Cherryl Walker

The surplus people: forced removals in South Africa

This book is concerned with the forced resettlement of the black population which has been and is taking place during the course of implementation of the policy of apartheid. The book has been developed out of the work of the Surplus People Project (SPP) since 1979 and attempts to show that the forced relocation of blacks is a necessary part of the apartheid system designed to keep political and economic power in the hands of the white minority. It presents in a format for the general reader information from the five-volume report Forced Removals in South Africa published by the SPP in 1983.

PIETY IN THE SKY? GENDER POLICY AND LAND REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA

This article examines the disjuncture between high–level commitments to gender equity and practice in South Africas land reform programme. Weaknesses in implementing the gender policy of the Department of Land Affairs stem largely from limitations within the broader programme, compounded by the inadequate conceptualization and management of the task and an absence of political accountability around womens land rights by the Department and Ministry. The low political priority accorded gender policy is itself a reflection of weak levels of organization among rural women. However, rural women show an interest in strengthening their rights in land and the small number of women whose households have secured land through the programme regard this as a positive achievement.

Conceptualising motherhood in twentieth century South Africa

This article attempts to move the debate around the political significance of motherhood beyond the two dominant themes in the literature, that of ‘collusion with patriarchy’ and ‘difference’ in black and white womens constructions of motherhood. The first privileges political discourse over an examination of womens own practice and social identity as mothers, while the second ignores historical evidence for overlapping meanings and common cultural influences among black and white women in the twentieth century. Motherhood cannot be reduced simply to a role imposed on women by men. While the proponents of ‘difference’ recognise this, they tend to apply this insight to black women only and to assume that black and white women have operated within quite separate and pure cultural domains. A more useful analysis of the significance of motherhood requires greater definitional complexity and more attention to history, which this article begins to do. While the values of peace and nurturing associated with mo...

The Limits to Land Reform: Rethinking ‘the Land Question’

This article argues that a mismatch exists between the political aspirations and popular expectations that surround ‘the land question’ in South Africa and the transformative potential of land reform itself. A disjuncture also exists between the national discourse around land reform, in which progress is measured in terms of the speed at which national targets are reached, and the requirements for effective implementation at project level. The article reviews the process whereby a moderate programme of land reform, which prioritised land restitution, emerged out of the constitutional negotiations in the early 1990s, and outlines the modest achievements of the programme to date. It also highlights the limits to land reform that derive not from policy or programme failures but rather from the intersection of significant demographic, ecological and social constraints. It concludes by proposing the need for a reconceptualisation of the land question at the start of the 21st century, given that South Africa is no longer the agrarian country it was when the Natives Land Act of 1913 was passed.

Women, 'Tradition' and Reconstruction

This article discusses the tension between the ANCs commitment to gender equality and its engagement within the new government with what I term ‘the politics of traditionalism’. These politics have been most evident in the deadly struggle to out‐manoeuvre the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), while convincing it to participate in the elections, a struggle in which the Zulu king has been the pre‐eminent (but not the only) representative of the resurgent traditionalism that the ANC has been attempting to defuse and co‐opt. The ‘tradition’ being negotiated is fundamentally patriarchal, and the two goals — gender equality and accommodating ‘tradition’ — are, I argue, ultimately incompatible. Further, given the limitations on the way in which gender equality is perceived within the ANC, as well as the absence of a politically powerful mass womens movement on the ground, it is likely that, in seeking to manage this incompatibility, the ANC‐led government will compromise or delay its commitment to gender equality.

Women, Gender Policy and land reform in South Africa

Abstract This article examines the gender policy of the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) and progress since 1994 in giving content to womens land rights in practice in two major sub-programmes of land reform: land redistribution and communal tenure reform. The article reviews the constitutional negotiations around gender equality and cultural rights between 1993 and 1996. It then summarizes the extent to which the DLAs land redistribution programme has formally targeted women since 1994. It further examines the effectiveness of the DLAs formal Gender Policy in practice, using the KwaZulu Natal provincial office and three of its land redistribution projects as case studies, and considers the treatment of womens land rights in the struggle around the enactment of the Communal Land Rights Act in 2004. Although serious shortcomings in the management and conceptualization of the DLAs Gender Policy are evident, alongside a lack of consensus in society more broadly on the content of gender equality in social policy, it concludes that comparing the current conjuncture to that prevailing in 1993/94 illuminates certain gains. Significant here is the consolidation of the legitimacy of the principle of gender equality, which is not without effect on social relations on the ground.

Uneasy relations: Women, gender equality and tradition

This article addresses the tensions between the struggle for gender equality and the struggle for cultural rights in the particular form championed by traditionalists within the ANC after 1994. While both sets of rights are recognized in the 1996 Constitution, the right to equality takes precedence. Nevertheless, a ‘turn to tradition’ within the ANC has seen the consolidation of patriarchal traditional institutions in the communal areas. These developments reflect the predominance of very thin understandings of both gender equality and culture within the organization. They have, however, been challenged by activists, with the principle of gender equality proving to be a significant impediment to the traditionalist agenda. The manner in which these dynamics have unfolded places gender at the centre of struggles over the meaning and practice of equality and democracy in post-apartheid South Africa.

Evidence for an ethnic identity in the life histories of Zulu‐speaking Durban township residents

This paper addresses the nature of ethnic consciousness among Zulu‐speaking workers in Natal through an analysis of 24 open‐ended life history interviews with residents in Umlazi township in Durban. The authors are concerned with four main issues: the evidence for Zulu ethnic consciousness in the life stories collected, the situations in which Zulu identity becomes salient, the ways in which ethnic identities are being refashioned under the impact of township life in the 1990s, and the relationship between the ‘everyday’ and the political aspects of ethnic identity. The authors do not find evidence for a strong ethnic consciousness apart from informants’ commitment to the Zulu language. Those fragments of ethnic consciousness that were evident in the life histories were connected to informants’ personal, family and domestic lives rather than to the far more politicised version of ‘Zuluness’ promoted by Buthelezi. The authors conclude that a gap exists between the political mobilisation of ethnicity and th...

Critical Reflections on South Africa's 1913 Natives Land Act and its Legacies: Introduction

All it took was the stroke of a pen. The day after the 1913 Land Act was passed, thousands of black families were made landless in the country of their birth. More than a century later, South Africa is still dealing with its effects. . . . Those who argue that the past should be buried should look at the present situation to realise the damage that the Land Act did to this country’s landless majority. It is important to reflect on our sad history so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Commemorating or celebrating? Reflections on the centenary of the Natives Land Act of 1913

While no policymaker would claim to be celebrating the centenary of the Natives Land Act, the form and content of the commemoration of this significant event on the website of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has some unsettling parallels with the celebratory countdown to the Soccer World Cup of 2010. Rather than using the centenary to acknowledge the significant changes in relations to land of the past century, the state is treating it as an opportunity for political theatre that deflects attention from serious weaknesses in its land reform programme. If the centenary of the 1913 Land Act is to be an opportunity for meaningful reflection, then a more thoughtful engagement is required with major processes of social change and regional differentiation over the past 100 years.