South African Homelands Research Articles

Do social grants contribute to the jobless population growth in the former South African homelands?

CITATION: Geyer, H., Ngidi, M. & Mans, G. 2018. Do social grants contribute to the jobless population growth in the former South African homelands?. Town and Regional Planning, 72:58-69, doi:10.18820/2415-0495/trp72i1.5.

Long‐Run Health Repercussions of Drought Shocks: Evidence from South African Homelands

I present new evidence from Africa that droughts are an important component of long-run variation in health human capital. Using Census data, I estimate effects of early childhood drought exposure on later-life disabilities among South Africans confined to homelands during apartheid. By exploiting 40 years of quasi-random variation in local droughts experienced by different cohorts in different districts, I find that drought exposure in infancy raises later-life disability rates by 3.5–5.2%, with effects concentrated in physical and mental disabilities, and largest for males. My findings are relevant for low-income settings where avoiding droughts through migration is costly.

Assessing and mapping the severity of soil erosion using the 30-m Landsat multispectral satellite data in the former South African homelands of Transkei

Soil erosion is increasingly recognised as the principal cause of land degradation, loss of agricultural land area and siltation of surrounding water waterbodies. Accurate and up-to-date soil erosion mapping is key in understanding its severity if these negative impacts are to be minimised and affected areas rehabilitated. The aim of this work was to map the severity of soil erosion, based on the 30-m Landsat series multispectral satellite data in the former South African homelands of Transkei between the year 1994 and 2010. Further, the study assessed if the observed soil erosion trends and morphology that existed in this area could be explained by biophysical factors (i.e. slope, stream erosivity, topographic wetness index) retrieved from the 30-m ASTER Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The results of this study indicate that the Transkei region experiences varying erosion levels from moderate to very severe. The large portion of the land area under the former homelands was largely affected by rill erosion with approximately 74% occurring in the year 1984 and 54% in 2010. The results also revealed specific thresholds of soil erosion drivers. These include steeper areas (≥30°), high stream power index greater than 2.0 (stream erosivity), relatively lower vegetation cover (≤15%) and low topographic wetness index (≤5%). The results of this work demonstrate the severity of soil erosion in the Southern African former homelands of Transkei for the year 1984 and 2010. Additionally, this work has demonstrated the significance of the 30-m Landsat multispectral sensor in examining soil erosion occurrence at a regional scale where in-depth field work still remains a challenging task.

Fathers’ Employment and Sons’ Stature: The Long-Run Effects of a Positive Regional Employment Shock in South Africa’s Mining Industry

I exploit the unexpected increase in employment in 1975, 1976, and 1977 in the South African homelands to compare the long-term adult outcomes of children whose fathers benefited from the employment increase to those who did not. Using a standard difference-in-difference approach, I find that the shock affected males who were either newborn or in utero at the time, providing support to the fetal-origins hypothesis and showing the importance of mother’s nutrition. The income increases did not raise household income above the poverty datum line, explaining why older individuals were not affected. This study provides previously unmeasured individual-level information on the quality of life in the homelands during apartheid, an era when African living standards were neglected but unmeasured because of a lack of data collection.

Placing Kangwane In The New South Africa

The South African homelands were central to the apartheid ideology of racial segregation and separate development and as a result became the location for large segments of the African population. Apartheid‐era theorizations of the homelands tended to emphasize their importance to the state, with less attention directed to the divergent and unique social formations that often existed within them. Recent geographical research has been intent on evaluating the spatial imprint of these geographies for resident populations, as well as the varied class, gendered, and institutional formations that accompanied the democratic transition. Using a case study from the former KaNgwane homeland, this article examines the diverse ways in which rural households access environmental and economic resources to produce livelihoods. It is argued that a focus on community variation is needed to interrogate the differential encounters of these places with the local politics and development processes that are emerging in the new South Africa.

From industrialisation to de-industrialisation in the former South African homelands

The case of Mogwase in North West in experiencing processes of industrialisation and subsequent de-industrialisation is repeated in many former growth points of South Africa’s peripheral homelands. It is clear that the withdrawal of incentives has had a negative impact on industrial development in peripheral areas in South Africa, affecting woman workers in particular. Indeed, with recession and high levels of unemployment in the formal sector, retrenched woman factory workers are increasingly forced to enter the informal sector. Alternatively, they function as casual or seasonal labourers, outside the purview of labour legislation and beyond the reach of trade unions. It is ironic that de-industrialisation linked to globalisation in South Africa is exaggerating spatial disparities, with those regions having the greatest need for employment having the least capacity to play the entrepreneurial role as regards local economic development. Finally, with the industrial decline in Mogwase, there has been a reversal in the progress made in the socio-economic lives of the beneficiaries of apartheid industrial decentralisation policy. Indeed, the Mogwase case shows that many localities which experienced growth due to industrial decentralisation are currently experiencing a decline. For woman workers, who are used as shock absorbers for global restructuring, this means a dramatic decline in income and living standards as they shift out of formal work.

The stage of development and agricultural performance: A causality analysis of South African traditional agriculture

The analysis of causality in rural development is difficult because some variables of the underlying developmental process are only indirectly observable. In theories of rural development, socio‐economic variables are important in linking agricultural performance variables with policy measures. Applying canonical correlation, latent variable models permit research on rural development to measure simultaneously the unobservable socio-economic variables and the observable manifest variables. In this article the stage of development of rural households and agricultural performance in South African homelands are measured indirectly. Empirical results show that the current stage of development has little impact on agricultural performance.

The Horsemen are coming’: Rethinking the Pondoland Rebellion

During the 1950's, a series of peasant revolts took place in the South African homelands. Whilst they occurred from Zeerust to Witzieshoek, by far the largest was the Pondoland rebellion of 1959-61. It culminated in the declaration of a State of Emergency in the region and was only crushed when large numbers of police and troops were rushed to the area. It was significant not only on account of its size, but also owing to the emergent social movement which led it, and the broad nature of the protest which included not only armed conflict, but also consume boycotts

An Ophthalmic Survey of African Patients Presenting at Rural Eye Clinics in South Africa

The records of 10,254 people attending rural eye clinics in South Africa during 1984-85 were analyzed to determine the reasons for presentation. The main reasons for presentation were refractive error, conjunctivitis, and cataract. It is expected that population growth plus the increased vocational needs for the correction of refractive errors will result in an increased demand for optometric services in rural eye clinics. It is suggested that optometry has a major role to play in providing primary eye care services to the underserved populations of the South African homelands.

District development and closer settlement economy in Gazankulu

Development planning in the South African homelands has been part of the policy of separate development. This policy implied that the homeland inhabitants should make a living there or only leave these areas to be migrant labourers. Agricultural and industrial projects have been developed since the sixties to provide labour opportunities for this population, but these have had little impact on the large need for employment. This study shows how little the local economy of a settlement in Gazankulu is linked to the development projects which are directed at the aggregate, homeland or district level. Their history of underdevelopment has not equipped the local population to escape the constraints of a poor rural existence. Some suggestions are made to move towards a more democratic relationship in development planning and distribution of resources.

The present state of urbanisation in the South African homelands: rethinking the concepts and predicting the future.

Trends in urbanization in the South African homelands are analyzed. The need to reconsider the definition of an urban area is first established. Consideration is given to the likely impact of the abolition of migration controls on urbanization trends in South Africa as a whole, particularly as this affects migration to urban areas in South Africa outside the homelands.