CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
4.4 Consequences of internal displacement in South Africa/PRODUCT
72
was forcefully removed from Cato Manor, which was now declared as an Indian only area to KwaMashu and Umlazi. Secondly the population had to spill over to Inanda and Ntuzuma with the latest and current movement going to Cornubia (Sutherland et al, 2011). Robinson, (2003) suggests that in fact intra-urban displacement is about fighting or forced movement for whatever reason from within the urban area and/or city.
73
(2005). They wanted to be closer to factories that are within a walking distance from their place of
residence which in the end results in shacks mushrooming around industrial areas in the cities (Masina, 2006).
Modiri (2013) points out that South African cannot cope in employing its fast growing army of job seekers following the retrenchment of urban workers as a result of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) of which its economy follows. He further states that shedding of work opportunities or retrenchment is a common feature of the structural adjustment, thus leading us to the second and opposite feature of displacement whereby the people having lost work, would retreat back to the rural areas. According to Lwabukuna (2012) such movement and/or displacement has become a trend in South Africa due to the decline in the industrial sector.
South Africa during the transition era from apartheid to democracy, the ANC promised its citizens that it will create more steady jobs if people voted for it. That would be fulfilled through the system of nationalisation as opposed to privatisation system. And that was not to be. When the ANC took power in 1994, they reneged from their promise of nationalisation. They ended up privatising enterprises that were nationalised by the apartheid regime. They abandoned the Reconstruction and Development Programme which was a well and thoroughly researched system by the professionals, and replaced it with Labour Brokering system. Under the current labour system, jobs were lost as retrenchments reign supreme, and graduates could not be absorbed into workplace by private sector. Only government entities can employ multitudes of graduates as oppose to a handful that can be absorbed by a private sector. Exploitation became a norm in the labour broker system as workers were introduced into contract system, whereby people are working for agents. For example, a cleaner or a security guard may be working for a certain hotel, but are just placed there by agents who pay their salaries respectively. The system has resulted in many labour disputes, where marches and picketing against pay and
74
working conditions have gained momentum in South Africa since 1994.
4.4.3 Homelessness
The failures of the government of the day is largely to blame for causing much disaster as pointed out in Oucho (2005) that apartheid regime created homelessness due to the introduction of homelands structures. Under homelands people would be clustered or settled together so as to be controlled, hence the townships of KwaMashu and Umlazi in Durban were handed over to Kwa-Zulu homeland under the jurisdiction of Kwa-Zulu government during that era (Stanley, 2014). The trend repeated itself when the people of the Free State (Bloemfontein) experienced the same plight when Botshabelo Township was incorporated into the homeland of Qwaqwa (Twala and Barnard, 2004). Fact of the matter is many people remained homeless as township developments stalled under homeland structure, that is, the central government neglected those areas.
South Africa has been under the settler and/or apartheid rule for almost four hundred and fifty years. And for both epochs there was no proper housing development for indigenous people.
So, when the current came into power in 1994, the backlog was so huge it could not be fix
‘overnight’. Besides the influx of ‘refugees’ from the country’s neighbouring states, the government is faced with a mammoth task of providing houses to the multitudes of South Africans who migrate to the cities leaving rural areas for job opportunities.
4.4.4 Marginalisation
South Africa with its discriminatory laws during times of apartheid saw non-whites being marginalised, with the Africans being the most victims of such a factor (Lwabukuna, 2012).
Oucho (2005) states that economic marginalisation had some serious social and psychological repercussion in the lives of the black majority in this country. The social life as well as shack dwellings in which Africans live in South African cities bears testimony to the feature of marginalisation (Mooney, 2005). This led to African people moving from place to place trying to find environment that would best suit their lifestyle which could even lead to street life.
4.4.5 Food insecurity
Unlike the countries in the SADC regions where civil wars are prevalent, South Africa has seldom found itself caught up in the web of food insecurity feature which comes in the form of drought and floods in other years (Tran, 2012). Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg do experience such disasters whereby people, especially shack dwellers had to be moved to safer
75
areas during flood seasons, and in need of food supply (Meskell & Weiss, 2006). South Africa is a drought prone country (Mattes, 2005). Therefore, people will be forced to leave barren areas they were resettled into and scary for food in the cities.
4.4.6 Increased morbidity and mortality
This feature, according to Oucho (2005) is prevalent to vulnerable groups such as women, children, elderly and people living with disability. Their condition easily leads them to displacement because they are not strong enough to fight their way forward when the going gets tough. Africans therefore find themselves being pushed into living in squalor conditions where their lives are being compromised (Mooney, 2005). Most cities in South Africa had to go major transformation to change lives of the people from vulnerable groups.
4.4.7 Social disintegration
Production system in the country had to be well organised in order to avoid such displacement taking place (Marx & Charlton, 2004). South Africa is doing very well in this regard, however, its apartheid formation of the past left an indelible mark as homelands that were meant for Africans became overcrowded and farming became impossible, thus causing displacement (Marx & Charlton, 2004). The point to be noted though is that those areas were successfully productive to farming (prior to colonisation) before their kinship was disrupted through forced removals (Oucho, 2005). So in the case of South African cities, some of these sprawling informal settlements are as a result of displacements from those former homelands.
4.4.8 Loss of access to common property
The land according to (Lwabukuna, 2012) was expropriated from indigenous people for many reasons, thus causing displacement of people. Colonial governments became greedy as far as the land is concerned as they wanted to be the sole owners of it for commercial reasons of course (Oliver &Oliver, 2017). Capitalism is the main culprit in monopolising economic profits which lead to exploitation of proletariats who have already been displaced from their land to give way to mineral extraction, forestry and water conservations (Oucho, 2005). Marx and Charlton (2004) have noted that people in Durban were and are still going to be displaced due to the expansion of its harbour.
4.4.9 Violation of human rights
Since colonial times indigenous people in South Africa have suffered human right violations, in one way or another which resulted in their displacement. Lwabukuna (2012) states that this occurrence is placed mainly at the doorstep of the governments of the day who displaced
76
indigenous people for developmental reasons. Lesotho Highlands Water Project, Central Kalahari Desert in Botswana and Mining Projects of South Africa are the results of human rights violation where a huge number of people were displaced (Oucho, 2005). (Lwabukuna, 2012) points out that when Inanda Dam in Durban was built, almost the whole village was displaced and, thus, peoples’ rights were being violated for developmental reasons.
4.4.10 Lack of adequate accommodation
Depending on one’s situation, some find shelter with families and/or friends while others end up living in squalid conditions of dilapidated unoccupied flats (Black, 2001). It becomes even more difficult for those who are outside of employment, who end up in informal settlements that spring up and target any space available (Evans, 2007). Thus, occasionally city authorities are at logger heads with Abahlali baseMjondolo, that is, an organisation fighting for the rights of the informal settlers and/or those without shelter living in dire conditions (Cohen and Deng, 2001). While the government works hard to eliminate slums in the city through low-cost housing projects, new slums are being built on the same vacated land (Robinson, 2003). This is seen as a developmental sabotage to the local authorities because the land can no longer be used for the intended developmental project. And that is why they opt for the demolishing of those newly built makeshift shanty houses or slums.
4.5 The role played by the South African government in combating internal displacement