Going Nowhere Slowly? Land, Livelihoods and Rural Development in the Eastern Cape

Changing Livelihoods and Landscapes in the Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa: Past Influences and Future Trajectories

“…However, creating an amenable environment for making choices is not easy, and we agree with Bank and Minkley ( [59]; p. 21) that to transform these areas requires:…”

“…Similarly, Bank and Minkely [59] talk about people in the rural Eastern Cape being caught-up in a process of "involution"; a situation in which, "Economic marginalization and disconnection inhibit social change because they lock people into a system of shared poverty, where the poor reinvent communitarian traditions of mutual dependence and risk-spreading in an effort to protect themselves from the effects of deepening poverty" ( [59]; p. 26). They further go on to identify the rural Eastern Cape as a "case of the entrenchment of a livelihood system which has failed to either stabilize or transform itself into a new pattern under changing conditions."…”

Contemporary South African Urbanization Dynamics

“…In some areas, economic restructuring and its consequences in terms of job losses in mining and manufacturing (for example, in the clothing industry) have led to a decline in income sources for rural households (through remittances or commuting incomes), and out-migration to both cities and small towns is occurring (Bank & Minkley 2005). Large-scale movement to more accessible small towns in the Eastern Cape is occurring even in the absence of employment in these areas.…”

“…A study by McIntosh Xaba & Associates (MXA 2005) in KwaZulu-Natal similarly showed that the very poor are least mobile, and become trapped in places that offer limited opportunities for survival, whilst the better-off use diverse assets to commute frequently. Bank and Minkley (2005) work on the Eastern Cape shows how the decline of both older forms of migrant income and incomes from commuters have undermined the possibility of mobility as a livelihood strategy, or of maintaining both urban and rural bases, and many are finding themselves trapped in slums in either rural or urban areas.…”

Game farm conversions and the land question: unpacking present contradictions and historical continuities in farm dwellers' tenure insecurity in Cradock

“…South Africa has attempted to address its historical land question through a three-pronged land reform programme aimed at redress through restitution, redistribution and tenure reform (Bank and Minkley 2005). In light of this historical land inequality, the seemingly unabated increase in game farms in the latter part of the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly those of foreign ownership, raised concerns that the sector was becoming an impediment to reform measures.…”