Double dispossession?

Colonial and apartheid land dispossession in South Africa was the most extensive of any country in sub-saharan Africa. When the hugely unequal distribution of land was enshrined in law in 1913 there were just nine million people living in South Africa. Today the population stands at 60 million.

The land reform programme initiated after the transition to democracy in 1994, has failed to fundamentally redraw the landscape and enable equitable access to land. In consequence, the unresolved land question remains a critical thread in the country's colonial and post-colonial history and the pressure to access land grows daily in both urban and rural areas.

Land dispossession is inextricably bound up with the history of mining in South Africa. The discovery of diamonds, gold, coal and diverse other minerals was the primary driver of the South African economy, with impacts that resonated throughout the region. All, except for three countries in the current Southern African Development Community exported labour to the South African mines. In the contemporary era the exploitation of new mineral resources has increasingly centred on impoverished rural areas which formed part of the former 'homelands' - land designed for specific ethnic groups during the apartheid era. In these areas land tenure remains insecure and traditional authorities are empowered to enter into land deals with outside parties.

This creates the possibilities of a double dispossession where poor and vulnerable rural households, historically exploited through the migrant labour system, and governed by apartheid sanctioned Bantu Authorities, may lose the little that they have been able to retain, as they are displaced by mining activity and experience the environmental impacts of living in close proximity to mines.

This Land Portal Data story seeks to connect the past with the present. The story has six episodes which you can navigate as you please. The first three episodes narrate the story of land dispossession across different historical periods. Subsequent episodes examine the history and impacts of mining.

The apartheid era was characterised by forced removals, tight control over urban accesss, employment through the migrant labour system and the consolidation of the apartheid vision of African people being forced to become 'citizens' of 'independent homelands'.

It has been strongly argued that the passing of the TKLA has reinscribed apartheid-created tribal boundaries and unequal relations of power.

This data story provides some of the background to the almost 19 million people living in former homeland areas where the TKLA is in force. These rural communities have intergenerational experience of:

• Historical dispossession through colonial conquest and the creation of reserves.
• Loss of property, land and livelihoods during the apartheid period through discriminatory legislation and forced removals affecting at least 3.5 million people.
• Loss of land and livelihoods in the post-apartheid era due to inequitable mining developments which promote elites at the expense of the poor majority.

Current evidence suggests that mining in the former homeland areas has contributed to a double dispossession, undermining rural livelihoods for the majority, while creating wealth for the connected few and being a driver of long term environmental degradation.

A volatile combination of factors make the mining sector particularly contested. These include:

• South Africa's long history of land dispossession and marginalisation, particularly of rural people.
• The failure of the post-apartheid South African state to address the land question and bring about a more equitable society.
• The persistence of extraordinarily high levels of unemployment - South Africa's unemployment rate rose to 34.9% in the third quarter of 2021, up from 34.4% in the previous period. It was the highest rate of joblessness since comparable data began in 2008.

What we have still to find are equitable and sustainable approaches to mining which minimise environmental damage and climate change impacts, while giving meaningful voice and ensuring informed consent by mining affected communities, who are properly and equitably compensated where their lives and livelihoods are affected. At the same time the South African government needs to decisively address economic inequality and deeply skewed access to land.

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi has recently observed that:

In forging ahead with the struggle for a just society, we always look back to understand the present. We remember the words of the novelist William Faulkner, who wrote: “The past is not dead. It is not even past.”... We should remember where all this started. With land.”