Sprawling Residences, Fading Agricultural Schemes and Ransacked Industrial Units: Ciskei's fate in a critical decade of South Africa's transition, c.1990 - 2000¶
Luvuyo Wotshela (2012). Sprawling Residences, Fading Agricultural Schemes and Ransacked Industrial Units: Ciskei's fate in a critical decade of South Africa's transition, c.1990 - 2000. Paper presented at the XVI World Economic History Congress, Stellenbosch, 9-13 July 2012. University of Fort Hare.
| Type | conference paper |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | archival narrative |
| Period studied | 1975–2000 |
| Regions | Ciskei, Eastern Cape |
| Themes | bantustans removals influx, agriculture land, transition post apartheid, resistance social movements, manufacturing industrial policy, demography urbanisation |
| Citation key | wotshela2012 |
Argument¶
The paper argues that the collapse of the Ciskei homeland administration in the 1990s, under pressure from residents' associations, the UDF and SANCO, left its showcase irrigation schemes and border industrial units without control or protection. Dissident groups took over tribal land and resources, but could not stop land invasions that produced sprawling informal residences, nor the looting of infrastructure from abandoned industrial units and schemes. Apartheid-era consolidation, betterment and resettlement had made land a patronage tool and left many households landless, which fuelled the invasions. The paper treats the outcome as a rapid reconstruction of local authority and community by grassroots organisations, and concludes that the wider impact on post-1994 land policy remains to be studied.
Evidence and method¶
Mainly the author's earlier work (2001 Oxford DPhil, 2004 JSAS article, 2009 Kronos article, forthcoming book), plus secondary literature (Peires, Black, De Wet, Surplus People's Project reports). No new data tables are presented; statistics are cited from secondary sources.
Place in the debates¶
- Fate of homelands and their economic projects in the transition (see Homelands, separate development, decentralisation and removals). Holds that homeland industrial units and irrigation schemes were costly, ineffective showcases that collapsed with the administration. It also stresses the agency of local organisations that rebuilt community and authority.
- Betterment, resettlement and rural resistance (see Homelands, separate development, decentralisation and removals). Treats betterment as having left a lasting legacy in land-use ideas and settlement layouts. 1990s land invaders were successive generations of those who resisted betterment.
Findings¶
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Pretoria still financed most of Ciskei's budget at the end of apartheid, despite heavy investment in bureaucracy and amenities. (p. 1)
the National Party (NP) government still eked out about 80% of Ciskei's budget in the dying years of apartheid.
-
Migrant labour remained the economic mainstay, and industrial decentralisation failed to provide lasting employment. (p. 2)
nearly 40% of the male residents were still migrants to white South Africa, who brought in more than 65% of Ciskei's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
-
Irrigation schemes failed to bring the expected improvement and became costly, overstaffed showcases. (p. 2)
technical irrigation schemes, some of which were built on communities' lands did not bring about the anticipated social and economic improvement. Instead they had become costly showcases with overstaffed departmental units.
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Territorial consolidation produced a densely settled homeland with eroded land. (p. 4)
Ciskei had been consolidated into an area of some 7760 square kilometres that held just under a 1 million population by 1990.
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Resettlement and in-migration left many households with little or no land for subsistence. (p. 4)
apartheid induced resettlement schemes combined with other forms of in-migration, effectively meant that many households possessed miniscule or even no plots at all for subsistence.
-
Land was used as a patronage tool by both NP officials and homeland leaders. (p. 4)
Throughout the aforesaid period land became an essential tool of patronage creation.
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Land invasions and shack sprawl in the mid-1990s were organised by marginalised groups, and altered patriarchal patterns of land access. (p. 5)
younger folks, and especially younger women, were able to access their own residential sites.
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Abandoned industrial units and irrigation schemes were stripped, and the materials reused for shacks. (p. 6)
In a short space of time these were transformed to derelict erections - stripped off their roofs, windows and equipment.
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Loss of border-industry wages and decline of the state schemes drove the demand for new land, with invaders preferring sites near main routes. (p. 6)
the loss of token employment wages from the border industries, as well as, overtime production decline in betterment villages precipitated the need for new land.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statistics on Ciskei GDP, migrant labour and budget dependence, via Black (1990) and Cherry & Bank (1993) | secondary literature compilation | late 1980s-early 1990s | Supports claims that about 40% of male residents were migrants, who contributed over 65% of Ciskei GDP, and that the NP government financed about 80% of the budget. |
| Surplus People's Project Report, Forced Removals in South Africa (1983), especially vol. 2, The Eastern Cape | commission or official report | 1983 | Cited as attesting to the fortunes of relocated families in transit camps in Ciskei. |
| Platzky and Walker, The Surplus People: Forced Removals in South Africa (1985) | secondary literature compilation | 1985 | Background documentation of forced removals and resettlement into the Ciskei. |
| Author's DPhil thesis, 'Homeland Consolidation, Resettlement and Local Politics in the Border and the Ciskei Region of the Eastern Cape, South Africa, 1960-1996' (Oxford, 2001) | secondary literature compilation | 1960-1996 | Underlies the claims on territorial consolidation (7760 sq km, just under 1 million people by 1990), residents' associations and local politics; its archival base is not described here. |
| Wotshela, 'Territorial manipulation in apartheid South Africa' (JSAS 2004), and 'Land Redistribution politics in the Eastern Cape midlands' (Kronos 2009) | secondary literature compilation | 1975-2006 | Cited as the evidence base for land manipulation, tribal authority patronage and the 1990s land invasions. |
| C. De Wet, Moving Together and Drifting Apart: betterment planning and villagisation in a South African Homeland (1995) | secondary literature compilation | 1995 | Local study cited for the decline in cropping and arable land under betterment planning. |
| Map: Ciskei Magisterial Districts and the Border Region by 1981 | maps spatial data | 1981 | Shows the redesigned magisterial districts to orient the reader. |
| Forthcoming monograph, Capricious Patronage and Captive Land (UNISA Press) | secondary literature compilation | 1960-2005 | Cited as the basis for the accounts of land invasions, looting and settlement layout, with no underlying data shown. |
| Peires, 'The Implosion of Transkei and Ciskei', African Affairs 91 (364) | secondary literature compilation | early 1990s | Cited for the political collapse of the Ciskei administration and the Sebe and Gqozo regimes, and for the rise of residents' associations. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Narrative interpretive synthesis of the author's earlier research on the Ciskei, with a few secondary statistics. Claims about land invasions, looting and settlement patterns are asserted through qualitative description, not systematic data.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Ciskei remained heavily dependent on Pretoria, with about 80% of its budget financed by the NP government. (p. 1) | Unreferenced figure, presumably from Black or Cherry and Bank (footnote 2). | Asserted |
| Nearly 40% of male residents were migrants, and migrant earnings contributed over 65% of Ciskei's GDP. (p. 2) | Statistics attributed to Black and to Cherry and Bank, with no source detail in the text. | Partial data |
| Consolidation concentrated nearly one million people in 7760 sq km, leaving land exhausted and more than half eroded, and betterment and resettlement left many households with little or no land. (p. 4) | Author's thesis, Black, and local studies such as De Wet; no figures on erosion or plot sizes are presented. | Partial data |
| After the local authority system collapsed, marginalised groups took control of tribal resources and invaded state land, producing sprawling informal settlements by the mid-1990s. (p. 5) | Author's prior articles and thesis; no counts of invasions, shacks or hectares are given. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Irrigation schemes and abandoned industrial units were widely looted and stripped, and the materials went into shack building and fencing. (p. 6) | Asserted from the author's research and forthcoming book; no inventories, reports or interviews are cited. | Asserted |
| Invaders were mainly younger and better-resourced landless people, and young women gained their own residential sites, altering patriarchal patterns. (p. 5) | Qualitative generalisation from the author's fieldwork-based studies; the evidence is not shown. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| New settlements replicated betterment-style layouts and were sited along main routes tied to migrant work networks. (p. 6) | Author's forthcoming book; no maps or survey data are provided. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
The author's caveats¶
The author concedes that the 1990s transformation is not yet fully understood (for example, the impact on post-1994 land policy) but does not discuss data limitations.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The paper provides no primary data: no census, Ciskei government budget or industrial records, aerial photography, or survey evidence on the extent of land invasions, looting or settlement growth. Ciskei budget and GDP statistics, 1991 and 1996 census small-area data, Ciskei Department of Agriculture and irrigation scheme records, Ciskei Development Corporation files, aerial imagery and the author's interviews would test the claims. Most of these existed then or are in archives now (Eastern Cape provincial archives, Statistics South Africa, imagery).
Replicability: Data poorly documented.