Botswana in the Southern African Periphery: the Limits of Capitalist Transformation in a 'Labour Reserve'

Literature › Works

Jack Parson (1980). Botswana in the Southern African Periphery: the Limits of Capitalist Transformation in a 'Labour Reserve'. IDS Bulletin (Institute of Development Studies, Sussex), vol. 11 no. 4. Institute of Development Studies, Sussex.

Type	journal article
Scope	Comparative and methods
Method	synthesis review
Period studied	1885–1980
Regions	Botswana (Bechuanaland Protectorate), South Africa, Southern Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland
Themes	mining migrant labour, origins segregation, comparative theory, agriculture land, manufacturing industrial policy, business and state
Citation key	parson1980

Argument

Parson argues that Botswana's development is limited by its colonial constitution as a 'labour reserve' for South African mines. Colonial taxation, territorial demarcation and restricted African enterprise produced a 'peasantariat' that combined subsistence farming with migrant wage work, so the reserve bore the social reproduction costs of South Africa's low-wage labour force. Post-independence growth, driven by diamonds, copper/nickel, aid and a capitalised cattle sector, diversified Botswana's dependence but did not change its structure or reduce migrancy. The article draws on dependency and periphery theory, and closes with a sketch of a peasant-centred alternative strategy that it considers unlikely to be adopted.

Evidence and method

Mostly secondary literature (Schapera 1947, Legassick and LeClerq 1978, Lipton 1978, Parson's own 1979 DPhil thesis) plus Botswana government statistics and development plans (GDP, trade, manufacturing, employment, rural income distribution survey 1974-75).

Findings

• Colonial rule created Botswana as a labour reserve, with the subsistence sector subsidising low mine wages. (p. 2)

  Wages could then fall below the value of labour power because the subsistence needs and social infrastructure for the labourer's family were met in the Protectorate rather than in South Africa.”

• Migration from Bechuanaland grew substantially over the colonial period. (p. 2)

  By 1910 there were 2,891 'Bechuanaland Natives' employed in the 'Labour Districts' of South Africa, increasing to 4,323 in 1925. By 1943 nearly half of the men aged 15-44 were working outside Bechuanaland

• The labour-reserve role blocked social and productive infrastructure and made Botswana a market for South Africa. (p. 2)

  Its function as a reserve army of labour prevented the building of the social infra-structure needed even to consider the creation of productive capacity.

• Post-independence growth was rapid, led by mining. (p. 3)

  Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from P32.9 mn in 1965 to P192 mn in 1973-74, at current prices - over 10 per cent per annum in real terms.

• Growth was heavily dependent on external aid finance. (p. 3)

  About three-quarters of all government development expenditure from 1966-67 to 1980-81 was or was expected to be financed from external sources

• Botswana diversified its dependence rather than escaping it, including through its own currency, central bank and trade deals. (p. 4)

  But this decreased dependence was far from constituting independence of South Africa.

• Manufacturing remained tiny and import-dependent, with local value added below imported inputs. (p. 4)

  The share of manufacturing in GDP actually fell from 8.2 per cent in 1967-68 to 7.0 per cent in 1974-75.

• Foreign-owned mining was capital intensive and created few jobs or linkages. (p. 4)

  In 1976 only 5,500 people were employed in the entire mining and quarrying sector.

• Rural inequality persisted, with cattle ownership concentrated and a large landless-in-cattle majority. (p. 5)

  In 1974-75, 45 per cent of the rural population owned no cattle at all; they thus participated in beef production solely as labourers