Chapter 1 begins with an introduction of the main ideas that will be explored in the thesis (see above). Chapter three begins with a brief description of the major historical development interventions in the affected area.
Methodology
The community guide helped locate former Accoda Trust members, local tribal authority representatives (chieftains) and local residents known to support the mine. Two of the three pre-election councilors were interviewed, as were all three potential replacements (all three of whom are now ward councillors).
Introduction
The argument that participation is an end in itself in the interest of empowerment is presented. It is then argued that participation is an idea that is widely embraced in theory, but is often opposed in practice.
Biases Inherent in Top-Down Development
Agricultural research is a good example of how a lack of participation can hinder development. In many cases, it is not the ignorance of the intended beneficiary that is the problem, but the arrogance of the development expert.
Participation
Levels of Participation
To answer these questions, it is useful to review Jules Pretty's (1995) “participation typology” in Participatory Learning for Sustainable Agriculture. Despite the necessary simplicity, Pretty's typology can provide a frame of reference to classify the level of participation in a development project.
Participation Leading to More Successful Development Outcomes
A discussion of the benefits and limitations of case study research is included in the methods section of Chapter 1. The study finds that the success of the five projects was due to their use of a three-step participatory learning process; learning to be effective, learning to be efficient and learning to expand (Korten 1980: 502).
Participation as a Means or an End
The authors also measured success and participation at each individual stage of the project, and found that early stage participation was similarly associated with early stage success, as it was overall (Ibid). This recourse to a discourse of participation as a means effectively rewrites the primacy of a top-down logic of the need to achieve measurable goals efficiently. So power re-enters the equation incognito under the guise of the claims of efficiency.
Although participatory development has two key interrelated goals, empowerment of the excluded and better development outcomes, the goal of empowerment must rule.
Participation Embraced in Theory, Resisted in Practice
Many critics of the new focus on participation claim that participation is being used as a neoliberal strategy of dominance through inclusion, as certain voices and interests are invited to participate in pre-defined spaces, while unwanted radical forces seeking genuine change are normalized. power relations are pushed aside and delegitimized. Invented spaces are defined as occupied by those collective actions of the poor that directly confront the authorities and challenge the status quo…in a space, strategies confront within the existing structure;. At the bottom of the scale are strategies that directly address issues of powerlessness: legal aid, liberal law enforcement, trade unions and political mobilization (Ibid).
Participatory development at the interactive or self-mobilizing level directly addresses the issue of the powerlessness of the poor.
Achieving High Levels of Participation Through Institutional Change
An examination of the idea of radical or insurgent planning provides useful insight into the goals that a participatory development framework should seek to achieve. The role of the state in the "new development paradigm" is, most importantly, to protect people's rights. Decentralization is a key strategy to encourage participation, and can help to counter the core's tendency to siphon off the surplus, skills and labor from the periphery (see section 2.2) by transferring resources away from central, core locations to the periphery to carry
It addresses the question of whether well-intentioned outside experts or political forces have the right to intervene in the lives of poor people, and concludes that only by doing so in a collaborative way that puts the beneficiaries' priorities first.
Forcing the Issue: Invited and Invented Spaces of Participation
Devised participation spaces therefore have the advantage that they do not have to play according to a set of rules imposed by the state. Thus, invented spaces can confront systemic problems and the state more directly, while invited spaces of participation more often seek to deal with existing systems of hardship (Ibid). Invented spaces of participation will always have a place in the political economy of development, and as such, attempts to portray actions in invented spaces as criminal must be viewed with a highly critical eye.
In Chapter 4, I will examine the way in which the people of Xolobeni used various invited and imagined spaces of participation to oppose the mining project.
Introduction
However, the South African state's development strategy has been characterized by a neoliberal, private sector-led approach. If a more participatory approach is to be followed, South Africa needs to confront the way in which the current development orientation tends to restrict and limit popular participation in development projects. The manner in which the South African government has attempted to implement the mining project is then discussed, and a conclusion is drawn from the historical sequence that the South African government has repeatedly used a top-down development strategy in projects targeting Xolobeni.
The argument is supported by a brief analysis of South Africa's macro-economic development policies, which many scholars have concluded are private sector-led and neoliberal in nature.
The Betterment Scheme and Mpondo Revolt
The Xolobeni mine project site is located at the northeastern tip of the former Transkei along the coast. In practice, the Transkei was still under the authority of the apartheid state, and its chief minister Kaiser Matanzima and his government were widely regarded as puppets of the apartheid government. Along with the loss of capital investment, residents also disliked various elements of the new, more densely populated town-like settlements.
Opposition to the Betterment Scheme by Mpondo residents was fierce and organized, particularly in eastern Mpondoland.
The Gum Tree Rebellion
Residents were thus concerned that the gum trees would disrupt their livelihood systems, primarily of which are agriculture and grazing, and that the benefits of the plan would be unfairly distributed. The divisions that arose in the community over the development of the gum tree reached a peak during a two-week period in 1999, when 14 farms that had been plowed to plant gum trees were burned to the ground (Noseweek 2008). The conflict resolution potential of participatory techniques is thus highlighted by their absence in the case of the gum tree.
Most of the locals rejected this plan to the extent that they even attacked the property of those who collaborated with Sappi.
Eco-tourism and AmaDiba Adventures
Adventure where Wilderness Safaris would have expanded operations and accepted 75 percent of the financial risk while giving the community 85 percent of the profits.13. Involving local residents in the planning and design of the project would likely have increased people's stake in the project, giving them a sense of ownership and empowerment as opposed to their feeling of being "spoon-fed". However, unlike Betterment and the development of the chewing gum tree, the program did not infringe on any pre-existing livelihood strategies.
Many community members, in their evaluations of the project, “argue that the community should change their current practice of waiting for funders to come to them; "...listening to the funders and being driven by the funders rather than us driving the funding" (Wright 2005: 74).
The Xolobeni Mineral Sands Project
The local municipal government was also widely accused of trying to force the mining project on the community. Since its establishment, the ACC has been responsible for updating the community on all developments regarding the mining project (usually at the weekly community meetings at the komkulu), organizing protests such as the demonstration at the announcement of the approval of the mining right, and working with the Legal Resource Center (LRC) to file a formal appeal by the mining court. Instead, MRC/TEM approached the community with false information, tricks and bribes in an attempt to gain their acceptance.
Xolco, not a true representative of the community in the first place, has no power to influence decisions.
The Nature of South Africa’s Development Strategy
In the post-World War II period under apartheid, the South African state used an interventionist economic policy. Nelson Mandela had declared as far back as 1990 that the ANC would nationalize “mines, banks and. The first indicator of the state's post-apartheid development strategy came in the form of the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) in 1994.
It is in this context that the South African government supported Sappi's Gum Tree Development (Section 3.3), the EU tourism development programme.
Introduction
The success of the various resistance strategies and what they mean in relation to the political economy of development in South Africa is then analyzed using the concept of invented and invited spaces of citizenship as an analytical framework.
Reasons for Opposition
It is clear that there would be some disruption to the use of the community's natural resources by local people and that local people see this as a major threat to their livelihood systems. Instead of coming to the community to ask for permission, the MRC/TEM used bribery, manipulation, disinformation and deception to try to coerce the local population into accepting the mining project, often telling people that the decision to mine had already been made . An additional reason for the community's opposition to the mining project lies in the character of Xolca.
Finally, negative community experiences with past top-down development projects likely played a role in people's rejection of the mining project.
Strategies of Resistance
Finally, a large demonstration was made at the announcement of the approval of the mining right in 2008, which led to the disruption of the event (see Chapter 1 Background). All these protests served to put public pressure on the government to deny the mining rights due to the bad publicity generated, while at the same time alerting potential allies of the struggle. Chief Ndabazakhe was the victim of the community's violent attack after the mining rights incident, and no new chief has been named since.
The final strategy used by the ACC to oppose the mining project was a concerted effort to change the behavior of the Mbizana Municipality through the May 2011 elections.
Analysis of Opposition
It can be said that the formation of the ACC and the creation of Simbhademe take place partly in invited spaces of citizenship, but that they are also partly imagined spaces. According to community respondents and ACC leadership, the next step would have been if the appeal had not resulted in the revocation of the mining permit. The actions and resistance strategies of the Xolobeni residents who opposed the mining project were not met with overt forms of state repression, violent or violent.
In Xolobeni, the sheer volume of invited and devised forms of participation by the local population led to the defeat of the mining project.
