social Change in the South African Countryside? Land and Production, Poverty and Power," Journal of Peasant Studies, 25,4, July 1998. Bernstein's critique of Mamdani is based on the separation of the "native question" from the "labor question."
11. See also H. Bernstein's review of Mamdani's book in Development and Change, 29 (1998), and "Social Change in the South African Countryside? Land and Production, Poverty and Power," Journal of Peasant Studies, 25,4, July 1998. Bernstein's critique of Mamdani is based on the separation of the "native question" from the "labor question."
12. During the 1980s, the ANC gained recognition from a wide range of South Africans who had come to the conclusion that no everlasting solution to South Africa's problem was possible without the involvement of the ANC. A. Sparks, Tomorrow is Another Country, (Sandton: Struik, 1994), demonstrates clearly that by the mid-1980s, the apartheid regime had entered into secret negotiations with the ANC, including ANC leaders in prison and in exile.
13. Drew, "The Theory and Practice of the Agrarian Question in South African Socialism."
14. Hendricks, Pillars of Apartheid, pp. 60-65.
15. These made up seven percent of the total land in South Africa.
16. This would increase land for African occupation to 13 percent.
17. The allotment was traditionally for both residential and agricultural purposes but with the enormous pressure on land in some areas, people are willing to accept a residential site only.
18. Conversations with committee members of the Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI) and the Interim Communal Property Association (CPA) in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape, December 1997-June 1998.
19. This was a form of "villagisation" that was introduced in the 1930s, but only implemented in the 1950s, as a conservation measure against soil erosion.
20. The majority of land claims in the Transkei region of the Eastern Cape are based on such removals.
21. These headmen were appointed by the British in the Cape when they established magisterial districts. These districts were run by magistrates, and in each village, a headman would be appointed as a local representative of the magistrate.
22. Quoted from Stultz, Transkei's Half Loaf, p. 51.
23. Mbeki, South Africa: The Peasants Revolt, pp. 97-98.
24. To this day, the position remains unchanged.
25. C. Manona, "The Collapse of the 'Tribal Authority' System and the Rise of Civic Associations," in C. de Wet and M. Whisson (eds.), From Reserve to Region: Apartheid and Social Change in the Keikammahoek District of (former) Ciskei, 1950-1959, (Grahamstown: ISER, 1998); C. Manona, "The Big Lip of Sebe Has Fallen," Indicator, South Africa Quarterly Report, 8, 1 (1990).
26. C. Manona, "The Collapse of the 'Tribal Authority' System and the Rise of Civic Associations," in C. de Wet and M. Whisson (eds.), From Reserve to Region: Apartheid and Social Change in the Keikammahoek District of (former) Ciskei, 1950-1959, (Grahamstown: ISER, 1998); C. Manona, "The Big Lip of Sebe Has Fallen," Indicator, South Africa Quarterly Report, 8, 1 (1990).
27. Annual reports of Calusa and Health Care Trust (1990-1997), two NGOs operating in the Xhalanga magisterial district, Eastern Cape.
28. Interview with Mgweba, August 18, 1998.
29. National Party thinking here was undoubtedly influenced by the World Bank thinking which linked tenure security with individual title deed.
30. J. W. Bruce and Migot-Adholla, (eds.), Searching for Land Tenure Security in Africa (Duduque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1994.). John Bruce works for the Land Tenure Center, Wisconsin University, Madison. From the early 1990s, the Land Tenure Center has offered courses and opportunities for NGOs and post-1994 government officials, some of whom were in NGOs before 1994.
31. These "legs" are based on section 25 (5), (6) and (7) of the South African Constitution.
32. G. Thomas, et. al., "Current Developments in South Africa's Land Tenure Policy," (1998), a-memo issued by DIA.
33. President Mandela's application for individual title for his farm in Qunu has been held up by the "tribal resolution" which had not been put into effect.
34. It must be anticipated that there will be objections to defining membership in terms of household on the grounds that power relations within the household may be glossed over.
35. What follows is taken from a "Draft - for discussion purposes only" dated June 30, 1998. The title as per this draft is "Security of Tenure Bill 1998," but I was later told that this was changed to "Land Rights Bill." There have no doubt been numerous revisions since the June 30 draft, but these are unlikely to alter the thrust and principle of the Bill.
36. This and the following sections draw substantially from reports and field notes by Erik Buiten and Lungisile Ntsebeza. We were commissioned by the Department of Land Affairs to "resolve land-ownership and governance issues in the Tshezi Communal Area, Mqanduli, Eastern Cape." I am indebted to Erik Buiten but accept full responsibility for the interpretation of events.
37. Presumably "the usual order" refers to tribal authorities established under colonial and apartheid rule.
38. Because of the divergent histories and experiences of the former Bantustans, the Tshezi case cannot necessarily be generalized to other regions.
39. This refers to the King of the AbaThembu, one of six "Kings" in the Eastern Cape.
40. For details see L. Ntsebeza, "Rural Local Government in Post-Apartheid South Africa," African Sociological Review, 2, 1 (1998).
41. B. Cousins, "How do Rights Become Real? Formal and Informal Institutions in South Africa's Tenure Reform Program," in Proceedings of the International Conference on Land Tenure in the Developing World with a Focus on Southern Africa, (1998), p. 90.
42. See discussion on post-1994 developments above and specifically the category of "protected rights."
43. Thomas, et al., "Current Developments in South Africa's Land Tenure Policy," p. 531.
44. Ibid.
45. Ntsebeza and Hendricks "Democracy and Despotism," p. 19.