Population policy in South Africa: A critical perspective

Abstract

This paper investigates the assumptions underlying the concept of overpopulation. It argues that the basis of the overpopulation concept — the balancing of resources, within a given area, against population growth is fundamentally flawed, both in its assessment of resource availabilty and in its assumption that resources are equally available to all people within a given area. Following this assessment, the paper considers the way in which the concept of overpopulation, and in particular the theory of demographic transition, have been utilised in the development of population policy in South Africa. It argues that although the Population Development Programme (PDP) is intended to improve the standard of living of the population, it has been conceptualised within the discourse of ‘population groups’ and without any consideration of the unequal access to resources which characterizes the South African population profile. As a result, the PDP, and the ‘development’ projects arising out of it, cannot be taken at face value, and need to be treated with serious scepticism by those concerned with the improvement of the status and standard of living of the South African population as a whole.

Notes

Department of Social Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.