The impact of apartheid on rural areas of South Africa¶
Alan Mabin (1991). The impact of apartheid on rural areas of South Africa. Antipode 23(1).
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1880s–1989 |
| Regions | Eastern Transvaal, Transkei/Pondoland, Sekhukhuneland/Lebowa, Orange Free State/QwaQwa, Natal, Western Cape, Karoo |
| Themes | agriculture land, bantustans removals influx, origins segregation, resistance social movements, demography urbanisation, mining migrant labour |
| Citation key | mabin1991 |
Argument¶
Mabin argues that apartheid's rural impact has been under-studied compared with urban resistance. Building on a century-long decline of the African peasantry and the 1913/1936 Land Acts, the National Party after 1948 tried to tighten influx control, restructure farm labour relations by eliminating squatting, rent tenancy and labour tenancy, and entrench the reserves through Betterment Planning. The largest social process of apartheid was the removal of millions from white farms, concentrating people in the reserves/bantustans in 'semi-urban' rural slums, divorcing them from land and producing contradictory results (distorted urbanisation, even re-emerging labour tenancy). Rural people resisted in often hidden ways. The argument proceeds through historical overview, comparison of 1948 conditions, policy implementation and maps of Eastern Transvaal population redistribution (1934, 1970, 1980).
Evidence and method¶
Secondary literature (Bundy, Beinart, Delius, Trapido, Platzky and Walker, Hirson, Simkins and others), van Warmelo's 1934 survey of the Transvaal African population as a basis for maps, 1970 and 1980 population distribution maps, and case examples from the author's own fieldwork (Pilgrim's Rest, Naboomkoppies, Jan Masinga).
Place in the debates¶
- Decline of the South African peasantry and origins of migrant labour (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Follows Bundy: peasantry was progressively squeezed over a century, concentrating people into migrant labour and farm wage work, though it was not the sole foundation of the migrant system.
- Development of capitalism and wage labour in South African agriculture (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Acknowledges the issue is hotly contested (cites Keegan); sees the state accelerating a long, hesitant shift from labour tenancy to wage labour, without unanimous farmer support.
- Betterment planning: paternalist reform versus dispossession (see Homelands, separate development, decentralisation and removals). Traces it to liberal Native Affairs ideas but argues that as implemented it deprived the majority of land and cattle, benefiting only a few, and was fiercely resisted.
Findings¶
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The 1913 Act scheduled reserves covering only a small share of the country and barred Africans from acquiring land outside them. (p. 3)
prohibited Africans from acquiring or leasing land outside those scheduled areas, which in total made up only 7% of the country
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Before 1948 the reserves were already deteriorating and overcrowded, and most Africans lived on white farms rather than in the reserves. (p. 5)
The majority of the black African population of the country lived in the “white” rural areas - not in the reserves.
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Reserve households relied heavily on migrant remittances. (p. 5)
often earned most income from migrant workers’ remittances; wealthy households were exceptional.
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Early apartheid pursued contradictory aims: pass laws limited urban access while policies pushed people out of rural areas. (p. 6)
Simultaneously limiting people’s access to the towns and pushing people more vigorously out of rural areas resulted in a very oppressive situation.
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Rural policy outside the reserves was designed to benefit white farmers, and the number of white farm units fell sharply. (p. 7)
the number of white-owned farming units has dropped from about 90 000 in 1948 to about 65 0o0 today in the country as a whole
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The state allowed prison labour on white farms to secure cheap labour supply. (p. 7)
allow- ing prisoners, especially African prisoners, to be used as labourers
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Ending tenancy affected more people than any other apartheid process, including black-spot removals; at least two million were affected. (p. 8)
Probably at least two million people have been affected by the squeeze on the labour tenancy system from the 1950s through to the present day
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Because landowners rather than officials carried out removals, the state struggled to abolish labour tenancy quickly, but the demographic effect was immense. (p. 8)
The state has nevertheless had considerable difficulty eliminating labour tenancy, mainly because the agents of removal are the land owners, not officials.
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Evictions at Pilgrim's Rest left few households connected to farm wage work. (p. 11)
of 6500 people evicted from farms by one company at Pilgrims’ Rest in the Eastern Transvaal in 1972, only about 150 households still have family members
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Contradictory policies deruralised large parts of the bantustans into unserviced semi-urban areas. (p. 12)
huge areas of the bantustans have become unserviced, non-rural and 'semi-urban'
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Rural apartheid has distorted urbanisation and even revived labour tenancy. (p. 12)
Rural apartheid has produced a situation where not only is the urbanis- ation process being distorted but labour tenancy is actually reappearing on the farms
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Van Warmelo's survey of the African population of the Transvaal, 1934 (basis for Figure 2 map) | author survey or fieldwork | 1934 | Provides the 1934 baseline distribution of the African population in Eastern Transvaal against which later depopulation of white farm areas is compared. |
| Maps of African population distribution in Eastern Transvaal, 1970 and 1980 (Figures 3 and 4) | maps spatial data | 1970, 1980 | Schematically shows relocation and concentration of African population into reserves and depopulation of white-owned rural areas. |
| Platzky and Walker, The Surplus People (1985) | secondary literature compilation | 1950s-1985 | Source for the estimate that at least two million people were affected by the squeeze on labour tenancy. |
| Author's study of the Pilgrim's Rest land clearances (Mabin 1987) and fieldwork case material | author survey or fieldwork | 1972-1980s | Case evidence of the effects of eviction of labour tenants, including the household count of those still working on farms and the case of Jan Masinga. |
| Murray (1987) on Onverwacht displaced urbanisation | secondary literature compilation | 1980s | Source for the estimate of about 300,000 ex-labour tenants in a rural slum, used to generalise the Eastern Transvaal findings. |
| Smit and Booysen (1982), Swart Verstedeliking in Suid Afrika | secondary literature compilation | 1940s onward | Supports the claim that African women's urban migration caught up with men's during and after the war. |
| Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 (Natives Land Act, Native Trust and Land Act) | legislation gazette | 1913, 1936 | Legislative framework that scheduled reserves (about 7% of the country, later added to) and framed apartheid-era rural policy. |
| South African Native Affairs Commission and Beaumont Commission | commission or official report | c.1903-05; 1913-16 | Background on commissions that stalled on or recommended the allocation of reserve land. |
| Map of African Reserves under the 1913 Natives Land Act (Figure 1) | maps spatial data | 1913 | Displays the extent of scheduled reserves. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Synthetic interpretive essay drawing on secondary literature and the author's earlier case-study research. Schematic maps compare the population distribution in the Eastern Transvaal over time (1934, 1970, 1980), with one illustrative village-level case generalised to the country.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Apartheid policy accelerated the removal of Africans from white-owned farms and the end of labour tenancy, affecting more people than any other apartheid process. (p. 8) | Platzky and Walker (1985) estimate; Eastern Transvaal maps; Pilgrim's Rest case. | Partial data |
| The African population of the Eastern Transvaal was concentrated into reserves between 1934 and 1980, with depopulation of white-owned rural areas. (p. 11) | Van Warmelo 1934 survey and schematic maps for 1970 and 1980. | Partial data |
| Eviction from labour tenancy left former tenants without land or cattle and with little farm wage work, as in the Pilgrim's Rest and Naboomkoppies cases. (p. 11) | Author's case study of Pilgrim's Rest (Mabin 1987) and the single case of Jan Masinga. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Betterment planning and cattle culling benefited few and impoverished most reserve residents, provoking resistance. (p. 7) | Secondary studies (Letsoalo, Yawitch, de Wet and McAllister) and revolts such as Sekhukhuneland, plus Lodge and Hirson. | Asserted |
| By 1948 the reserves were overcrowded and agriculturally unproductive, and the majority of Africans lived on white farms, mostly as labour tenants. (p. 5) | Simkins (1981) and general secondary literature; no primary data presented. | Asserted |
| Contradictory apartheid policies (curbing urban entry while pushing people out of rural areas) deruralised the bantustans into unserviced 'semi-urban' areas sustained by circulatory labour. (p. 12) | Cases of Winterveld and Onverwacht; Murray (1987); Mabin (1989). | Illustrative or anecdotal |
The author's caveats¶
The author calls the maps 'very schematic' and gives rounded estimates ('perhaps', 'probably at least') for the numbers removed and for the proportion of Africans still on white farms. He notes that generalisation across regions is difficult and that the issue of wage labour development is contested.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument would need systematic census and farm-survey data on the African population by magisterial district on white farms and in reserves over time, which the population and agricultural censuses provided from 1946 onward. Removal numbers rest on a single secondary estimate and an unsourced map series. Eviction records, the Surplus People Project fieldwork, and Native Affairs Department files existed and could test the scale and timing.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.