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 | 1894–1991 |
| Regions | South Africa, Eastern Transvaal, Transkei/Pondoland, Orange Free State, Lebowa, Natal, Western Cape |
| Themes | agriculture land, bantustans removals influx, origins segregation, resistance social movements, demography urbanisation, labour markets wages |
| Citation key | mabin1991a |
Argument¶
Mabin argues that apartheid in the countryside worked through contradictory policies. Pass controls kept Africans out of the towns, while the abolition of labour tenancy, squatting and rent tenancy on white farms, together with betterment planning and black-spot removals, pushed people out of rural areas. The result was mass removal into overcrowded reserves and a 'semi-urban' deruralisation of the bantustans. The policy was designed to enrich white farmers and to restructure farm labour relations towards wage labour. It provoked widespread, often hidden, rural resistance. The argument is a historical-geographical synthesis built on secondary literature, three schematic maps and some local examples.
Evidence and method¶
Secondary literature (Bundy, Beinart & Bundy, Platzky & Walker, Simkins, Keegan, Hirson, etc.); the author's own earlier work on Pilgrims' Rest; anecdotal case studies (Jan Masinga, Naboomkoppies, Onverwacht, Winterveld); three schematic maps of African population distribution in the Eastern Transvaal for 1934 (van Warmelo survey), 1970 and 1980.
Place in the debates¶
- Decline of the South African peasantry and the rise of wage labour in agriculture (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Accepts the argument that a peasantry was largely destroyed over a long period, so that labour tenancy gave way to wage labour. He notes the matter is contested (citing Keegan 1989) and stresses regional variation in agrarian history.
- Role of the state versus landowners in removing labour tenants (see Farm labour: mechanisation, labour shedding, wages and labour control). Argues that the state wanted to eliminate labour tenancy but struggled to do so because the agents of removal were the landowners, not officials. White farmers were not unanimous in supporting the change.
- Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 as the foundation of apartheid (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Treats the Acts as fundamental but warns against attributing too much to them, given regional variation.
Findings¶
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The 1913 Land 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 migrant remittances were the main income of reserve households. (p. 5)
rural production was deteriorating and had been deteriorating for a long time prior to 1948
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In 1948 most Africans lived on white-owned farms, where labour tenancy was the characteristic social relation. (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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Apartheid policy simultaneously restricted access to towns and pushed people out of rural areas, producing great oppression. (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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Policy outside the reserves was designed to bolster white agriculture, and farm labour was supplemented by prison labour. (p. 7)
It was designed, simply put, to enrich white farmers, a very important constituency which had brought the National Party to power.
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Removal of tenants from white farms affected more people than any other apartheid process, including black-spot removals; at least two million were affected. (p. 8)
More people have been affected by the ending of tenancy - rent tenancy, squatting, labour tenancy in particular - and effectively removed from the farms over the last 20 or 30 years
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Abolition of labour tenancy took legal change, negotiation with landowners and repression, and was largely achieved by the 1970s. (p. 8)
it took legal alterations in the 1950s, negotiations with recalcitrant white land owners, and repression of black rural organisation, in order to be able to move towards its abolition by the 1970s
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Eviction from farms severed ties to wage work on those farms: only about 150 households of 6,500 people evicted at Pilgrim's Rest in 1972 still have members working there. (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 left bantustan populations unable to farm yet excluded from proper urban life, creating semi-urban, unserviced areas. (p. 12)
The state has placed people in conditions where they cannot produce rurally but where they do not have access to properly urban environments
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| van Warmelo's 1934 detailed survey of the African population of the Transvaal (basis of Figure 2) | author survey or fieldwork | 1934 | Provides the 1934 baseline distribution of African population mapped in Figure 2, against which later relocation is compared. |
| Maps of African population distribution in Eastern Transvaal, 1970 and 1980 (Figures 3 and 4) | maps spatial data | 1970 and 1980 | Schematic maps show depopulation of white-owned farm areas and concentration of people in the reserves over time. |
| Map of African reserves scheduled under the 1913 Natives Land Act (Figure 1) | maps spatial data | 1913 | Shows that scheduled reserves made up only 7% of the country. |
| Natives Land Act 1913 and Land Act 1936 (Native Trust and Land Act) | legislation gazette | 1913, 1936 | Legislative framework that scheduled reserves, restricted African land acquisition and tenancy, and later underpinned apartheid betterment and removals. |
| Glen Grey Act of 1894 | legislation gazette | 1894 | Cited as designed to increase wage labour supply from a formerly prosperous peasantry. |
| South African Native Affairs Commission and Beaumont Commission reports | commission or official report | c.1903-05 and 1913-16 | Background on how reserve land questions were stalled and how additions to reserves were recommended. |
| Hindson (1987) on wartime and post-war pass controls | secondary literature compilation | 1940s-1950s | Supports the account of wartime easing and post-1948 tightening of pass controls. |
| Smit & Booysen (1982) Swart Verstedeliking in Suid Afrika (urbanization data) | secondary literature compilation | 1930s-1940s | Supports the claim that African women's urban migration caught up with men's during and after the war. |
| Platzky & Walker (1985) The Surplus People (removals estimates) | secondary literature compilation | 1950s-1980s | Source for the estimate that at least two million people were affected by the squeeze on labour tenancy. |
| Cooper (1988) Working the Land (white farm numbers) | secondary literature compilation | 1948-1988 | Gives the decline in white-owned farming units from about 90,000 to 65,000. |
| Simkins (1981) on agricultural production in the African reserves | secondary literature compilation | pre-1948 | Supports the claim that reserve rural production had long been deteriorating before 1948. |
| Author's fieldwork on the Pilgrims' Rest land clearances and labour tenant evictions (Mabin 1987, 1989) | author survey or fieldwork | 1970s-1980s | Supplies the illustrative cases of Jan Masinga and the 6500 people evicted at Pilgrims' Rest, of whom only about 150 households retain migrant or commuter links to the farms. |
| Murray (1987) Displaced urbanisation: South Africa's rural slums (Onverwacht) | secondary literature compilation | 1980s | Source for the estimate of about 300,000 ex-labour tenants in the Onverwacht rural slum. |
| Secondary studies on betterment planning (Letsoalo 1982; Yawitch 1982; de Wet & McAllister 1983) | secondary literature compilation | 1950s-1980s | Supports the claim that betterment benefited few and caused most people to lose access to land. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Short interpretive synthesis: a historical narrative of land and labour policy before and after 1948, supported by secondary literature, a few figures drawn from other studies, three schematic population maps comparing 1934, 1970 and 1980, and illustrative local cases (Jan Masinga, Pilgrims' Rest, Onverwacht).
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Reserves in 1948 were small, overcrowded and agriculturally deteriorating, with households dependent on migrant remittances, while most Africans lived on white-owned farms under labour tenancy. (p. 5) | Simkins (1981) and general historical literature; no data presented. | Asserted |
| Under apartheid the state sought to eliminate squatting, rent tenancy and labour tenancy on white farms, accelerating wage labour, with abolition moving forward by the 1970s. (p. 8) | Historical narrative citing Bradford (1987) and the author's own work; no statistical series. | Partial data |
| Removals from tenancy on white farms affected far more people than black spot removals or any other apartheid process, at least two million. (p. 8) | Platzky & Walker (1985) estimate, reported as 'probably'. | Partial data |
| Eastern Transvaal maps for 1934, 1970 and 1980 show large relative depopulation of white-owned rural areas and growing concentration of Africans in consolidated reserves. (p. 11) | Figures 2-4, based on van Warmelo's 1934 survey and unspecified later data; described by the author as very schematic. | Partial data |
| Betterment planning and cattle culling deprived most reserve residents of land and herds and provoked resistance, benefiting only a few. (p. 7) | Secondary studies (Letsoalo, Yawitch, de Wet & McAllister) and Lodge on culling; no primary data shown. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Evictions of labour tenants led to deruralised, semi-urban bantustan areas where households survive through circulatory labour exports. (p. 12) | Illustrative cases (Jan Masinga, Pilgrims' Rest, Onverwacht, Winterveld) from Mabin and Murray. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The proportion of black Africans living on white-owned rural land fell from a majority to perhaps 18% over four decades. (p. 8) | Unsourced estimate ('perhaps'); the digit in the text is partly garbled. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
The author calls the maps 'very schematic' and hedges key figures with 'probably' and 'perhaps' (two million affected, 300,000 at Onverwacht, about 18% on white farms today). He notes that generalising about the impact of the Land Acts is difficult because of regional variation, and that rural resistance remains little studied.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument needs systematic quantitative evidence on rural population distribution and tenure, such as population and agricultural census returns for 1946-1980, to document the shifts in farm labour and eviction numbers. Magistrates' and Native Affairs Department archives, and farm-level records of tenancy and removals, would test the regional generalisations drawn from the Eastern Transvaal. Most of this material existed then (censuses, NAD files, SPP surveys) and is now available in archives.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.