Rural poverty and global capital: A sociology of an emerging Democracy--South Africa (Kangwane)

RURAL POVERTY AND GLOBAL CAPITAL: A SOCIOLOGY OF AN EMERGING DEMOCRACY-SOUTH AFRICA (KANGWANE)*

ABSTRACT

The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) is a modern financial and development institution fashioned after The World Bank. It is situated in a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. The DBSA, in its attempt to transform the agricultural activities and practices of the black population of South Africa, introduced a grass-roots program called The Farmers' Support Programme (FSP). Implementation of the FSP is undertaken through the services of a parastatal agency called Agriwane. The petty commodity producers (as the peasant farmers are referred to in this article) who are funded under FSP demonstrate a considerable amount of differentiation and inequality. This is due to factors such as

previous employment opportunity;

initial resource endowments, including land ownership;

education and skills;

gender; and

size of household.

Since Agriwane has invited several private capitalist ventures to provide these peasant farmers with certain goods and services, the differentiation has become an important concern for human development in the region. The private firms sell the farmers agricultural inputs, train them on how to use and maintain these implements, and provide the farmers with other services that they need. However, since these firms do not take an equity position in the activities of the farmers (e.g., invest in the farming sites), they have tended to have little or no inter

est in the success and sustainability of individual farm projects. Their main objective has been to sell goods and services to farmers with little attention paid to the viability of the projects that these farmers undertake.

INTRODUCTION

This study took place at the Eastern region of Kangwane (now Mpumalanga Province), specifically in Nkomazi (Figure 1). The field work was conducted both in the eastern and western regions of Nkomazi and in the nearby commercial and administrative twin cities of Nelspruit/White River, as well as at the Development Bank of Southern Africa in Halfway House, Johannesburg.

Kangwane was created as a state by the apartheid government in the 1970s through the South African Black States Constitution Act No. 21 of 1971. This piece of land is inhabited primarily by the Swazi, a significant number of whom also live in neighboring Swaziland. On August 31, 1984, the apartheid government granted self-governing status to Kangwane and hoped that like other so-called "homelands" (e.g., Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Transkei), Kangwane would also become a black sovereign state. When this study was undertaken, Kangwanians were governed by their own legislative assembly of forty-five members. Among them were traditional authorities as well as modern bureaucrats of a rational/legal mode.

The population of this territory was estimated to be 500,000 in 1990. Of this, roughly 80 percent of the people are of the Swazi ethno-cultural group. There are three major regions, namely: Nkomazi, Nsikiazi and Eerstehoek (Figure 1). About half of the population is located in the northern region (i.e., the Nsiki area). Agriculture is a very important activity, despite the fact that most of the farming is conducted on relatively small parcels of land. Migration to the twin cities of Nelspruit/White River in search of more gainful economic activities has become quite significant. Before 1994, most migrants were considered "guest" workers under apartheid regulations. Today, individuals migrating to the metropolitan areas are able to settle there permanently if they so desire. Despite these post-apartheid developments, agriculture remains the most important source of employment for the majority of people in this region of the country, especially considering the fact that most of the rural inhabitants do not have the skills to gain employment in the modern industrial sector.

The FSP was designed to help improve agriculture and the livelihood of the rural people of this region. Farmers in Kangwane have traditionally produced a wide range of crops and also raise cattle. However, the raising of cattle is not undertaken on a large scale. In fact, the latest census shows that there are approximately 84,000 head of cattle in the entire region.1

Like other apartheid-created homelands, Kangwane was designed to ensure that its inhabitants remained economically dependent on the white government. As a consequence, it was not economically viable. For example, in 1982, the homeland government collected only U.S. $851,852 in personal income taxes. However, subsidies from the white government amounted to $14,588,148.2 Given the nature of economic activities in Kangwane, the homeland government remained essentially a ward of the apartheid government in Pretoria.

The study on which the present analysis is based was undertaken between 1989 and 1997 and lasted several weeks. It involved visits to several locations within the region; interviews with farmers and opinion leaders; scientific surveys; and an examination of archival materials on the region. The field work took place in 1989 and 1990. The evolving political situation in South Africa in the early 1990s forced a break in the work and influenced the author's ability to continue with the literature research. There was also an acute shortage of funds, a condition which was partly remedied in 1997 by a grant from the office of the graduate dean (at SUNY-Oswego), Jack Narayan. Before entering the field, I spent about five days in Kwazulu and Ciskei,3 using detached observation as well as group and individual interviews both structured and unstructured. This constituted the pilot study on which the research in Nkomazi itself was based. I had no previous knowledge of either the similarities and/or the dif-- ferences among the Kwazulu, Ciskei and Nkomazi populations. It was during the pilot study that I came upon certain variables which eventually became useful in Kangwane. At the end of the pilot study in Kwazulu and Ciskei, a discussion paper headed by Dr. Freek Van Eeden proved very useful for the research which took place at Nkomazi (submitted to the Research and Strategic Planning Division of the DBSA). The observations took place both in the field and in offices. Before the team departed for fieldwork in Nkomazi, all relevant literature on the project was examined and very intensive interviews with available bureaucrats who were in any way connected to the FSP were undertaken.