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Abstract
This article is a detailed examination of the impact that the development of a private game reserve initiative in northern KwaZulu-Natal had on the lives of farm dwellers in the late 1990s. The reshaping of this landscape for ecotourism purposes – a decision taken by a group of private landowners – meant that the residents of the former cattle farms were relocated, a process which had serious consequences for them. The outcomes of relocation from the farms are explored through conversations with the relocated farm dwellers. In an attempt to convey the texture of the emotional geography of dispossession, we document both the tangible and the less tangible losses suffered from the farm dwellers' point of view, as well as their experience with the state bureaucracy. The legal and bureaucratic process leading up to the relocation is then retraced through court documents and other archival evidence. At one level, this case raises questions about the capacity of the post-apartheid South African land reform programme to secure the land rights of marginalised groups such as farm dwellers, despite legislation passed to protect them. At a deeper level, this article is about the conceptual inadequacies of the law. While the law finds it easy to render visible and to protect (saleable) private property, it struggles to fully recognise more complex land relationships. The people whose experience is described in this article felt disempowered, their lives effectively invisible. We problematise the continuing primacy of private property in post-apartheid South Africa and argue that the voices of those with other histories on the land should receive more serious attention.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the collaborative research project, ‘Farm Dwellers, the Forgotten People? Consequences of Conversions to Private Wildlife Production in KwaZulu-Natal’, funded by the South Africa Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development [SANPAD); grant number 0632]. We are grateful to the members of the research team for their support and input, as well as to all the research participants in KwaZulu-Natal. Any errors of fact or interpretation are those of the authors.
Notes on contributors
Shirley Brooks is an associate professor in Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of the Western Cape. She is a human geographer and environmental historian with a long-term research interest in social histories of nature conservation and land issues.
Liv Kjelstrup undertook her master's degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where she was part of the game farming project research team. She currently lives and works in Norway.
Notes
1. The word ‘farm dwellers’ is used here to indicate that the relationship of these people to farms in this region in many cases goes deeper than the contractual employment obligation implied by the term ‘farm workers’. Farms have historically been homes as well as workplaces. See Brooks et al. (Citation2011) and Brooks, Spierenburg, and Wels (Citation2012).
2. For a geographical orientation to this reserve in the context of the region, see Spierenburg and Brooks (Citation2014, 159).
3. Winchester, Kong, and Dunn (Citation2003) also discuss the power of capitalism in reshaping landscapes.
4. After the British took control of the region in 1843, a decision was made to formalise the Voortrekker land grants. The history of farms like these is discussed at greater length in Ngubane and Brooks (Citation2013).
5. During the 1960s, the apartheid state banned the practice of labour tenancy as backward and incompatible with modern farming practices, insisting that labour tenants convert to full-time wage labour. These attempts at regulation were resisted by both the labour tenants and the farmers themselves, who relied on the labour tenants for cheap labour. This ultimately led to large-scale forced removals in various part of Natal, notably the area around Weenen (see Surplus People Project Citation1983; Brooks Citation1996).
6. Note that it is not our intention to assert unbroken occupation of these farms back to the nineteenth century. Farm dweller families were to some extent mobile and able to leave farms where they were badly treated by the farm owner (see Bradford Citation1987).
7. Thakazulu game reserve is also promoted by CitationBirdlife Zululand, the local branch of Birdlife South Africa. See http://www.birdlifezululand.co.za/birding-sites/north-west-zululand/louwsburg/thangami-safari-spa/
8. There are other ‘eco-friendly’ activities on offer in addition to wildlife viewing. Trails for off-road vehicles descend into the valley, while the Tangami ‘Safari Spa’ promises the weary visitor a restorative experience in ‘one of only five natural, mineral mud baths in the world’ (http://www.sa-venues.com/game-reserves/kzn_thakazulu.htm).
9. Since the impetus for relocation originated with the Thakazulu project, the court documents regarding relocations from Vermeulen's land are included in the ‘Thakazulu’ file despite his withdrawal from the main project.
10. This project is described in Tilly (Citation2007). The deeper question of traditional authority, and the actions of chiefs who have used land reform to extend their powers in post-apartheid South Africa, is beyond the scope of this article. However see Mathis (Citation2007).
11. The complex relationship between oral and archival evidence in contexts like these is usefully discussed in Mather (Citation1996).
12. The subheading is inspired by lyrics to the 1986 song ‘Homeless’ by Paul Simon and Joseph Shabalala of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, an a cappella (isicathamiya) singing group from CitationKwaZulu-Natal.
13. The interviews were conducted by Liv Kjelstrup under the supervision of Shirley Brooks, with the valued assistance of Mrs Shabalala. The first account of this research was written up as an unpublished master's thesis (Kjelstrup Citation2011).
14. The farm dwellers who received the designation Respondents A to D are from the Mbekizweni group. Respondents E to N are from the Zondo group.
15. Following the relocation, it was out of the question for members of their households to be buried on the farms where they had previously lived. This was a matter of concern to the older farm dwellers in particular, as it was of great importance for their after-life that they be buried next to their ancestors.
16. Scholars in other contexts have noted the significance of burial places as aspects of the ‘magical’ landscape; burial sites are often the subject of heated contestation (Abramson Citation2000; Hui and Yeoh Citation2002; Shepherd Citation2007; Green and Murray Citation2012).
17. This was in terms of the court order.
18. For a recent study of the politics of ‘home’ in KwaZulu-Natal, see Healy-Clancy and Hickel (Citation2013).
19. During the negotiations, both interviews and archival documents confirm that the farm dwellers had rejected the suggestion that they become part of the broader restitution project under chief Zondo, arguing that they had no allegiance to the Abaqulusi chiefship.
20. The three legs of the post-apartheid land reform programme are: land restitution, land redistribution and tenure reform. For an in-depth analysis of land restitution in the 1990s and early 2000s with an emphasis on KwaZulu-Natal, see Walker (Citation2008). For other scholarship on land restitution, see Fay and James (Citation2009) and Walker et al. (Citation2010). With regard to tenure reform, there has been a stronger focus by scholars on the complexities of communal land tenure (Cousins Citation2007; Cousins and Claassens Citation2008) than on labour tenants and other farm workers (but see Hall, Kleinbooi, and Mvambo Citation2001; Atkinson Citation2007; James Citation2007; Hall Citation2009; Wisborg et al. Citation2013).
21. The Act also included a provision that gave farm dwellers a chance to secure tenure on the farm: a portion of land could be transferred to the farm dwellers and the landowner would be compensated by the state. This was subject to a window period (1996–1998) but this coincided precisely with the Thakazulu case.
22. It appears that the current landowner Vermeulen had only purchased the land relatively recently.
23. It would mean that the claim fell under the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act rather than under the more general provisions of ESTA (the Extension of Tenure Security Act) which applied to all farm workers (see Hall Citation2003).
24. As the AFRA report notes, ‘From this point onwards there were two separate projects, both having their genesis in the initial Thakazulu Game Reserve initiative … The case between [Vermeulen] and the families living on his farm[s] then ran in parallel to the Thakazulu initiative’ (AFRA Citation2004, 41).
25. Letter from the DLA to the farm dwellers' lawyer, 16 July 1997. Unless indicated otherwise, all the archival documents cited are from the ‘Thakazulu file’ at the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development, Vryheid office, northern KwaZulu-Natal. There are about 700 documents in the file.
26. Strategy for Realising Potentials, text written by the DLA (Vryheid), no date.
27. Letter from the DLA to the farm dwellers' lawyer and to Vermeulen's lawyer (Vryheid), 21 November 1997.
28. Letter from the farm dwellers' lawyer to Vermeulen's lawyer and the DLA, 4 December 1997. The site visit appears to have been to Welgevonden farm, part of the eMpangisweni restitution case (see Tilly Citation2007).
29. Letter from Lisa Del Grande to staff members, DLA (Vryheid), 24 March 1998.
30. Memorandum, DLA (Vryheid), 25 March 1998.
31. Letter from the North West Land Facilitation Services to the DLA (Vryheid), 24 March 1998.
32. Letter from the North West Land Facilitation Services to the DLA (Vryheid), 24 March 1998.
33. Memorandum, DLA (Vryheid), 25 March 1998.
34. Letter from the North West Land Facilitation Services to the DLA (Vryheid), 24 March 1998.
35. Letter from Lisa Del Grande to staff members of the DLA, DLA (Vryheid), 24 March 1998.
36. Letter from Vermeulen's lawyer to the farm dwellers' lawyer and the DLA, 15 May 1998.
37. Letter from Vermeulen's lawyer to the farm dwellers' lawyer and the DLA, 14 January 1998; letter from Vermeulen's lawyer to the farm dwellers' lawyer and the DLA, 28 July 2000.
38. Memorandum, DLA (Vryheid), 25 March 1998. Letter from Vermeulen's lawyer to the farm dwellers' lawyer and to the DLA, 14 January 1998. Letter from Vermeulen's lawyer, 28 July 2000.
39. Interview with Lisa del Grande, 23 October 2009. It should be noted that Lisa del Grande had left the DLA and was Director of AFRA at the time of the interview. A number of land activists who joined the DLA state bureaucracy in the early post-apartheid period, later became disillusioned and went to work for land rights NGOs attempting to hold government to account.
40. ‘…people's diaries are full I know and finding time to meet is difficult'. Letter from Lisa Del Grande to staff members of the DLA, DLA (Vryheid), 24 March 1998.
41. Project Identification Report, DLA, 26 November 1997.
42. On 26 January 2001 and 15 August 2001, the agreement of sale and purchase was signed. In the Land Claims Court of South Africa, Case no. 132/98, Case no. 133/98, Case no. 134/98, Case no. 135/98, Case no. 9/97.