intervention is likely to ignore other dimensions of vulnerability experienced by the affected individual or community.
As already noted, vulnerability also involves other stressors resulting from the context of political, institutional, economic, and social structures and processes that put pressures on people, affecting their ability to cope with flood and other climate-related disasters. As mentioned by O’Brien et al (2004b), the choice of responses to a climate change disaster can affect the context for responding to other societal or environmental changes, and vice versa. In the context of this study, the vulnerability of local women was found to involve other complex issues besides the stress caused by the degraded physical environment and flood events. The socio-cultural determinants of gender roles and responsibilities contributed significantly to the vulnerability experienced by the women. In other cases, gender-based violence and negligence of family responsibilities by men was found to have put extra pressure on the women. In the case of male negligence of family duties, mothers now had to bear the sole responsibility of the family’s welfare. The implications of this is that, in addressing the women’s adaptation to floods in the areas, it is critical to take cognisance of intervening and apparent contextual factors of vulnerability rather than rely only on an interventionist approach (which only reiterates the economic development at the affected areas as a way of helping the residents adapt to climate disasters).
municipality has recognised the need to address the economic challenges affecting the poor communities. The Durban Climate Change Strategy document states that:
Poor communities within the municipal rural areas and those living in informal settlements are most vulnerable to climate change. These communities are often located in poorly serviced areas with a high risk of impact from extreme weather events, compounded by poor infrastructure, and thus are not resilient. These poor communities generally do not have access to financial resources and have minimal coping mechanisms to deal with the consequences from extreme events, thus escalating their vulnerability (eThekwini Municipality, 2012).
As stated above, the eThekwini municipality seeks to address the historical injustices and bridge the gender equity gap in its climate change strategy. The need to address the historical gender, racial and class injustices in South Africa are equally stipulated in the country’s post- apartheid Constitution (Section 9, article 2) and other related policies (especially the South Africa’s National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality and the National Development Plan Vision 2030). A critical aspect of the eThekwini municipality’s strategy is how to provide equal opportunities to women, especially those who have previously been severely disadvantaged due to their gender, race, and class. Historically, Black women who reside in the rural/informal settlements comprise the most disadvantaged group in South Africa in terms of gender, race, and class. Walker (1990, p.19) have shown that historically, sources of livelihoods of Black African women have been located within the informal economy of the informal settlements.
It has been reported by the South African History Online (SAHO, p.7) that at the turn of the 18th century, during the labour migration when many African men migrated to work in the mines, the women (Black women) were left alone in rural areas. The report also states that since the sole responsibility for family care was now resting on the women, they therefore devised a means of sustaining livelihoods through invigorating the local economy. While some took up employment as domestic workers for mainly White people, many turned to subsistence agricultural practices (Ibid). The report states that Black women who did not have employment resorted to brewing local beer and sold them to many migrant workers who could not afford western beer, as well as the local men who preferred the local beers to imported or Europeans
ones (Ibid). This possibly explains the history of a large number Shebeens45 in informal settlements in South Africa.
However, at the turn of democracy in South Africa in 1994, and with the quest for a development approach that tackles issues of historical injustices, including rural poverty and women’s inequity, the eThekwini municipality reiterated its commitment to integrate informal settlements into the economic hub of Durban. As stated by the eThekwini Municipality (2012), the integration was to be done through a programme of Action for Building Productive and Sustainable Nodal Economies. Furthermore, the programme of action (PoA) was and is intended to stimulate economic growth and development in the INK nodal zones as well as to identify opportunities for public and private sector investment; identify barriers and constraints to economic activity within the nodes; and acknowledge recommendations on strategic interventions for improving the nodal business climate, and the institutional recommendations for implementation (Ibid).
In the Durban development trajectory, the Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu is combined into a single area and referred to as the INK. The INK node is located about 30km north of Durban city centre and comprises a mix of formal residential townships and informal settlements. The three areas are adjacent to one another, with a very blurred boundary. The eThekwini Municipality manages affairs of INK through a single administrative unit, and local councillors are responsible for wards that cut across all three areas. The INK node forms one of the presidential poverty nodes46 within the Urban Renewal Programme (URP)47 of South Africa.
The node is one of the eight in South Africa that was considered for an Area-based Approach (ABA)48 to development. Despite the differences between the individual areas, the three INK nodes share a common set of challenges. As noted during the fieldwork of this study, as residential areas with low levels of internal economic activity, the areas’ growth prospects were
45 Shebeens in the South African society refers to informal bars and taverns where people gather for drinks.
During the Apartheid era, Shebeens served as a medium for working-class males to socialize and escape the stress of racial oppression. In South Africa, beer brewing, especially the local beers, is traditionally seen as women’s work (sic).
46 According to the South African Department of Local Government and Provincial and Business Trust (2007), the presidential poverty nodes are described by the South Africa’s Department of Provincial and Local Government as ‘the spatial manifestation of the second economy”. In 2001, the South African government indicated that direct intervention was required to overcome the poor economic and infrastructural conditions of these nodes
47 The Urban Renewal Programme was launched during Thabo Mbeki’s Presidency in 2001 as an area-based approach (ABA) to address poverty and underdevelopment in target formerly disadvantaged areas through government’s intervention
48 Area-Based development approach was adopted during Thabo Mbeki’s presidency to address past injustices caused by apartheid by developing the economic and spatial landscape of some informal settlements.
strongly linked to external areas (chiefly Durban city centre). Presently, Inanda still has predominantly informal settlements/structures but KwaMashu and Ntuzuma have a large percentage of formal settlements. KwaMashu, because of its proximity to the Durban city centre and its access to major transport corridors (rail station and taxi rank), serves as the main economic hub of the node. The INK area also boosts major economic and infrastructural development—as examples, the Bridge City, KwaMashu Community Health Clinic, Princess Magogo stadium, Inanda Dam and Resort, amongst others. As reported by the South African Department of Provincial and Local Government, following the 2011 census in the country, majority (51%) of INK population are female while 49% are male. However, though this is what the formal census reports, the researcher observed that most of the households interacted with during the fieldwork were inhabited by women. Participants also mentioned that most of the households in the areas were female-headed households. Possibly many of the men had migrated to other cities in search of labour.
Similarly, uMlazi—which is located in the Southwest of Durban—is 99.4% Black African. As reported by the South African Department of Provincial and Government and Business Trust (2007), the residents of uMlazi are 94% Zulu speakers, and the limited level of English instruction inhibits chances of gaining employment in the eThekwini municipality’s knowledge economy. These statistics may have changed as most recent statistics seem to be unavailable. The statistics may have changed now because of the presence of formal educational institutions in the area and the fact that post-apartheid South Africa has put policies in place to encourage the education of Blacks—for example, the introduction of the National Funding Scheme to fund students from low-income backgrounds. However, though there have been several private and government investments in uMlazi (such as the Mangosuthu University of Technology and many other higher institutions, Umlazi Mega City, Philani Valley shopping Centre, Kwa-Mnyandu shopping centre, King Zwelithini stadium, amongst others), many Black women in uMlazi, especially much older women, residents still live in the degraded part of the township. This part is extremely susceptible to flooding. uMlazi will be used as a case in point to analyse the kind of development that takes place in the study sites.
From the researcher’s observation during fieldwork, many of the investments in uMlazi are in one section of the township. In other words, one section of the township is topographically favourable for infrastructure and businesses. The other section where development has not reached, and which serves as the residential area for most of the Black women interviewed during the study, has been left degraded.
Development in uMlazi points to a neoliberal kind of development, where the interest of the market supersedes an interest in humanity or in lifting the poor residents out of poverty and environmental degradation. However, the mega private investments in the localities have provided some job opportunities for the residents, especially the young people. The presence of shopping malls and other service facilities has also relieved some of the residents—who can afford buying from the malls—the stress of having to travel long distances to the Durban city centre for their shopping needs. However, these mentioned advantages do not disprove the fact that the mega private and capitalist investments have overshadowed the informal economy, from which some of the local women sustain their livelihoods. Many informal retail businesses and roadside vending were affected/overshadowed. The gendered implications that arise from such overshadowing are significant, especially since the people affected are mostly elderly women with less formal education, which limits their opportunities of being absorbed into an economy that requires a certain level of formal education or at least a certain level of language (primarily English) fluency. One participant in uMlazi who was running a spaza shop49 in the area commented: “Now there are very few sales because many people now go to the mall to buy stuff.” Her spaza shop was located in the interior, undeveloped, and environmentally degraded part of the township. Improvement in infrastructural development (such as road transport network) in the interior areas of townships, have the potential of advancing businesses as shebeens and street vending in the areas. This is partly because the increased traffic arising from good road networks can influence sale volumes of street vending businesses such as shebeens and other roadside retail trading. As noted earlier, while there is opportunity for economic growth-generating activities arising from additional investment in the area (mostly private-sector led firms though), low additional employment potential is being generated for the local women. This is while their sources of livelihoods were severely impacted. Therefore, I argue that such development seems to serve the interest of a few capitalists at the expense of the many rural residents.
Figure II: Showing spatial differences between the developed and undeveloped floodplain sites of uMlazi township
49 Spaza shop, also known as tuck shop, is an informal convenience shop business in South Africa, usually run from home. They also serve the purpose of supplementing household incomes of the owners through selling small everyday household items.
Photo credit: author
Source: Yan-Di Chang (2007)50
The above images show the two different sites of uMlazi. The first two images show the interior, undeveloped flood-prone areas, while the second shows the well-developed and industrial part of uMlazi. While the developed section of uMlazi has functioning facilities such as good roads, electricity, water supply and good housing facilities, the floodplain lies on an uneven topographic landscape. Simple water supply is a scarce resource for the residents of the floodplains.
Studies have shown that urban or rural development that is executed primarily through an economic lens has gender implications (Roberts, 2020; Gay-Antaki, 2016). In the event of
50 Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34473909
climate disasters, such development is likely to influence poor rural women adaptation to climate change disaster. According to Gay-Antaki (2016, p. 62), gender implication is an important consideration within neoliberal development. Development is linked to land ownership and access to resources and property. In the Global South, men are better positioned socio-culturally than women to possess these resources. Moreover, extensive literature on gender and sustainable development also suggests that development projects which do not consider gender marginalise women’s access to land and resources, excluding them from formal decision making (Resurrección & Elmhirst, 2008; Arrora-Johnson, 2011; MacGregor, 2010). As stated by Nagar et al (2002, p.261), “under global capitalism, poor women and men are marginalised through informal economies of production and caring that subsidise and constitute global capitalism”.
In the study contexts, the neoliberal approach to development seems to have widened the inequality gap. As mentioned, this is because the introduction of mega shopping malls and other mega food processing industries, as especially noticed in uMlazi, had significantly impacted the informal sources of livelihoods for the women. In uMlazi also, the inequality was also quite visible in the spatial location of infrastructures. As already noted, the nature of the development is that few sections of the uMlazi township are equipped with improved housing, while the residents in the larger part of the townships still live in poverty and on degraded land.
As observed during the course of the study, some of the Black women from the interior section of the township that managed to get employment in the mega enterprises of the modern uMlazi were still engaged in menial jobs like cleaning, till-point attendants, and goods packers.
As feminist political ecologists (MacGregor 2010; Nager et al 2002) note, global economic processes have directly intensified the “feminisation of production, reproduction, and community management”. According to Gay-Antaki (2016, p. 54), rather than being unintended side effects, neoliberal forms of development “have used women's roles in production, reproduction, and community management as a critical subsidy for the economic and social viability of projects”. Capitalist forms of production that rely on utilising subsidised women’s efforts in production processes or development schemes rather exacerbate social and gender injustices (Arora-Jonsson, 2011). Moreover, as Gay-Antaki (2016, p.62) observed, in addition to increasing women’s labour burden, unequal development that capitalises on the interest of the market tends to result in a “progressive loss of knowledge concerning forest health, biodiversity, and climate change”. During the fieldwork, the researcher observed that though there were large portions of fertile land, they were not being utilised by the residents,
at least for subsistence purpose. This is linked to the negative side effect of the many private sector-led investments and food production firms that made residents lose sight of the farming economy.
Though not directly related to climate adaptation intervention, literature has also identified the various implications that an area-based approach to development has on the informal economies of rural settlements in South Africa (Donaldson & Du Plessis, 2013; Ligthelm, 2006; Mathenjwa, 2007; Zondi, 2011). According to Donaldson & Du Plessis (2013, p.296) some of the implications of capitalist investments on informal economy pertain to the “role of the community in the process, as well as partnership and interagency cooperation, and the quest for complexity”. As suggested by Lawless (2004), what is required in rural area development is a more diverse approach that considers a “commensurately complex interplay of social, economic, and environmental problems”. Vulnerability of local women due to natural disasters is influenced by a complex interplay of socio-economic and socio-political factors. Therefore, any developmental approach that has gender equity as one of its goals, or that seeks to address gender justice of local women, should consider this complex dimension of vulnerability.
One of the approaches to tackle climate change in a sustainable manner, as indicated in South Africa’s National Development Plan, NDP vision 2030, is to address the impacts of climate change while simultaneously addressing inequality in the country. As indicated in the NDP, this is to be implemented through: 1) Upgrading informal settlements on suitably located land;
2) Prioritising infrastructural development of rural communities, and 3) Reshaping South Africa’s rural settlements with projects to address the existing spatial divides between cities and rural settlements (RSA, 2012). Arguably, these prospects indicate some aspect of addressing the historical racial, class and gender injustices in the country.
Furthermore, Donaldson & Du Plessis (2013, p.296) note that, of great significance to a successful [rural] renewal is “creating a new sense of place”. A sense of ‘place’ is created when the local people are incorporated fully into any development. From a case study of area-based development in Khayelitsha informal township in Western Cape Province, South Africa, Donaldson & Du Plessis (2013, p.296) observed that a sense of place can be created through a
“sharing of local development perspective and strategy, as well as creating legitimacy for development choices through participation and ownership”. It is important that any development in the INK nodal zone or uMlazi area of Durban should ideally make provision for local businesses, which form part of the precinct, by pre-empting and avoiding damages to
such existing local businesses. Such development planning should find ways of integrating informal downstream enterprises into the formal economy. According to the South African National Treasury (2010), provision for informal and downstream enterprises could include elements such as suitable space, storage and cleaning services, and small business development training. In their study concerning how to facilitate a pro-poor land use management in South Africa, Gorgens & Denoon-Stevens 2010, p.4) assert that “while informality may well support the immediate needs and livelihoods of the poor, their exclusion from the planning system (whether it is ‘strategic’ or due to neglect) is likely to exacerbate systems of inequality”.
Some local studies have documented the impact of shopping malls on small township businesses in South Africa. For instance, Ligthelm (2006) shows that in Soshanguve township in Pretoria, the turnover of street retail businesses declined at about 80% for those traders situated less than 1km from the mall, and about 30% for those cases at a distance of 45km from the mall. Similarly, Mathenjwa (2007) carried a survey studies in Soweto and showed that 60 percent of the respondents said that their spaza shops had been negatively impacted by the presence of Jabulani shopping mall in the area. Similar studies have been undertaken by Donaldson and Du Plessis in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Similarly, work by Zondi, entitled, Investigating the Social and Economic Effect of Jabulani and Maponya Malls on the Residents of Soweto suggests that the impact of shopping malls on small townships business in Soweto townships constitutes a double-edge sword: whether the local women gain or lose from it depends on the type of business they run. (2011, p.1) According to Zondi, while spaza shops and general dealers experienced a decline, businesses like shebeens and street vending were positively impacted due to the presence of the shopping malls (Ibid). As already mentioned, the context and the type of development in a town determines the nature of the influence such development has on small scale informal economies.
In the context of this study, the interviews were carried out in the remote parts of the townships, with limited access to good infrastructure, road networks, and communication technologies.
These were the areas heavily affected by flooding. During the fieldwork of this study, the researcher noticed that the few people who ran roadside retail trading were mostly middle-aged women. Many of them did not have the opportunity to attain formal education. Lack of formal education training limits their chances of being absorbed into the formal knowledge economy of the Durban city. Secondly, the rising unemployment in the country probably contributes to