Transitions in the South African Countryside¶
Jonathan Crush; Alan Jeeves (1993). Transitions in the South African Countryside. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 27, No. 3 (special issue on Agriculture and Apartheid). Canadian Association of African Studies.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1902–1993 |
| Regions | South Africa, Transvaal, KwaZulu/Natal, KaNgwane, Bophuthatswana (Dinokana), Kenya, Zimbabwe, Lesotho |
| Themes | agriculture land, bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, mining migrant labour, transition post apartheid, business and state, resistance social movements, comparative theory |
| Citation key | crush1993a |
Argument¶
The editors introduce a special issue arising from a 1992 workshop on Agriculture and Apartheid. They argue that agrarian policy for post-apartheid South Africa must be informed by the rural historiography of the previous decade. Inherited power relations and political compromise constrain rural reconstruction, as Milner discovered after 1902. They use the contributions to show that crisis restructuring, land reform, smallholder strategies, labour relations and rural development all produce outcomes different from those planners intended. They also stress comparative cases (Kenya, Zimbabwe, Lesotho) and local histories of resistance.
Evidence and method¶
A review of secondary literature and summaries of the issue's articles (de Klerk, Francis and Williams, Crush, Mather, Vaughan and McIntosh, Drummond and Manson). The articles themselves draw on mining industry sources, oral history and local case studies. The text is not original research. It also cites the 1991 White Paper on Land Reform and the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act.
Place in the debates¶
- Timing and character of the transition to capitalist agriculture (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Notes the recent taxonomic debate (Morris, Keegan, Murray) and, following Bradford, treats it as a vital prerequisite for understanding and changing the present.
- Destruction of the independent African peasantry (Bundy thesis) (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Says a growing body of research (Simkins, Beinart, Levin and Neocosmos, and the Vaughan–McIntosh and Drummond–Manson articles) reassesses and nuances Bundy's account of complete destruction. The peasant boom was uneven and benefited a small group.
- Is the agricultural crisis only a crisis or also a restructuring? (see Agricultural policy, productivity, farm size and land reform). Reports de Klerk's view that the crisis has structural and cyclical parts and is hastening a long overdue restructuring as the state withdraws patronage.
- Land reform and smallholder strategy for post-apartheid South Africa (see Agricultural policy, productivity, farm size and land reform). There is general assent to redistribution but disagreement on means. The editors are cautious about uncritical enthusiasm for the peasant or smallholder option (Lipton) and warn about World Bank generic solutions.
- Migrancy as a barrier to worker organization (see Black trade unions: growth, wage effects, Wiehahn and strategy). Mather's study calls into question the long-established idea that migrancy is a fundamental barrier. Union organizing is hardest among workers housed on the farm.
Findings¶
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Rural reconstruction is constrained by inherited power relations, as Milner's failure showed. (p. 3)
they will redis- cover that inherited power relations and political compromise severely con- strain agrarian reorganization.
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White farm output growth after 1930 depended on state support, cheap labour and eviction of black tenants into the bantustans. (p. 3)
The growth in output and area of this sector after 1930, depended heavily on state interven- tion, the entrenchment of cheap labour systems, and later the forced evic- tion of hundreds of thousands of black tenants
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Apartheid agricultural policy expanded output but shifted its costs onto black producers and consumers. (p. 3)
They also contrived to load the cost of most of their policies onto black pro- ducers and consumers.
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De Klerk sees the farm crisis as driving restructuring as the state withdraws patronage. (p. 5)
The apartheid state's gradual and halting with- drawal from its patronage of white farming is prompting a fundamental res- tructuring of the sector.
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Mines could not break the protected labour supply for white agriculture in the 1970s despite a domestic labour surplus. (p. 8)
the mines were unable to effect a major shift in state strategy during the 1970s, precisely when they needed it most.
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Labour markets of different sectors were always inseparable despite state efforts at spatial segmentation. (p. 7)
the labour markets of different sectors have always been inseparable
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Smallholder strategies in the bantustans were shaped by local class relations and patronage, favouring elites and marginalizing the poorest. (p. 9)
Traditional and new rural elites have combined to extract maximum benefit from the small- holder strategy, further marginalizing the most impoverished sections of bantustan society.
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Kenya's land reform shows that title change and state planning produced unintended outcomes, driven by smallholders. (p. 7)
The trajectory of change in Kenya was more the result of unforeseen out- comes than deliberate policies.
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Termination of extension and betterment services after 1948 helped plunge Dinokana agriculture into crisis. (p. 10)
It was the termination of such services after 1948 that helped throw local agriculture into a state of crisis.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| White Paper on Land Reform (1991) | commission or official report | 1991 | Cited as the state's policy blueprint that the guest-issue authors treat as an attempt to pre-empt radical change and entrench the status quo. |
| Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act (No. 108 of 1991) | legislation gazette | 1991 | Treated as a policy instrument that sets narrow parameters for reform and is criticised for not making provision for widespread land redistribution. |
| Basic Conditions of Employment Act, extension to farmworkers (May 1993) and COSATU–South African Agricultural Union draft farm labour legislation (August 1993) | legislation gazette | 1993 | Cited as evidence of persistent farmer opposition to modernising industrial relations on farms. |
| ANC National Land Commission / African National Congress (1991) land policy document | union or movement records | 1991 | Cited as the ANC's rhetorical commitment to state-led land acquisition and redistribution. |
| World Bank (1992a, 1992b, 1992c) reports on post-apartheid agrarian policy | commission or official report | 1992 | Cited as an example of external policy definition that the issue's contributors say lacks local and historical sensitivity. |
| Oral history of the 1989 women farmworkers' stay-away in the eastern Transvaal lowveld (Mather) | interviews oral history | 1989 (event); research c. early 1990s | Described as the evidentiary basis for Mather's micro-analysis of farm labour relations and a successful stay-away. |
| Fieldwork/historical case studies of Dinokana (Drummond and Manson) and of KaNgwane and Natal/KwaZulu smallholders (Vaughan and McIntosh) | secondary literature compilation | 1913-1990 | Summarised as local histories showing differentiated peasant outcomes and the effects of betterment planning and outgrower schemes; underlying sources are not named in this introduction. |
Inference¶
Quantification: None.
Editorial introduction to a special issue; the argument proceeds by synthesising and summarising the contributors' articles and the secondary literature, using historical analogy (Milner's reconstruction vs. post-apartheid reform) and comparison with Kenya and Zimbabwe. It relies on qualitative, case-study and oral-history findings rather than new data analysis.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Rural reconstruction, whether under Milner or post-apartheid, is constrained by inherited power relations and entrenched interests. (p. 352) | Historical analogy drawn from secondary literature on Milner's reconstruction; no primary sources are presented. | Asserted |
| The growth of white commercial agriculture after 1930 depended on state intervention, cheap labour systems and the eviction of hundreds of thousands of black tenants into the bantustans. (p. 352) | Cited secondary studies (Morris, Stavrou, Marcus, Jeeves, Keegan); no data or primary source is presented. | Asserted |
| The mines were unable to shift state strategy on protected farm labour supply in the 1970s because of the farming unions' residual political power. (p. 357) | Crush's article, which uses mining industry sources not widely available; summarised here without the data. | Partial data |
| The commercial agricultural crisis is structural as well as cyclical and is accelerating a restructuring of white farming as the state withdraws patronage. (p. 354) | de Klerk's article, summarised; the underlying statistics are not presented in this introduction. | Partial data |
| The peasant boom in Dinokana was not generalised, and the state's betterment and extension services had positive effects until their termination after 1948. (p. 359) | Drummond and Manson's local agrarian history, summarised. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Smallholder strategies in KwaZulu and KaNgwane have been shaped by local landholding and class relations and have benefited elites, marginalising the poorest. (p. 358) | Vaughan and McIntosh's case studies, summarised. | Partial data |
| Farmworker unions are least likely to succeed where workers are housed on the farm under owner control, which calls into question the claim that migrancy blocks organisation. (p. 357) | Mather's oral-history study of an eastern Transvaal lowveld farm. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
The author's caveats¶
None about data; the authors only note that policy-makers have an incomplete understanding of agricultural structure and that historical work on local agrarian systems is only beginning.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The introduction offers no statistical evidence (agricultural censuses, labour and wage series, eviction counts) for its claims about growth, labour displacement and restructuring. Archival evidence from the Department of Agriculture, the Native Affairs Department and farmers' unions, which existed at the time, would better test the claims on state patronage and labour conflict. Comparative data on Kenya and Zimbabwe land transfers and smallholder output would be needed to support the policy lessons drawn.
Replicability: Not applicable.