Review Article: Reforming State Urban Policy in South Africa? (reviewing Bekker and Humphries, From Control to Confusion, and Giliomee and Schlemmer (eds.), Up Against the Fences)¶
Doug Hindson (1987). Review Article: Reforming State Urban Policy in South Africa? (reviewing Bekker and Humphries, From Control to Confusion, and Giliomee and Schlemmer (eds.), Up Against the Fences). Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1. Taylor & Francis / Oxford University Press.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1971–1986 |
| Regions | South Africa, bantustans, urban townships, Ciskei |
| Themes | bantustans removals influx, demography urbanisation, politics ideology elections, business and state, comparative theory, manufacturing industrial policy, inequality poverty unemployment |
| Citation key | hindson1987 |
Argument¶
Hindson reviews two 1985 books on influx control and African urbanisation. He finds Bekker and Humphries a useful descriptive account of the Administration Boards, but one that explains confusion only as ideological ambiguity and never examines the class forces and material basis behind influx control. He judges Giliomee and Schlemmer's collection an unresolved mix of liberal orthodoxy and radical insight, with the editors contradicting themselves on whether apartheid served cheap-labour interests and whether influx control worked. He argues that periodising the cheap-labour thesis and influx control resolves these inconsistencies. He concludes that market-led 'ordered urbanisation' and reform without democratic national participation cannot address poverty and unemployment.
Evidence and method¶
Close reading of the two books, with citations to specific chapters and pages; Simkins's work on urbanisation trends and R.T. Bell's work on industrial decentralisation; the reviewer's observation of 1984-86 township resistance and later government urban reforms. No original data.
Place in the debates¶
- Cheap labour thesis / materialist vs liberal explanations of apartheid (see Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves). Defends the materialist thesis as period-specific (late 19th century to 1930s; 1930s to late 1960s). Later industrial opposition to influx control does not show that it was not functional to capital earlier.
- Liberal vs revisionist views on whether racial policy conflicts with economic logic (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Criticises the liberal view that market forces will erode racial policy. Argues that market forces and repressive state policy reinforce each other in a vicious cycle of impoverishment, so both state and economy need transformation.
- Effectiveness of influx control on African urbanisation (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Holds that influx control and removals slowed and reshaped urbanisation (citing Simkins), so the 'illusory' label is unfounded for earlier decades, though the long-term aims of territorial apartheid were never met.
- Causes of industrial decentralisation (see Homelands, separate development, decentralisation and removals). Criticises McCarthy and Maasdorp for ignoring Bell's work questioning whether state inducements were the primary cause of industrial dispersal.
Findings¶
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Bekker and Humphries conclude that attempts to reconcile conflicting aims weakened control and produced bureaucratic confusion in the Administration Boards. (p. 3)
attempts to reorganise the Boards to meet these conflicting aims led to a weakening of controls and confusion within the bureaucracy.
-
Hindson criticises the book's explanation as lacking any material or class analysis, leaving its main finding unexplained. (p. 3)
The material basis of influx control, the class forces that shaped it and the manner in which the system secured or failed to secure a framework for reproduction
-
Giliomee and Schlemmer's collection contradicts itself on the origins of apartheid: reproduction of cheap labour power versus protection of white workers. (p. 5)
Did apartheid policies, and specifically influx control, ensure a supply of cheap labour for industry, or did they ensure that cheap labour was kept out in order to protect white labour?
-
Hindson defends the cheap labour thesis as applying to specified periods, so industrialists' later opposition to influx control does not refute it. (p. 5)
Industrialists' recent opposition to traditional influx controls is not evidence that these policies were not functional to capital in earlier periods.
-
Citing Simkins, Hindson argues that influx control measurably slowed African urbanisation in the 1960s and 1970s. (p. 6)
Simkins has shown how the rate of African urbanisation declined during the 1960s and 1970s, periods when influx controls and urban removals were vigorously applied.
-
The collection's contributors see racial policy and market forces reinforcing each other in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment, in contrast to the 1960s revisionists writing amid growth. (p. 6)
They conclude that the mutual interaction of racial policies and market forces leads to vicious cycles of underdevelopment and poverty, rather than economic expansion.
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The editors nonetheless revert to a minimal-state, market-allocation policy, with ordered squatting as the new element. (p. 7)
The new element in the policy offered by the editors is promotion of ordered urban squatting.
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The collection's policy of planned urbanisation was taken up in the Presidents' Council report and 1986 legislation, as a hybrid with traditional apartheid. (p. 4)
It represents a hybrid of the planned urbanisation strategy outlined in this book and the policy of residential and territorial apartheid traditionally pursued by the apartheid state.
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Giliomee and Greenberg's interview-based study finds the tribal labour bureaux collapsing and being replaced by Development Board mechanisms that hierarchically structure the labour market. (p. 7)
the system of tribal labour bureaux is weak and on the verge of collapse. It is being replaced by new mechanisms operated by the Development Boards from the white areas.
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Hindson judges the Schlemmer and Moller attitude surveys methodologically weak and designed to support abolishing influx control. (p. 8)
From the information given in the articles it is not possible to check properly how some of the samples were drawn, or assess the reliability of their generalisations.
-
More coherent reform did not make it more acceptable, since township resistance continued after the 1986 reforms. (p. 4)
Greater coherence has not led to greater acceptability.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riekert Commission Report of 1979 | commission or official report | 1979 | Reviewed as the reform blueprint whose impact on the Administration Boards is assessed by Bekker and Humphries, and which advocated racially segregated local government. |
| Presidents' Council report, An Urbanisation Strategy for the Republic of South Africa (1985) | commission or official report | 1985 | Cited to show that the planned-urbanisation policy of Up Against the Fences was adopted by government and later legislated in 1986. |
| Section 10 of the Urban Areas Act: distribution of Africans with residence rights by province, with statistical appendices | official statistical series | 1970s-early 1980s | Reviewer notes the book supplies new data on the provincial distribution of Africans holding Section 10 rights, supporting its descriptive chapter. |
| Administration Boards housing and finance statistics (Bekker and Humphries chapters) | secondary literature compilation | 1971-1982 | Used by the reviewed book, and noted by the reviewer, to periodise the fiscal crisis of the Boards. |
| Occupational and educational profiles of black Community Councillors, plus a case study of a council and an Administration Board | secondary literature compilation | c. 1979-1982 | Described by the reviewer as descriptive evidence in the local government chapter of the reviewed book. |
| C. Simkins, Four Essays on the Past, Present and Possible Future of the Distribution of the Black Population of South Africa (SALDRU, UCT, 1983), essay 2 | secondary literature compilation | 1960s-1970s | Used by the reviewer as the evidence that African urbanisation rates declined in the 1960s-70s under vigorous influx control. |
| R.T. Bell, Industrial Decentralisation in South Africa (1973); 'The Growth and Structure of Manufacturing Employment in Natal' (1983); 'The State, the Market and the Inter Regional Distribution of Industry' (1984) | secondary literature compilation | 1970s-1984 | Cited by the reviewer as research questioning whether state inducements caused the dispersal of industry, a point McCarthy and Maasdorp neglect. |
| Statistical material on homeland production, sources of income, employment and inequality (Servaas van der Berg chapter) | secondary literature compilation | c. 1970s-1980s | Praised by the reviewer as empirical evidence on the homeland economy within Up Against the Fences. |
| Statistical overview of urbanisation trends in the bantustans (P. Smit chapter) | secondary literature compilation | c. 1970s-1980s | Cited as showing that influx control displaced urban settlement into bantustan areas abutting the metropolitan centres. |
| Interviews with labour bureau officials (Giliomee and Greenberg chapter) | interviews oral history | c. early 1980s | Underpins their claim that the tribal labour bureaux system is collapsing and being replaced by Development Board mechanisms. |
| Attitude surveys of migrants and squatters by Schlemmer and Moller (four studies) | author survey or fieldwork | c. early 1980s | Used in the reviewed book to support the case for abolishing influx control and for ordered squatting; the reviewer criticises the sampling and question design. |
| Buthelezi Commission argument on oscillating migration (quoted by Schlemmer) | commission or official report | early 1980s | Quoted by Schlemmer, and noted by the reviewer, as the claim that oscillating migration lets market forces reinforce imbalances. |
Inference¶
Quantification: None.
This is a review article. The reviewer assesses two books by reading them closely, checking their arguments for internal consistency, and comparing them with revisionist/materialist theory and a few secondary empirical studies (Simkins, Bell). No data are analysed directly.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Bekker and Humphries' main finding, that confusion in the Boards stems from ambiguity in state reform ideology, is thinly explained because the book neglects the material basis of influx control and class forces. (p. 161) | The reviewer's reading of the book's focus on laws, administrative practice and ideology, set against the wider debate; no data are used. | Asserted |
| Bekker and Humphries' book is the first comprehensive published study of the Administration Boards and gives useful descriptive and statistical information on Section 10 rights, housing and finance. (p. 161) | The reviewer's description of the book's chapters and appendices; the underlying statistics are not reproduced. | Partial data |
| The editors of Up Against the Fences contradict themselves on whether apartheid and influx control secured cheap labour for industry or protected white labour. (p. 163) | Page-referenced quotations from Giliomee's piece and the Schlemmer-Giliomee joint piece, compared by the reviewer. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Influx controls substantially affected the pace and pattern of African urbanisation, so it is wrong to call them 'illusory'. (p. 164) | Simkins' work on declining African urbanisation rates in the 1960s-70s, plus the reviewer's periodisation argument. | Partial data |
| McCarthy and Maasdorp's critique of decentralisation policy ignores Bell's evidence that industrial dispersal was partly spontaneous rather than driven by state inducements. (p. 164) | R.T. Bell's studies of industrial decentralisation, cited by the reviewer. | Partial data |
| The Schlemmer and Moller attitude surveys are unreliable and designed to support the case for ordered squatting. (p. 166) | The reviewer's reading of the survey articles, which do not report sample design; the questionnaire wording is described. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The collection's policy prescription (ordered urbanisation and ordered squatting with minimal state intervention) was influential and was largely adopted in the Presidents' Council report and 1986 legislation. (p. 162) | The Presidents' Council 1985 report and the 1986 legislation, as asserted by the reviewer without citing the texts. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
The reviewer notes that Bekker and Humphries' research ended in 1982, before the 1983-85 township uprising, and that Giliomee and Greenberg lack empirical substantiation. She also cannot check the Schlemmer and Moller sampling from the information given.
Gaps in the evidence¶
As a review article, it offers no systematic data of its own, and the claims about influx control's effect rest on a single cited study (Simkins) and Bell's decentralisation work. Testing the claims properly would need census-based time series of African urban population and migration flows, Section 10 and prosecution statistics under the pass laws, and industrial location data; these existed in published census and Board records at the time. Evidence on class forces and capital's changing demands, such as Chamber of Commerce, employer and Urban Foundation records, would be needed to support the reviewer's materialist critique.
Replicability: Not applicable.