4 EvALUAtiON OF SOUtH AFricA’S tEcHNicAL rEADiNESS tO SUPPOrt
4.4 Potential Socio-Economic impacts
4.4.2 Socio-Economic Profile and challenges in the central and Southern Karoo The Karoo Basin covers six of the nine provinces of South Africa. With
reference to proposed shale gas development, technical cooperation permits were issued initially across a vast area, stretching across four provinces, including the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Free State. In February 2015, two of the existing permit holders have proceeded with the submission of their EMPs, as part of their exploration licencing in the basin. These included Bundu and Falcon (Morkel and De Wit, 2016) as depicted in Figure 4-4.
APPLicAtiONS FOr HyDrAULic FrActUriNG
Figure 4-4: Location of the Karoo Basin and the exploration areas in relation to national provinces, as well the locations of the SALt and SKA activities
(www.karoospace.co.za)
This report focuses on the socio-economic profile of the central and southern Karoo Basin; this area spans Calvinia (Northern Cape) and Laingsburg (Western Cape) in the west, to Noupoort (Northern Cape) and Fort Beaufort (Eastern Cape) in the east. There are seven district municipalities (viz. Sarah Baartman, Chris Hani, Amathole, central Karoo, Cape Winelands, Pixley Ka Seme and Namakwa), 13 local municipalities and 22 key small towns potentially affected (AEON, 2015). It is important to nuance our understanding of socio-economic impacts with a local perspective, as this is where citizens reside and experience impacts. This is also where response and mitigation measures would need to be focused in managing any identified risks (i.e. either to the natural environment or to local communities).
The Centre for Development Support (UFS) (Atkinson, 2007) has identified the socio-economic challenges confronting these areas as part of the
“Arid areas of South Africa” as follows:
• “Poverty levels are high, due to high levels of unemployment, and increasing rates of illness (HIV/AIDS and TB).
• Communal farming on municipal peri-urban land is creating environmental challenges.
• A large proportion of income is derived from social grants, with social consequences that are not fully understood.
• Local economies of small towns are characterised by weak
multipliers, because a great deal of purchasing power is spent in the larger centres, or metropolitan areas situated outside these areas.
• The influx of migrants from the farms to the towns, and the migration from the more densely populated areas in the Eastern Cape
towards the Karoo, are creating immense pressures on the existing infrastructure.
• Due to the arid nature of the area, surface and underground water supplies are insufficient to provide higher levels of infrastructure (such as waterborne sanitation), which creates grievances and resentment.
• The conditions of life of remote settlements of farmworkers tend to be poor, with low mobility, and difficult access to health, education, recreation and shopping amenities.
• HIV/AIDS levels are reputed to be high, particularly on national transport routes, and mortality rates are already reflecting this.
• There is an out-migration of skilled people, due to a lack of local economic opportunities.
• Increasing aridity, due to global warming, may lead to rising unemployment, declining underground water levels, and greater difficulties for commonage farmers.”
There are important socio-economic differences across the three pro- vinces of the southern and central Karoo Basin that stem from historical factors. The past prevalence of homeland or ‘Bantustan’ administrations
in parts of the Eastern Cape and consequent contrasting land ownership patterns across the region have led to a racialised social order and the perpetuation of racial inequalities in the region (Mkhize, 2012).
There are clear class and racial dimensions to the emerging shale gas debate in the Karoo, with contrasting views held by those who own the land and draw benefit from it as a productive asset, and those who do not. There appears to be increasing support from community structures for shale gas development, with the expectation of large-scale employment and economic empowerment in an environment which until now has not promised much else, except for the agriculture sector. Evidence of this was noted in the comments raised by local community representatives at town hall meetings (hosted by the Eastern Cape Provincial Government) during October 2014, where structures such as the The Karoo Shale Gas Forum participated. This is in sharp contrast to the existence of structures such as Treasure Karoo Action Group (TKAG), and local structures of organised and commercial agriculture (such as those affiliated to Agri Eastern Cape) who have long been opposed to shale gas development in the Karoo.
In the midst of this, there are new social classes emerging across the Karoo, influenced by land restitution and political transformation since 1994. In this regard, there are the indigenous Khoisan, who have also noted the need for due recognition of their cultural, political, and land rights over the Karoo, which they consider spiritually and culturally significant. They have already declared their opposition to proposed shale gas development and are claiming stronger recognition of their land rights across the region.
Then there is the small emerging class of new black farmers, who have not yet fully integrated into the well organised and structured networks of established (i.e. predominantly white) commercial farmers in the Karoo. These are largely constituted of collective ownership models, and located on commonage farms on the outskirts of towns. Here land was purchased from white commercial farmers through programmes within the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, or alternatively under ownership of the local municipalities and made available for farming. These rural black communal farmers are also concerned about the potential environmental impacts of proposed shale gas development on their water and land. Over time, it has emerged that this pattern of land use has been skewed by the growing concentration of land for purposes of game farming and private conservation, which has been exacerbated in part by claims of foreign and wealthy landowners amassing large portions of farmland in the Karoo.
4.4.3 Socio-Economic and community impacts Associated with Shale Gas