THE BITTER HARVEST OF THE BANTUSTANS

ABSTRACT

Observers have variously captured the foundation and implementation of the notorious apartheid system. The legacy of that system in a democratic South Africa continues to receive scholarly attention. However, the enormous imprint of the bantustan programme has not been fully understood. That gap could become even deeper in the post-apartheid era, where bantustans no longer exists as political entities. The collapse of the bantustans and their subsequent reincorporation into the new polity did not, and should not, close a chapter on the effects of ‘bantustanization.’ Bantustans no longer exists as political entities, but has left imprints that cannot be wished away. That legacy and the intellectual response to it inform the analysis presented in this paper.