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thesis entitled

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY
OF ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA:

IMPLICATION FOR HOMELANDS AND OTHER BLACK COMMUNITIES
\_
presented by

Nonhlanhla Jordan

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

M.A.

 

 

degree in Sociology ‘

 

 

Mljor professor

Dr. David Wiley

Date August 3,1994

 

0-7639 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution

 

 

 

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Michigan State
University

 

 

 

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THE POLITICAL ECONOMY
OF ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA:
IMPLICATION FOR HOMELANDS AND OTHER BLACK COMMUNITIES

BY

Nonhlanhla Jordan

A THESIS
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Sociology

1994

ABSTRACT

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
IN SOUTH AFRICA:
IMPLICATIONS FOR HOMELANDS AND OTHER BLACK COMMUNITIES

BY
Nonhlanhla Jordan

This study examines environment and development
problems in the black homelands and other black communities
of South Africa. The focus is on the political economy of
environment and development in South Africa's black
communities, and it is argued that a combination of
apartheid and the capitalist system is responsible for the
negative environmental problems that most black South
Africans experience. Three key sectors are analyzed:
mining, agriculture, and industry.

Contrary to the South African government's allegation
that the homelands are areas of development, black
communities have not been developed by the industrial sector
but have witnessed endless problems and remain in a
dependency mode. The relationship of race, class, and
gender as intersecting elements in this problem is examined.

South Africa needs to re-think and re-construct
environment and development issues to bring the type of life
that will provide a healthy and livable environment for its
people. Environment and development issues are critical for
a progressive and democratic country such as South Africa

promises to be.

To my parents
whose moral support and prayers
have been a great inspiration

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply indebted to my major professor, Dr David
Wiley, for his guidance, reassurances and immeasurable
support without which I would never have completed my
studies at Michigan State University. His mentoring went
beyond description. My thanks also go to my committee
members, Dr Marilyn Aronoff and Dr Rita Gallin.

My appreciation goes to friends and colleagues, in
particular, Teri and Nancy for their support and love, and
whose comradeship cannot be repaid; CJ and Heeten for their
help and good wishes during this exercise.

I thank my parents for their never unfailing love and
trust in me, especially in the face of my self-doubt.

Finally, my husband, Mncedisi, and the children deserve
my heartfelt thanks for their incredible patience,

understanding and love during the period of my study.

iv

LIST OF TABLES . .
LIST OF FIGURES . .
INTRODUCTION . . .
BACKGROUND . . . .

LITERATURE REVIEW .

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .

Internal Colonialism and the cultural

division of labor .

ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
IN BLACK COMMUNITIES

Land and the homelands

Mining . . .

Agricultural pollution and health issues
Border industries and pollution

Employment of women

Cultural scene
CONCLUSION . . . .

LIST OF REFERENCES

page
. vi

vii

12

46

48

LIST OF TABLES

page

Table 1. Black Women in Manufacturing Employment

in the Homelands . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

page

Figure 1. South African "Homelands" . . . . . . . . 9

Figure 2. Diagram of the Theoretical Framework:
Core/Periphery Relationship . . . . . . . . 23

vii

INHSKMMWCTIIHI

As South Africa seeks to move towards a non-racial,
non-sexist transitional form of government, the question of
redressing environment and development problems looms as an
important agenda for the new government. Addressing these
issues is a sine qua non for a progressive country, which
will be the goal of the next South African government.
Scholars like Durning (1990), Moleah (1993), Stedman (1994)
and Wilson and Ramphele (1989) are treating environment and
development issues as paramount for the emerging South
Africa. From the writings of these scholars, it is clear
that South Africa lags in addressing environment and
development issues, especially in the black homelands and
other black communities, viz the squatter areas and
townships.‘

This paper explores the political economy of

environment and development in South Africa. I specifically

 

l. Homelands are racially and ethnically divided regions created by the
South.African government where African people are assigned to live. Of ten
homelands: Bophuthatswana*, Ciskei*, Gazankuluq XaNgwane, IKwaNdebele,
KwaZulu, Lebowa, QwaQwa, Transkei*, and venda*, only four are
'independent*'. (* stand for the "independent homelands"). The nature of
”independence“ is such that they are only recognized by South Africa and
have no diplomatic international recognition by the rest of the world. The
squatter areas haveldeveloped through the government's relocation plans as
informal settlements that poor people build using boxes or tin-shacks as
a way of survival.

2

examine the environment and development problems created for
black people and their communities by the government's
apartheid policy. I focus on the black people in the
homelands, townships, and squatter settlements and the
effects on them of the apartheid policies toward the
environment and development. I argue that a combination of
apartheid and the capitalist system in this semi-periphery
state are responsible for the negative environmental
conditions experienced by black people in these communities.

Environment and development problems have emerged in at
least three key sectors: mining, agriculture, and industry.
The South African government has projected the industrial
sectors as alleged "engines for the development" of the
peripheries (black communities, homelands in particular),
hence it has put the industries very close to the
homelands.‘z I will demonstrate that contrary to government
rhetoric and policy, such industries (and their location)
have not led to the development of the homelands and other
black areas. In fact, the government's approach has yielded
the opposite result. The homelands and other black

communities are underdeveloped, rather than developed, and

 

2. For a full treatment of this discussion of how the government has
attracted investors to relocate to homelands and built incentives to see
that the plan works, see Maasdorp (1974), Seidman and Seidman (1977), and
Wellings and Black (1984). As far as the South African government was
concerned, the black areas, in particular homelands, needed development
and industrialization, and the only way they could achieve this was to
establish industries nearby.

3
dependent rather than independent socioeconomic and
political entities.

Untold misery, poverty, unemployment, and ill health
are the consequences of apartheid policy toward environment
and development. I contend that the relationship between
race and class on the one hand, and environmental pollution
on the other hand, is critical to understanding these
problems. The communities that are environmentally degraded
are poor, black areas.

Race and class analysis alone, however, is insufficient
for fully understanding environment and development issues
in South Africa. Attention also must be paid to the role of
gender, which is missing from other studies on the
environment in South Africa. A striking feature of the
agriculture, industry, and mining sectors is the visibility
of gender. Black women are over-represented in industries
and agriculture, whereas the opposite is true in mining.

The rural homelands are the agricultural and industrial
bases3 and consequently have higher levels of agricultural
and industrial pollution than urban areas. Women outnumber

men in the rural homelands and are the majority of the labor

 

3. Border industries are industries that were established to the borders
of South Africa and the homelands to bring development on the homelands.
A full treatment on this topic is found in Woods (1992) "Taiwanese
Investment in.the Homelands of South Africa" and.Wellings and Black (1984)
in “Industrialization under Apartheid: An Empirical Assessment of
Industrial Decentralization in South Africa“.

4
force in the agricultural and industrial sectors.‘ As
Pampallis (1991:187) attests when describing the homelands,
"the bantustans were seen as places where the unemployed
could be dumped, far away from the major industrial
centers." African women are mostly the victims more than
African men. ”Many more women than men live in the TBVC‘
areas as a result of the male migrant labor caused by the
apartheid system. An estimated 2,105,000 adult women live
in the TBVC areas" (Stedman 1994:86-87). Again Stedman
(1994) alleges that more than half of the African women are
found in the rural areas excluding the TBVC areas as opposed
to the 82 percent Colored, 92 percent Indian, and 96 percent
white who are in the urban areas. Therefore, African women
are more affected by environmental pollution than black men

in the rural homelands.

 

4. For a very long time the pass was not extended to African women,
(Pampallis 1991), which was a constraint for women in that they could not
leave their reserves or homelands to find work in the city. This
therefore meant that more and more women remained in the rural reserves
thantmen. A pass, later known as a reference book, is a document with the
person's picture, name and identity' number, home address, father's
address, ethnicity, employers' names and addresses, type«of employment and
length of service per each employer, and giving the carrier permission to
be at a certain area or to move from one area to another. It also serves
as a reference from each employer a person has had. Failure to produce a
pass resulted in merisonment or a fine or both. See Pmmpallis (1991) for
a discussion on various types of passes p.26-8, 113-5, 184-6.

5. TBVC refers to the "independent” states of South Africa viz. Transkei,
Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei.

BACKGROUND

South Africa provides the crudest example of a society
structured on a foundation of socially constructed
inequality. Approximately 18 percent of the white
population owns 90 percent of the wealth, and the other 10
percent of the wealth is distributed amongst the remaining
82% of the population. (Ramphele 1991). Being black in
South Africa is synonymous with poverty, while whites have
affluence. This is a result of the apartheid system, as
planned by its architect, Prime Minister Dr. Verwoed for the
people of South Africa.6 Apartheid as a system refers to
the social, economic, political, sexual, and religious
segregation of people on the basis of race. It is a social
construction of society which has remained an explicit
policy of the National Party in South Africa. An effort to
preserve and reinforce the dominant position in all areas of
human activity of the whites over blacks so that the

supremacy of the former is maintained in South Africa. In

 

6. Apartheid as a system refers to the social, economic, political and
sexual segregation of people on the basis of race. It is a social
construction of society which has remained an explicit policy of the
national party in South Africa. An effort to preserve and re-enforce the
dominant position in all areas of human activity of the whites over blacks
so that the supremacy of the former is maintained in South Africa.

5

6
1980, 50 percent of South Africa's population was in poverty
with a subsistence that was below the minimum living level
(MLL) .7 The MLL was estimated at 60 percent of black South
Africans. People living in the black homelands make up 81
percent of the total population of black South Africans
(Wilson and Ramphele 1989). This means that the burdens of
uneven development in South Africa are more pronounced in
the homelands.

There are many South African scholars who have
contested the rationale for separate development in South
Africa, Black (1984), Cooper (1991), Cock and Koch (1991),
Moleah (1993), Natrass (1990), Pampallis (1991), Ramphele
(1991), Wilson (1977), Motsuenyane (1978) and Sisulu (1990).
The system is designed to benefit the white minority
population in the country and to suppress and disenfranchise
the black majority. The apartheid policy has two objectives
for the South African government. First was to divide the
races and ethnic groups into separate political and
homogenous entities, thus ensuring white supremacy and
economic domination. Second was to encourage black
tribalism and white unity (Motsuenyane 1978). The
cornerstone of apartheid was the division of all South

Africans by race (Worden 1994). Further, this was

 

7. MLL is an estimate of a monthly income ideal for an average family to
provide for basic family needs like food, shelter, water, clothing,
education, and medical expenses. In 1985 the MLL for an average black
family of 5.45 persons was found to be 3350.00 (Wilson and Ramphele 1989) .

7

entrenched by the prohibition of the Mixed Marriages Act of
1949 and the Immorality Act of 1950 which prohibited sexual
contact and marriages between whites and blacks, and the
Population Registration Act of 1950 that classified people
of South Africa into four racial categories. The
discriminatory practices extend to all spheres of human
activity: residence, cinema attendance, transport,
restaurants, as well as sporting facilities. While for
whites schooling was free and compulsory, for blacks it was
neither free nor compulsory (Worden 1994). Historically,
Worden (1994) reminds us that when the Bantu Education Act
of 1953 placed education under the department of Native
Affairs, it phased out all the independent missionary
institutions and introduced a type of education that would
only prepare students for manual labor. As far as the
government was concerned missionary educators for Africans
had misled Africans by "showing them the green pastures of
European society in which they are not allowed to graze"
(Worden 1994:96).'

The history of the homelands begins with the colonial
invaders. Basically, it was a struggle revolving around

issues of land and the exploitation of labor.9 The

 

8. For a discussion of other discriminatory acts and policies of the
apartheid system like the Separate Amenities' Act (1953) and the Group
Areas Act refer to Worden (1994:95) and Pampallis (1991:179-89).

9. Molteno (1977) provides a historical treatment of the homeland policy
which stimulates and provides guidelines for research, thought, and
debate.

8
homelands have been and still are very cardinal in relation
to development and the environment, both politically and
economically.

It is important to keep in mind why the South African
government wants to retain the homelands in their present
underdeveloped state. Together with the black townships and
squatter settlements, they provide permanent wage laborers
”whose needs are precisely determined from the point of view
of accepted white color-caste standards in terms of what is
virtually the physical minimum" (Molteno 1977:18). In other
words, the government perceives only advantages to keeping
the homelands intact in their present form as a ready
reservoir of repartriable labor. For the mines, industries,
and agriculture there is a ready expendable and cheap labor
force of men and women.

The homelands are created in the peripheries” of South
Africa (see Figure 1) in drought areas of low agricultural
productivity. This is very strategic for the white
government of South Africa. The availability of especially
cheap and plentiful labor in the homelands is obviously a
major stimulus. The wage disparities between the homelands
and the urban areas of South Africa are also clearly
significant. Blacks' skill levels are generally higher in

the metropolis than in the homelands; wages range from R107

 

10. Atmaplof the homelands of South Africa shows where the black homelands
are situated in relation to the core South Africa (Wilson and Ramphele
1989).

NAM [BIA

FIGURE 1

SOUTH AFRICAN "ROMELANDS"

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LEBQWA
QWAQWA

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87% "Mung- Anus. iL% nexus WW”

   

10
per month (US $321) for rural workers to R285 per month (US
$855) for urban workers (Wellings and Black 1984:25).
Women's wages range from R94 per month (US $282) in the
homelands to R279 per month (US $837) in the urban areas
(Wellings and Black 1984).

Women have been the most exploited, discriminated, and
marginalized category in the South African situation under
the market economy. The intersections of race, class, and
gender must be closely examined in order to explain the
effects of environmental apartheid on black women in the
homelands. In regard to race, class, and gender I address
two central questions in this thesis: (1) how do policies
toward environment and development affect the homelands,
townships, and squatter settlements? (2) how are black
women affected by the policies toward environment and
development.

The rationale for this analysis is clear. Black women
are demographically dominant in the homelands, comprising 70
percent of the population (Ainslie 1977; Cock 1978). They
also are among the poorest of the population (Ramphele
1991). Black women are the poorest paid of all the groups
in South Africa yet a large percentage is considered de
facto heads of households and ”half of the working women
(excluding the TBVC areas) are single mothers and heads of
households" (Stedman 1994:88). Women form the largest

sector of employees in agriculture (Davies 1990) and

11
industries (Maasdorp 1974). They are the caretakers and
guardians of the land because most men move to the city as
migrant workers. African women "bore the brunt of economic
pressures at home" (Beinart and Bundy 1987:262). Black
women are also affected by the environment as the largest
segment of consumers, and they in turn also affect the
environment as producers and farmers. They are particularly
at risk in terms of the environmental survival (Beinart and
Bundy 1987). Women together with children form the largest
population in the homelands because men go into the cities

on migrant labor.

 

LITERATURE REVIE'

Analysts of South Africa have paid very little
attention to environmental degradation in general and
environmental apartheid in particular. In contrast,
literature abounds on apartheid and the homelands issue, as
well as the industrialization and development of black areas
abounds. In fact, environmental problems of every type
abound in South Africa in every economic sector. Indeed,
with a fragile, dryland ecosystem, the country is reported
to have the highest acid rain levels in the world. Because
of the political nature of the topic, the South African
government has avoided addressing environment and
development issues in the black areas. According to the
leader of the Conservative Party, Andries Treurnicht,
"ecological issues are not so important that they will be
basic to our (government) policy" (Cock and Koch 1991:4).
This statement illustrates the government's approach toward
environmental problems. Their neglect of environmental
issues is based on an assumption that ecology is not a
primary issue and that there are other matters of greater
importance (The Johannesburg Star, 28 October 1989). The

government gives little attention to the ecological issues

12

 

13
which directly affect the well being of the population. But
the real source of this neglect is that such issues are
political, "deeply embedded in a mass of other issues
concerning the distribution of power and resources in South
Africa” (Cock and Koch 1991:4).

These attitudes of the South African government have
led to the escalation of environmental problems in the
country and to a tendency of explaining the environmental
issues through the population problem and poverty couched in
the victim-blaming framework. Some of the literature that
has appeared in South Africa has seriously neglected giving
a more balanced approach to the population problem and
poverty (see Brookes 1968; Wolpe 1972), paying attention
primarily to the biological, non-human consequences of
environmental degradation, neglecting to acknowledge the
environmental costs of development to humans and ignoring
the relationship between environmental degradation and
apartheid (see Antrobus 1976 and Thompson 1990).

A small but growing body of literature challenges such
representations along with the government's neglect of
environment and development and of environmental impacts in
black communities. One such challenge is the work of Cock
and Koch (1991). In Green Politics, they analyze
environment and development in South Africa as a political
issue firmly grounded in the access to power and resources

in society. Green Politics seeks to articulate the

14
interests of the majority of the people of South Africa,
whose environmental issues are severe, including having no
access to a healthy livable environment: clean water,
electricity, and proper sanitation. They link the struggle
against poverty and social injustice to the struggle against
the abuse of the environment.

Ramphele's (1991) work also challenges environmental
apartheid. The author adds an analysis of a critical
element largely not fully treated by Cock and Koch (1991)
and missing in Fuggle and Rabie’s (1992) studies, namely
health. While discussing environmental racism, Ramphele
(1991) addresses issues in agriculture, explaining how the
problems resulting from farming affect the health of the
black rural residents of the homelands. Fuggle and Rabie
(1992) discuss the concept of environment at length, but
they do not give a full application of the concept to the
human beings. The concept assumes a global phenomenon and
no distinction is made between the environment as it affects
the various population groups and as it intersects with
race, class and gender. In spite of the fact that this is
such a critical publication, and very comprehensive, it
nevertheless fails to articulate exactly what polluting the
environment has done to the population's weakest, poorest
communities and its people. The cultural aspects of the

environmental problems are missing from the publication.

15

Durning (1991) gives a graphic presentation of the
environmental problem which he refers to as the
environmental toll. The author in this piece is talking
from the perspective of the marginalized group, the poor
black people of South Africa. Putting the people at the
center of the environment and development problems gives a
different angle to the picture in question. It addresses
the topic from the perspective of the people affected by the
environment. It gives a better understanding of the
relationship between the environment and the people, how the
latter affect the environment and how they are in turn
affected by it.

New organizations working at the grass roots have also
analyzed the environmental concerns and have presented the
perspective of the oppressed. Notable of these
organizations are National Environmental Awareness Campaign
(NEAC), Earthlife Africa (ELA), Greenpeace, and the South
African Exchange Program on Environmental Justice (SAEPEJ).
Also the black political parties like the African National
Congress (ANC), the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), and the
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) have been very active on the
environmental issues. In this paper I also attempt to
insert elements of health problems resulting from
environmental degradation and development. As the President
of the National Environmental Awareness Campaign (NEAC)

attests:

16

Blacks have always had to live in an environment

that was neither beautiful nor clean. We have not

had the proper housing, roads or services because

the authorities would not accept that we were a

permanent part of the city scene. [Cock and Koch

1991:12]
This quotation" summarizes my hypothesis that apartheid is
at the core of the environmental and health problems in
black areas. Literature on the environmental issue
internationally, reveals that other communities of color
and of underprivileged in the global system are grappling
with similar issues. For example African-Americans and
other groups of color in the United States have taken up the
environmental issues. Environmental movements based in
communities of color are concerned especially that their
communities are or may be used as dumping grounds for waste
disposal and question the environmental dangers to which
their communities are exposed (Bullard 1993; Johnson 1993).
Taylor (1993) in "Environmentalism and the Politics of
Inclusion," explains that the formation of environmental
movements in the United States in the 19705 did not include
minority groups such as African-Americans and developed only
recently. Participation began as people perceived
connections based on class, race, and political affiliation

with exposure to environmental hazards. As a result, the

concepts of "environmental racism," "environmental equity,”

 

11./These were the headlines in the Johannesburg Star newspaper June 6,
1988, demonstrating growing environmental awareness among black groups.

l7
and ”environmental blackmail" developed. This has fostered
the emergence of grassroots activism among people of color
within the environmental justice movement (Taylor 1993).

Some parallels can be drawn with the emergence of the
South African environmental movements among black people.
The black liberation movement fostered a general level of
activism. One such type of activist movement are women’s
groups, like National Environmental Awareness Campaign
(NEAC), Zenzele organization, Christian organization,
National Council of Women, Women’s coalition and many other
national liberation groups which are at the forefront of the
environmental movement in South Africa, because women and
children are most affected by environmental pollution. In
trying to protect their children from pollution, women have
addressed environmental issues through such movements. The
NEAC, for instance is a community-based movement in Soweto
which was started as a response to the degraded conditions
in the townships. It worked through street committees to
organize garbage collection and promote environmental
awareness in the community.

Comparing literatures on the environmental movements in
the United States and South Africa reveals that South Africa
lags behind the United States in addressing environmental
issues, the South African environmental movement beginning
in the 19908 has begun with a variety of movements

mobilizing around concerns for chemical dumps, water and air

18
pollution, pesticides, soil erosion, housing improvements,
and malnutrition. Therefore, joint efforts among
environmental groups for research and environmental
education programs are less well established in South Africa
than in the United States.

In the last decade in the United States environmental
studies draw irrefutable conclusions that race, class, and
gender place minority communities--and the women and'
children within them--at higher environmental risk. These
studies indicate discrimination in the siting of hazardous
waste disposal facilities. Further, inequities within the
implementation and enforcement of environmental public
health laws have measurably more to do with race than other
factors.12 For example, the United Church of Christ 1987
study, Toxic Waste and Race in the United States concludes
that clear patterns exist in the siting of hazardous waste-
generating and disposal facilities in communities with
greater minority populations, primarily defined by race.
The study also notes that the nation’s largest hazardous
waste facilities are located in heavily populated and
predominantly minority communities.

Another study undertaken by Clean Sites entitled
Hazardous waste and the Rural Poor (1990), found that

hazardous waste sites in poor rural areas, which are heavily

 

12. From:'Siting of Hazardous Waste and landfills and their Correlation
with the Racial and Socio-Economic Status of Surrounding Communities,"
0.8. General Accounting Office, Washington, D.C. (1983).

19
dependent upon ground water for drinking purposes, were
listed on the Federal Superfund list at half the rate of
other sites nationally.‘3 Although the study by Clean Sites
was conducted in the United States, the rurality and the
poverty of the regions are similar to those of South Africa.
The study reveals that high numbers of the rural poor are
African-American, and that African-Americans and Native
Americans represent the most marginalized groups in the
United States.

This study draws parallels to this location of
environmental problems in the black communities in South
Africa, investigating the interconnectedness of race, class,
and gender and the exposure of the less powerful,
marginalized, and poor people to environmental hazards.

The South African environmental scenario exhibits
several traces of similar practices that have harmed the
environment, especially in black communities. Many people
flee the rural poverty and environmental hazards of the
homelands only to breathe the noxious air of the urban slums
(townships and squatter settlements) where environmental
waste is dumped in their communities. High levels of
mercury have been measured in the Umngeni River, adjacent to

the squatter settlements. This is dangerous for the people

 

13. From: “Hazardous Waste Sites and the Rural Poor: A Preliminary
Assessment“ (1990).

20
who use the river water. Liz Clarke, the columnist for the
Sunday Tribune reports:

if they [samples of water] were taken to the US or

Holland they would be classified as toxic waste.

It is in this river that children swim and fish

and women wash clothing. [Sunday Tribune July 6,

1992:71
The Chrome Company, Thor Chemical Company, and many other
toxic industries have reportedly dumped their industrial
wastes very close to nearby people and communities
(Peacework 1994, The JOhannesburg Star 1992). Most of these
areas are densely populated by blacks, particularly black
women and children (Young 1991). This leads one to conclude
that race, class, and gender are related to environmental
pollution.

On the political front, the African National Congress
(ANC) and other black liberation groups (viz. IFP and PAC)
have voiced concerns about environmental apartheid. Max
Sisulu, head of the ANC's department of Economics and
Planning, states that the ANC believes that "a rational
ecological protection policy requires the dismantling of
apartheid.” He believes the degradation of the land in the
homelands is a consequence of apartheid: "an environmentally
conscious society can only exist in a free democratic
political environment" (Kalan 1993). The ANC has further
rejected the importation of toxic waste to South Africa.

Max Sisulu, head of the ANC's Department of Economics and

Planning, responding to the proposed plans of the government

21
for constructing a huge incinerator near Alexander Bay where
foreign waste will be burnt, said that "the planned facility
will be dismantled with the rest of apartheid structures in
a post-apartheid South Africa" (Albertyn 1990). The
government's plans demonstrate its insensitivity to the
black communities by wanting to site this incinerator in the
Ciskei homeland. The communities at the periphery are

marginalized more than the center ones.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

South Africa provides an ideal research context from
which to explore some fundamental issues in sociological
theory. The same environmental and development problems
faced by South Africa also exist in other countries, whether
developing or developed. The nature of the capitalist world
system is an overriding concern of the Third World nations.
The existing relationship between the core (developed
countries) and the periphery (underdeveloped or developing
countries) (see Figure 2) is one of exploitation by the core
(Adam 1980; Banton 1985; Furnivall 1940; Greenberg 1980;
Garfield 1965; Hechter 1975). In this study I show how and
why this is so and what the effects of this type of

relationship are on disadvantaged groups.

Internal Colonialism and the Cultural Division of Labor
The basic premise of modernization and much Marxian
theory is that development occurs in a succession of
capitalist stages, and that underdeveloped countries today
remain in the original stages of capitalist development
which the developed countries have long since passed (Amin

1977; Frank 1969; Greenberg 1980; Haggard 1990). Based on

22

FIGURE 2

DIAGRAM OF THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
CORE/PERIPHERY RELATIONSHIP

’ , E Home‘lands
KweNmmme \
\
Ldmwa
“WM,” South Africa
Cone
Bophuthamana
vema ll

Hmdeqmd

24
this premise, it is believed that development can be
accelerated in the poorer Third World countries with
technology and economic aid. The periphery then will
develop in the image of the core, and development in the
periphery will follow the same pattern as that of the core.
In developing countries it is assumed that the city, as the
core, acts upon the countryside to facilitate the transition
of rural areas to more modern status.

Many theorists, however, reject this reasoning and
propose different analyses (see Amin 1977; Frank 1969;
Hechter 1975; and Sivanandan 1990. They suggest that
underdeveloped countries support the developed core
countries with their surplus (Frank 1969). Frank argues that

underdevelopment is not original... neither the

past nor the present of the underdeveloped

countries resembles in any important respect the

past of the now developed countries. [1969:3]

Frank's point, that the developed countries were never
underdeveloped, suggests that underdeveloped countries
cannot become developed. His thesis is that the development
of the core--industrially, economically, and socially--does
not bring development to the countries of the periphery.
Rather, it "de-capitalizes" them, turning them into internal
colonies.

Sivanandan (1990) contends that the gap between the
rich and the poor, the developed and the underdeveloped

nations will never be bridged. His argument is based on the

fact that the core is looking for cheap labor and markets in

25
the periphery. What results is dependent capitalist
development, a global economy of dependent development.
Only a few are advanced at the expense risk of the many.
Wallerstein and Martin locate South Africa in the semi-
periphery, linking the core to the more peripheral states of
the poorer.

The internal colonial model clearly demonstrates the
core-periphery relationship. The core dominates the
periphery politically and exploits it materially (Hechter
1975)." This model suggests that the uneven trends of
modernization within a state results in grossly uneven
development amongst different groups and in an unequal
distribution of power and resources (Hechter 1975). Hechter
uses the concepts of internal colonialism and the cultural
division of labor as closely related terms. He was the
first to link the two concepts in a political economy
debate.

In "Internal Colonialism Revised," Hechter (1985)
revisits the concept. The core or superordinate exploits
and monopolizes its power through discriminate and unjust
laws. The outcome of this is that advantaged groups benefit
in the employment, education, welfare, and income sectors,
while other groups remain disadvantaged. This is what

Hechter terms the cultural division of labor (Hechter 1975).

 

14. The concept of ”internal colonialism" was first seen in the writings
of Lenin (1956) and later in Gramsci (1959).

26
He believes that the cultural division of labor contributes
to ”the development of distinctive ethnic identification in
the two groups" (Hechter 1975:9). At this stage, the roles
and statuses occupied by members from both groups become
entrenched both structurally and psychologically.

Fanon (1967) attests to what it means to be at the
periphery psychologically. He argues that the groups at the
periphery often are black and therefore not dealt with as
humans: "the black is not a man." (Fanon 1967:8). All sorts
of images are created when a person is stripped of his or
her identity. Fanon states:

Man is a yes that vibrates to cosmic harmonies.

Uprooted, pursued, baffled, doomed to watch the

dissolution of the truths that he has worked out

for himself, one after the other. [1967:8]

According to Fanon, an inferiority complex amongst black
people and people at the periphery comes as a result of,
first, economic processes, and secondly, the internalization
of this inferiority. The two influence each other, and
blacks come to blame themselves for their position, instead
of creating their own reality and understanding it (Fanon
1967). This is a direct outcome of having been colonized
and internalizing colonialism.

Because decisions, even those that directly affect the
periphery (like income, for instance) are decided at the
core, the result is uneven development (Hechter 1975). This

suggests that industrialization does not diffuse into the

periphery in the same way that it diffuses into the core.

27
The periphery is in the dependent mode as a result of
regional economic inequalities which continue to persist
despite industrialization (Amin 1977; Frank 1969; Hechter
1975).

Internal colonialism does not deny the existence of
culturally distinct groups, which tend to be patterned along
rural/urban differences and social class (as is the
situation in South Africa). Rather, what is important is
the domination that develops through social relations based
on exploitation. It is in the dominant group's interest to
preserve the structure for its own benefit and not for the
well being of the other groups. Internal colonialism gives
the dominant minority group control of the resources during
the development process while blocking the avenues towards
social mobility for disadvantaged groups. Integrated into
this theory are the power relations that are so visible--
those of dependency. The periphery comes to depend on the

core for its livelihood.”

 

15. In South Africa evidence of this is seen with the allocation of
resources. Havens and Flinn (1970) giwe a discussion of this in their
treatment of Marxism.

ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES

IN THE BLACK HOMELANDS AND OTHER BLACK COMMUNITIES

This study assumes that the environmental and
development problems in South Africa's homelands and black
communities have not resulted from poor people and their
ignorance, as has been widely purported, but rather that
these problems result from the government's racist apartheid
policy and its resultant social, economic, and industrial
policies. What the government sees as development of the
environment through the establishment of the industries very
close to the homelands and other places inhabited by blacks
has, in fact, resulted in underdevelopment. South Africa is
sitting on a toxic time-bomb, and the new government must
deal with the poisoned rivers, valleys, gorges, and land
which mostly affects the poor majority in the country (Kalan
1994). I argue that environmental apartheid has brought
untold harm, pollution, disease, and poverty especially in
the homelands and other black communities. Gender is an
important criterion to analyze when looking at this topic
because women are numerically dominant in the homelands for
reasons already cited earlier in the study. In other words,

there is a relationship between race, class, gender, and

28

29

environmental pollution. I argue that the polluted areas in
South Africa are by and large the black communities: the
homelands (where women predominate), townships, and squatter
settlements.‘6

First, there is enough evidence to justify that there
is environmental pollution in South Africa, especially in
the country's peripheral areas--the homelands and other
black areas, both rural and urban. Durning (1990) labels it
"apartheid's environmental toll.” He claims that apartheid
is largely responsible for the environmental problems to
which black people are subjected:

Institutional racism has been as devastating for

South Africa's environment as for its people.

Apartheid has polluted the air, water, pillaged

the bedrock, and turned the earth away like flesh.

In much of the country the soil indeed cannot keep

the people anymore. [Durning 1990:5]
Durning (1990) writes about the environmental problems
ecologically, drawing attention to the man-made problems
through the apartheid structures. He is referring to the
problems of economic inequality experienced by black people
in their communities. The homelands, townships, and
squatter settlements are not areas of development, but

rather of poverty, disease, and death for millions of black

South Africans. All this has resulted from the apartheid

 

16. For a detailed discussion of these polluted areas see Platzyk and
Walker (1985), Moleah (1993), and Desmond (1971) for a historical
discussion of the African people and the land dispossession. Moleah
(1993:446-450) explains how land dispossession is an act of alienation and
how it connects with ancestry.

30
form of government. Through South Africa's segregation
system, at times enforced through forced removals, the
environment has been destroyed in areas where people have
been forced to chop trees and destroy vegetation to survive.
Disease has been widespread because of overcrowding and
people's survival has been threatened (Young 1991). Poverty
has been identified as a crucial element in the
environmental problem (Young 1991). The struggle against
apartheid is not only for political rights but also for the
quality of life for all people. Apartheid does not only
destroy the people and animals, but it degrades the earth,
the air, and the streams (Young 1991). Beinart and Bundy
(1987) provide a rich illustration of how the environment
has completely changed as a result of the apartheid
structures. In a study of Herschel in the Eastern Cape, he
contrasts the district before the turn of the twentieth
century with the situation now and how it has been damaged
through the apartheid processes. According to Beinart and
Bundy (1987), the African peasantry previously was able to
take care of its own inhabitants by producing more food than
it actually consumed while at the same time exporting both
crops and pastoral produce. However, by the turn of the
twentieth century the population could not produce
sufficient food, even in good years (Beinart and Bundy
1987). They state that the region was suffering from high

rates of labor migration and overcrowding by people and

31
stock, resulting in soil erosion and depletion of natural
resources especially firewood. Further, land was in short
supply and there was constant conflict over allocation of
arable land (Beinart and Bundy 1987). The region has since
been characterized with wide spread poverty despite the
attempts that the African people of the region have made,
such as migrating to work in the cities and using protest
demonstrations against apartheid machinery (Beinart and
Bundy 1987). One concludes that the political upheavals and
the resistance in the Herschel district, and indeed in the
rest of the country, have been engineered by the apartheid
system that has denied the African people a decent and
healthy lifestyle. Bundy (1979), in his earlier
publication, The Rise and Fall of the South African
Peasantry, writes on the emergence of the women’s movement
which organized boycotts in the early 19208 for the first
time in the Herschel region. Their complaints were about,
among other things, the land issue, forced migrant labor and
the general food price hike." Bundy's (1979) study is one
example that demonstrates the nature of the rural struggle
and the environmental hardships of the African people in

South Africa, exacerbated by apartheid."

 

17. For a more detailed treatment, refer to Beinart and Bundy (1987:222-
69) and Bundy (1979) in Marks and Atmore (1980).

18. For a detailed treatment of the historical processes in traditional
and modern South Africa see Davenport (1991).

32

Indeed, South Africa's ecological problems are not
unique (Durning 1990, Cock and Koch 1991). Countries all
over the world have suffered environmental problems of soil
erosion, toxic waste, nuclear contamination, and other forms
of ecological disaster. South Africa's apartheid laws,
however, stand out as the most extreme form of
institutionalized racism in any country, developed or
”underdeveloped." Environmental apartheid is very
devastating for the environment and people. Many of the
black areas are deficient in water supply and fertile lands.
Further no steps have been taken to alleviate the
devastation of the environment and to protect human life.
Durning (1990) states that it is very difficult not to hold
apartheid responsible for environmental traumas because of
the escalating racial practicesI9 that have been insti-
tutionalized in the country. It is through apartheid that
we have so much poverty in the peripheries of the country.
It is through apartheid that we have witnessed so many
health problems amongst the black population, and it is
through the same phenomenon that black areas are still
underdeveloped today despite "development" having been
brought to their doorsteps. Cardinal in all the above

mentioned apartheid ills, is the land question.

 

19. Racial practices foisted by the apartheid laws are seen in the Land
Act (1936), which prevented black people from buying land and staying in
what has been designated as white areas of South Africa.

33

Land and the Homelands

It is impossible to do justice to the environmental
pollution forced on black people without a brief analysis of
the land issue.20 The link between environmental matters
and apartheid and economic inequality is particularly
striking in patterns of land ownership. The land issue goes
back to the 17th century with the colonial interpenetration
by Dutch and the British in South Africa. That invasion led
to today's multiracial and multi-ethnic South African
society (xihu 1987). This picture is graphically
illustrated by Jan van Riebeeck in his diary:21

[The Khoi Khoi] strongly insisted that we had been

appropriating more and more of their land, which

had been theirs all these centuries, and on which

they had been accustomed to let their cattle graze

etc. They asked if they could be allowed to do

such a thing supposing they went to Holland, and

they added: It would be of little consequence if

you people stayed here at the fort, but you come

right into the interior and select the best land

for yourselves. [van Riebeeck 1652:1851

Under the terms of the government's Native Land Act of
1913, subsequently revised in 1936, less than 7.5 percent of
South Africa’s land was set aside as reserves for Africans
(over 70 percent of the population) for purchasing (Durning

1990, Pampallis 1991). This meant that Africans who still

resided on the land outside the marked reserves had to work

 

20. See Deborah Posel, The Making of Apartheid 1948-61, for a treatment of
the Native Land Act of 1913 and 1936.

21. Jan van Riebeeck was the leader of the settler expedition that
established a Dutch colony on the Cape in 1652.

34
for the land owners as wage laborers or as tenants
(Pampallis 1991).” Needless to say, this was met with wide
resistance from the Africans, notably the African National
Congress (ANC), which organized a major campaign of
opposition to the Act (Pampallis 1991).

The Native Land Act of 1913 prohibited blacks from
acquiring land outside certain demarcated areas. The act
was aimed not only at securing more land for whites, but it
also destroyed the economy of the black people, causing
overcrowding and ultimately starvation in the black areas
(Best 1977).23 The dispossession of the land was a powerful
force to drive people away or force them to work in the
mines for South Africa's economy. Thousands of Africans
were evicted from their land and forced to become farm
laborers, and many wandered in search of land, suffering
hardships and being forced to kill or sell their starving
animals to keep themselves alive (Pampallis 1991).

However it is not within the scope of this paper to
fully address the land issue. My purpose is to demonstrate

the existence of inhuman injustices affecting black people

 

22. Pampallis (1991) suggests that the reason for the revision of the Act
in 1936 was because the government realized that the allocated land for
the African was insufficient for purposes of subsistence farming that the
African was expected to practice, and therefore would not augment the low
wages that the migrants received in the city.

23. For a further treatment of the land issue and dispossession of the
black people, see Moleah (1993), Pampallis (1991), and Worden (199425) who
raises a very critical point of what he says has been a myth perpetuated
until recently that “colonists moved into an 'empty land', or at least
only began to settle in the interior of the region at about the same time
as the indigenous pastoralists and cultivators....”

35
as a result of land evictions and dispossession.” The
dispossession and control of blacks in South Africa have
created environmental problems, which continue to be related
to the land issue to this day (Davenport 1991). Suffice to
mention that the Land Act marked the beginning of the end of
the limited independence of the African farmer and this
drove the Africans to the reserves (later to be termed
homelands) and to migrant labor.” The situation for blacks
in the homelands is typified by overcrowding, poor
infrastructure with no running water, no electricity, and no
proper sewage system. This overcrowding and inequality in
the land has meant poor living standards for the majority of
the black population. Poor land management and overgrazing
have resulted in untold erosion. The government has
forcibly relocated 3.5 million blacks from their homes
(Schonfield 1993). For instance, the QwaQwa homeland had
329 people per square kilometer, compared to an average of
just 17 people per square kilometer in white South Africa
(Schonfield 1993). In 1989 ten homelands had 16 million
people, which is 43 percent of the nation's population
(Schonfield 1993). The environment in the black areas is a

threat to human life. Herding approximately 87 percent of

 

24. Plaatjie (1987) gives an account of the devastating effects of the
Land Act on the reserves.

25. An analysis of the homeland formation is given in Davenport (1991),
Stedman (1994), Smit and Booysen (1977), Wilson and Ramphele (1989) and
Worden (1994).

36
the black population into 13 percent of the country's
territory (comprising the homelands) in itself spells
environmental disaster. The homelands include four that are
supposedly "independent." These apartheid structures were
created by the South African government against the wishes
and hopes of most black South Africans. The exceptions are
those who benefitted from these puppet state governments
with positions and sometimes even wealth. (They have poor
quality, fragmented patches of land, poor infrastructure,
and few natural resources.) They are literally a dumping
ground, reserved for what the white minority government has
defined as "surplus peoples"(Platzyk and Walker 1985). This
derogatory term of "surplus peoples" refers to women,
children, and infirm old men who are not needed by capital
and therefore not expected to be part of South Africa.

It has been found that poverty is rampant amongst
children, in the homelands with high rates of malnutrition,
stunted growth due to deficient calorie intake, poor
eyesight, and many more health problems (Wilson and Ramphele
1989). The authors highlight poverty as a special case
largely because an economy with a large proportion of its
population being poor has a structure of demand that does
not encourage the production and marketing of the most
needed goods (Wilson and Ramphele 1989). The scenario that
pertains in South Africa is unpardonable in that there is

poverty amidst wealth. The most striking feature of poverty

37
in the country is the degree of inequality that exists
(Wilson and Ramphele 1989). Writing on the same topic,
Fuggle and Rabie (1992:51) state that "poverty and injustice
are morally offensive and politically dangerous". Their
suggestion is that much attention should be focused on the
income gap between the rich and the poor.

Upon entering the cities of South Africa one is greeted
by gruesome poverty of shanty towns built from cardboard and
wood boxes and houses of tin containers. These are homes
belonging to the poor black people. Driving further into
the suburbs, one sees a contrast of this poverty with the
beautiful mansions of rich and famous South Africans.
Meanwhile, while international tourists enjoy the game
parks, relocated black residents live in poverty-stricken
and environmentally degraded homelands and townships
(Schonfield 1993). Schonfield brings the inequalities
created by environmental apartheid alive in South Africa
when she reports on the binary opposition regarding the
lives of the black and the white people in the country. In
spite of the fact that South Africa has large deposits of
coal and uranium and is able to shunt 60 percent of its
electricity to its neighbors within the African continent,
70 percent of its population did not have electricity in
their homes by the 19808 (Schonfield 1993). This situation
has a direct effect on the environmental degradation because

people resort to using wood and high-sulfur bituminous coal

38
for cooking and heating causing rapid deforestation and
pollution of the environment. The picture that is given of
KwaZulu homeland is that the homeland has destroyed 200 of
its forests since 1936 and only remains with 50 (Schonfield
1993). One is led to assume that a similar situation
pertains with the rest of the densely populated regions of
the country, notably the homelands.

The black people that have fled life of the homelands
have run to the urban townships hoping to find life better,
but they are greeted with overcrowding, disease,
unemployment, and homelessness. The position of blacks in
the urban townships was made very clear by the Local
Government Commission. Its report of 1922 states:

It should be a recognized principle that natives--

men, women and children--should only be permitted

within municipal areas in so far and for as long

as their presence is demanded by the wants of the

whites population...The masterless native in urban

areas is a source of danger and a cause of
degradation of both blacks and white. [Report of

Local Government 1922]

Blacks were exploited for their labor with no regard for

their welfare as people, and their presence in white areas

was a temporary one, for labor purposes only.26

Mining
The mining industry's need for an exploitable labor

force and the government's need to restrict black ownership

 

26. The Pass Law, enacted as far back as 1895 was used as a measure to
control the movements of blacks.

39
of land resulted in the development of a migrant labor
system in the early 20th century. It was mining, especially
for gold, that changed the nature of socio-political course
of events in South Africa (Stadler 1987). The success of
the system was depended on keeping wages low. This had
implications for miners’ families in the homelands because
they could not support their families in the reserves,
resulting in poverty of the homelands.27 Environmental
apartheid is found everywhere around the life of the black
people in South Africa (Schonfield 1993). Mining not only
creates poverty in the homelands, it also creates
environmental degradation through the dumping of hazardous
wastes from mining operations. Economic activity has given
rise to great prosperity the world over, however,
simultaneously it also has given rise to environmental
damage and risks at the same time. The asbestos mill” is a
hazard to the neighboring black areas, which are exposed to
asbestos dust. Many hazardous dump sites are located very
close to black communities in South Africa (le Grange 1992,
Kalan 1994). In the Eastern Transvaal Highveld at
Sasolburg, a coal mine has high pollution levels (The

Johannesburg Star 1/25/1992). This mine is located very

 

27. For further insight into the life of the miners and their families,
see van Onselen's Chibaro (1976).

28. The asbestos mill is near Mafefe Village in north Eastern Transvaal
and the Mohlaphutse River'which runs through it is affected by the dumping
of toxic wastes from the mining operations.

40
near the Zamdela community. Black children in the community
are experiencing high levels of allergy-related symptoms
such as asthma, itchy palates, runny noses, and infected
eyes, reportedly related to toxic waste exposure (Schonfield
1993).

South Africa is one of the world's largest producers of
gold, uranium, chromium, platinum, coal, and manganese, yet
the industry is not properly handled. These economic
activities have resulted in more problems for the ecosystem
causing rainfall that is more acidic than before, destroying
the ozone layer, causing loss of species, and changing the
weather patterns and elevating the sea levels due to the
”greenhouse effect" (Fuggle and Rabie 1992). During the
production of gold and coal, acid seeps through the ground,
and toxic gases escape from the furnaces polluting the
environment (Fuggle and Rabie 1992). The communities that
are most at risk from these degradations are the poor ones
which happen to be black. "Most of the land downwind and
downstream from mining operations is inhabited by black
communities” which are most affected (Schonfield 1993). As
the acid rainfall damages the fresh water ecosystem,
polluting ground water, rivers, lakes and fishes and birds
as well, it is the poor that drink the water from the rivers
and lakes; therefore, they, with no basic infrastructure,
are more at risk. Schonfield (1993) provides an example of

the prevalence of asbestos in the village of Mafefe in the

41

eastern Transvaal, which has 19 asbestos tailing dumps,
which are referred to as the "dumps of death" by the local
people. As a result, the asbestos tailings are found
throughout the villages, at the children’s playgrounds, in
rivers where women wash clothes, and in their homes and
schools as building material (Koch 1989). The author in the
Weekly Mail (6/2-6/8, 1989) reports that some of the highest
dust levels found in the village are 100 times more than
would require immediate attention in the United States. No
attention has been paid for all these years to the pollution
in the village because "only" poor black people live in the
area. Brittain (1992), writing in the Sunday Times Metro
also reports on the lack of attention given to the Alexandra
Township, a black township, where waste is dumped from the
white neighborhoods.” Because the residents of Alexandra
do not have the money to stop the practice, it continues
unabated. Acid rainfall also destroys the natural forests
and agricultural crops too.

Fuggle and Rabie (1992) highlight the severity of air
pollution in the Eastern Transvaal highveld, an active

industrial cite with coal fields and a dense population that

 

29. Sunday Times Metro (10/11/92). Similar reports have been cited in
other newspapers, including: The Weekly Hail (August 1992) reports on
possible exposure of 14,500 workers to lead poisoning; Sunday Times Metro
(3/31/1992) notes that the Germiston townships were exposed to dust from
three mine dumps in the area; The Johannesburg Star (6/2/1991) reports on
the closing of the Bulembu asbestos mine due to pollution from the
asbestos plant; and The Weekly Hail (1/25/1991) reports on Katlehong
asbestos poisonous dumps used by children as sports field.

42
burns domestic coal in their homes. Electrifying the homes
would partly relieve the urban pollution.

Anderson (1990), basing his reports from large mining
corporations and scientific journals, notes the prevalence
of tuberculosis (TB) among black South Africans. He reports
that the risk of TB for blacks in gold mines is high and
that amongst whites it is not a killer at all. Writing on
the impact of the migrant labor system on the heterosexual
relations of miners and their susceptibility to the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Jochelson, et al (1991) found
that the migrant labor structure has generated a market for
prostitution in mining centers. Women prostitutes are
particularly vulnerable to contracting HIV from the mine
workers. Van Onselen (1976) exposes some of the problems
brought about by the mining/migrant labor system, namely
encouraging promiscuity among the workers so as to avert the
real problems such as the low wages paid to the mine workers
and the conditions around the mines. Also by condoning this
activity, the management seeks to protect their wives from
being victims of rape from the workers (Jochelson et al.
1991; van Onslen 1976). But the cruelty of the system is
seen when the workers are repatriated to the homelands once
they are HIV-infected (Jochelson 1991). In other words, the
system merely exports the HIV problem to the homelands where
there is no infrastructure to offer palliative treatment of

the condition.

43
Agricultural pollution and health issues

Rural South Africa's pollution and resulting health
conditions are little known and have been little researched.
The roots of environmental apartheid are to be found not in
the mines so much but buried in the farms where agricultural
production is controlled by white farmers where the
relationship between white master and black servant was
forged long before the word apartheid was ever conceived
(Ainslie 1977). The cruelty of whites against blacks is
greatest in the rural areas, where the white farmers
continuously demand more land and cheaper labor from the
black people (Ainslie 1977). Ainslie suggests that the
farms provide an example of the exploitative nature of the
apartheid system. "Nowhere is the face of apartheid uglier
than in the harsh and beautiful spaces of the veld" (Ainslie
1977:7).

Ainslie (1977) writes on the conditions for farm
laborers in rural South Africa. While the average white
farmer's income was over R6,000 (approximately $2,000) per
year, the black laborer earned R144 to R192 (approximately
$48 to $64) in cash and kind. Not only were the wages
extremely low, but the conditions on the farms also were
poor. Workers labored 14 or more hours, seven days a week,
with no holidays, paid or sick leave and had no access to

medical services except for injuries (Ainslie 1977). The

44
employment of young children on the farms is common (Davies
1991, Ainslie 1977).

Housing for the workers on the farms is generally very
poor. Often they are expected to build their own houses with
mud. Very few farmers provide housing to workers, and if
they do, it is often inadequate with no running water,
sanitation, or lighting (Davies 1991). Often workers are
housed in barracks with shared toilet facilities (if any at
all).

They lived in an L-shaped compound which had once

been whitewashed and may have served as stables.

Some of the windows were merely holes in the

walls...There were no toilet or water facilities

apart from an outside cold water tap. There was

no light, and fires had to be made on the floors

in winter for both warmth and light. [Davies

1991:15]

As expected with this lifestyle the general level of
health is very low. Infectious diseases are on the increase
because of both poor sanitation and lack of proper sewage
system. Diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera,
malnutrition, scabies, gastroenteritis, and ringworm are all
on the increase (Davies 1991).

Apart form the poor health that plagues the workers on
the farms, the latter are still faced with work-related
problems. Workers fall victims to occupational hazards
received from work (Davies 1991; Ainslie 1977). Because no

protective clothing is provided by the farmers, workers

often are exposed to chemicals which can cause diseases and

45

even death. "Lethal substances used in agriculture have
multiplied. Pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides, dipping
chemicals, paint, and fuel pose health risks for workers..."
(Davies 1991:18). Davies gives the statistics supplied by
Department of Health in 1981 on pesticide and chemical
poisoning as 100 deaths and 92 poisonings. Those of the
International Labor Organization (ILO) estimate deaths from
chemical poisoning at about 1,600 every year (Davies 1991).
An explanation to the vulnerability of the workers is given
by Davies (1991:18) quoting Hendrikz:

Many farm workers cannot read. They don't know

what they are using pesticides banned elsewhere

are used in South Africa, although there is very

little information about this....The whole

environmental question has hardly entered people's

consciousness in South Africa.
Many of the children are said to be losing their eyesight,
and the condition is exacerbated by the pollution in the
rivers, air, and soil. Children also suffer from allergy-
related diseases like asthma, itchy palates and streamy
noses (Young 1991). All this is indicative of the amount of
pollution in the environment. Agricultural productivity in
the overcrowded homelands fell as the latter became
overcrowded and labor was scarce because men were working as
migrant laborers in the urban areas. This resulted in the
environmental degradation of the homelands. Referring to
the Transkei, the 1932 Native Economic Commission noted the:

denudation, donga erosion, deleterious plant

succession, destruction of woods, drying up of
springs, robbing of the soil of its productive

46

resources, in short the creation of desert
conditions. [Daphne 1984:34]

The same report also noted low agricultural productivity and
impoverishment leading to malnutrition and death.

Daphne (1984) argues that historically the reserves
were not so impoverished. Until the introduction of the
Native Land Act of 1913, African people were able to own
land and secure livelihoods (Daphne 1984). With the
dispossession of the African people through the Land Act,
the African economy was destroyed in order to create a
stable labor force for mining, agriculture, and industry
(Daphne 1984). The homelands then became the major supplier
of cheap labor in mines, industries, and cities.

Since the 19608, we conclude that the homelands have
served two functions for South Africa: they have provided a
good source of migrant labor as well as shelter for the

”surplus peOple" excluded from South Africa's economy.

Border industries and pollution

In exchange for the constant flow of labor, South
Africa hoped to bring development to the homelands through
industries. However, the government has failed to achieve
its mission, namely to develop the homelands through the
creation of industries. As discussed below, in fact the
industries are located in the border areas of white South

Africa, rather than directly in the homelands themselves.

47

First, it is important to examine how South Africa suc-
ceeded in bringing industries to the poverty-stricken border
regions. Although these industries were designed to improve
the homelands, they were located on the South African side
of the border. Why? The South African government did not
wish to take responsibility for the homeland laborers and
their social overhead capital costs. The laborers lived in
the homeland and commuted to work in "South Africa" where
the industry was located. Meanwhile, the poorer homeland
was responsible for all social costs of schools, housing,
urban services, infrastructure, social welfare, and medical
support when the laborers or their families were ill.
Furthermore, the tax on industrial production and profits
derived to the South African government and local
authorities and not the homelands. Sick miners working in
South African mines are repatriated home when they fall sick
to become the responsibility of the homeland that has no
basic infrastructure to care for the sick (Jochelson 1991;
van Onselen 1976).

Certain facts stand out as key issues in enticing
international companies to invest in South Africa.30 South

Africa was successful in this exercise only because it

 

30. Woods's thesis (1992), Taiwanese Investment in the Homelands of South
Africa, provides a detailed treatment of the inducements offered by the
South African government in attracting investors to the border areas of
the homelands. Although his thesis is on Taiwan, he analyzes what was
happening with the multinational companies investing in South African
borders.

48
promised incentives for the prospective industrialists which
included low wages (Woods 1992). The welfare of the
laborers was never a consideration. The only time that
management showed concern was when productivity fell because
of the moral of the sick laborers (van Onselen 1976). South
Africa has benefitted at the expense of the homelands
through the tax revenue she receives from the industries'
profits.

A key factor in attracting industries was the
availability of a large sector of low-cost workers, mainly
women. Due to the South African influx control system that
has put a curb on the movements of blacks into the cities,
black women have had fewer opportunities to migrate to the
cities than men. Women find themselves trapped in the
homelands, where they become easy targets of exploitation in
the border industries around the homelands. "Employers
regard women as more reliable than men as well as being

cheaper to employ..." (Wellings and Black 1984:25).

Employment of women in industries

Border industries” are the largest employer of black
women in the homelands. Women are paid less than men
because employers define them as secondary wage earners;

their fathers, husbands, or brothers provide "the primary

 

31. See Seidman (1978), Wellings and Black (1984), and Woods (1992) for a
fuller treatment of border industries.

49
income” for the family. Clearly, it is presumed that the
head of the household is a man. This gender bias is blind to
the fact that a large number of black women head families
for very many reasons.

Chief among these reasons is the migrant labor system.
In its quest for cheap labor for the mines, this system has
robbed the family of its means to survive by dismantling the
family system and separating members from each other. The
migrant labor system recruits able-bodied, semi-literate,
medically and physically fit young men. Left out of this
exercise are women, children, and infirm old men. In
addition to working in agriculture and the border
industries, women must care for children and the infirm men.
Most of these elderly men have previously been involved in
the migrant labor system and have been exhausted, squeezed
dry, and dumped by the system. Emerging from this
extraction of young men from the homelands is a
disproportionately large population of women who constitute
a labor reservoir in the homelands. This is underscored by
the latest population statistics showing the predominance of
black women in factory employment in the homelands.

Table I documents the ratio of black women to black men
in factory employment in five homelands. The figures are
skewed towards female employees. The clothing and textile
factories in the homelands constitute 24 of the 104

factories, and women constitute 92 percent of the workforce

50
in these industries (Pudifin and Ward 1986). The labor
implications suggested by these figures have relevance for
the foundations for development in the homelands.
Industries have exploited black women's labor by paying low
wages and creating dangerous, unhealthy work conditions at
work and in black communities. What black women are
experiencing is triple oppression arising from the

intersection of race, class, and gender.

Table 1. Black Women in Manufacturing Employment in the Homelands.

 

Homeland Year Total Male Female 8 Female
Venda 1976 765 279 486 63.5
Ciskei 1982 5,530 1,977 3,553 64.2
Bophuthatswana 1982 16,006 7,597 8,409 52.5
Lebowa 1983 2,157 1,087 1,070 49.6
Zulu 1985 14,030 5,313 8,717 62.1

 

Source: South African Institute of Race Relations, Johannesburg (1986).

In industries, women are preferred to men because they
are believed to be more easily manipulated, docile, willing
to do boring or repetitive work, patient, and skilled at
tasks requiring manual dexterity. Men, in contrast, are
viewed as restless, impatient, and prone to becoming
frustrated with monotonous work (Cockburn 1988; Feuntes and
Ehrenreich 1981). All of this is suggestive of the assumed

malleable nature of women.

51
In a study in the Kwa-Zulu homeland male wages averaged

R3,284 per year (approximately US $9,852), whereas female
wages were R1,224 per year (approximately US $3,672), or 37
percent of male wages. In the same study in 1984 in the
Venda homeland, three quarters of the 4,500 women employees
received less than R60 per month (approximately US $180),
and less than 5 percent were paid more than R100 per month
(approximately US $300) in wages. Comparing South Africa’s
homeland wages with those of the United States and Taiwan,
one Taiwanese industrialist states that electronic workers
are paid $600 a month in the United States, between $200-

$400 in Taiwan, and $50 in South Africa (Woods 1991).32

Cultural scene

A significant aspect of the destruction of the
environment is the impact on the traditional life of the
people. At a cultural level, people are more concerned
about their values, practices, traditional beliefs, and
customs, which provided a deeper meaning to nature. Now the
culture is being eroded and is likely not to be communicated
to the coming generations. No respect is paid to their
past. The social processes that underpin people's lives are
seriously hampered as society’s solidarity weakens and as

the society is torn apart through the migrant labor system,

 

32. Weeds (1992) conducted interviews‘withtTaiwanese industrialists intone
homeland, Kwa-Ndebele.

52
for example. As people go separate ways in migrant labor,
their cultural heritages are lost because of the weakening
of social ties. This deprives the poor and marginalized of

the values and cultural integrity which gives life meaning.

CONCLUSION

This paper focuses on the dialectic between development
processes and the degradation of the environment in South
Africa's black communities. Apartheid has created
structural problems for the majority of the population of
South Africa through its racist Laws, which are detrimental
to the black members of the population. The black areas
(homelands, townships and squatter settlements) have been
very crucial to the political economy of the environment and
development in South Africa. The black areas have provided
the country with a readily available and permanent labor
force, whose expendable nature was exploited by the mining,
agricultural, and industrial sectors.

From this analysis, it is clear that the homelands and
the other black communities have not been viable entities
for the black population, contrary to the image proffered by
the government. The creation of industries adjacent to the
black areas did not bolster economic development in the
homelands and other black areas. In contrast, it brought
all sorts of problems, ranging from diseases to landlessness
as well as animosity and conflict between the different

homelands. The exigencies of apartheid obstructed effective

53

54
job creation in the homelands. As a result, the
government's homeland policy proved unsuccessful. It has
led to poverty, misery, poor health, ethnic wars, and lack
of infrastructure within those black communities.

Apartheid is responsible for the environment and
development problems that blacks experience in their
communities. In this paper I focus more on the homelands
and the reasons for their establishment because they are the
most degraded and polluted black areas. "Borders of the
homelands were carefully drawn and sometimes redrawn to
exclude anything of value... [including] mineral resources
and fertile land" (Durning 1990:8). In other words, the
South African government was giving away what it did not
want to the homelands.

Environmental problems arise when we fail to put people
at the center of the problem, when we do not address local
needs of the people. It is clear that the goals of
apartheid were first and foremost to protect the interests
of white South Africa. There was never a concern for
uplifting the homelands. When the border industries were
created, with all the concomitant variations of incentives
that accompanied this practice, they were built on the white
side of the homeland boundaries, for reasons of ideological
and racial purity and for tax benefits. This meant that the
homelands were deprived of ever receiving economic and other

benefits, they only had their wages to contend with--wages

55
that were dismally low. The very idea that the industries
were positioned on the side of South Africa, proves my
thesis that the industries were not meant to develop the
homelands.

Because the industries did not have much to offer,
especially to women, they left the homelands and joined
white South Africa. This opened new forms of employment for
black women in the informal economy. The informal economy
arises as a result of a scarcity of jobs as well as the poor
wages determined by the apartheid structure.

South Africa's political tool of the homeland system
has failed in its overall aim because of its neglect of the
environment, an important aspect for the success of its
economy. In trying to boost the economy, secure resources,
and protect white minority rights, South Africa has
seriously endangered its black population and its
environment and therefore, the long-term welfare of the
entire country. All this was created under the banner of
"development," which is couched in the apartheid system.

The time has come to overhaul the system and bring changes
to the environment and the people of South Africa through
the establishment of democratic policies that will afford
the people of South Africa a healthy environment and quality
of life without creating any dependency amongst its people.

It is a sobering realization that environmental

degradation and pollution is a much debated topic within the

56
national liberation struggle in South Africa. People within
the liberation movements have become aware of apartheid's
legacy for the environment. This legacy in black
communities is evidenced by the lack of infrastructure,
unemployment and landlessness. The inequalities become more
acute when one internally compares white South Africa (the
core) with the periphery (black communities).

The political actors in the transition of South Africa
have a positive stance on environmental issues. This is
unlike the past regimes in the Nationalist Party, which
showed a lack of interest in environmental issues and
displayed a contemptuous attitude towards black South
Africans. The determination expressed by the major
political players for the new South Africa on the
environmental question is encouraging. The African National
Congress (ANC) promises to "counter with vigor any
degradation of the environment" and sees the abolition of
apartheid as essential to halting institutional
environmental damage like that caused by the homeland system
(Frontline Magazine 1990:10). The Pan Africanist Congress
(PAC) believes in a holistic approach to issues on the
environment and in balanced planning that takes into
consideration the needs of all people. Interestingly, the
Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO) has expressed its
views in a negative manner: "We have better things to do

than get on a bandwagon with ignorant white people who need

57
an interest to fill their time" (Frontline Magazine
1990:12). Dr Gomolemo Mokae, Vice President of AZAPO
states: "The Greens leave me cold" (Frontline Magazine
1990:13). His comment expresses views widely entertained by
most blacks in South Africa, who saw the environmental
question as a white rhetoric, something to pass time with,
to entertain. They felt that the government was deliberate
in stressing the black communities and that it did not
intend to change its apartheid norms. The Unity Movement
and Inkatha Freedom Party stress the link between
socioeconomic disadvantage and environmental damage. They
feel that the issues involved are basically survival issues
and that they should be treated as such. The National
Party's (NP) rhetoric bears no relation to its past
thinking; like the Democratic Party (DP), it calls for a
holistic, integrated approach to the environment. The
Conservative Party (CP) views the situation as follows:

Serious cultural differences exist between the

various races. The CP sees development regarding a

future new South Africa...only along the lines of

separate development.... [Frontline Magazine

1990:18] '

It seems, therefore, that most organizations in South
Africa have a positive approach to the environment, except
AZAPO and the CP. There is hope for redressing South
Africa's environmental and development problems. When the

new government comes to power it will have the task of

addressing these issues and correcting the wrongs of past

58
regimes. Ultimately, whatever development is promoted in
South Africa must be meaningful for the country's political
economy and must avoid the environmental degradation created
by years of environmental apartheid.

With the military onslaught that has been orchestrated
from within and without South Africa, the environment has
been severely poisoned. Both the industries and the South
African government have felt justified in polluting the
environment because of the "crisis of the total Communist
onslaught against South Africa," and have thereby subjected
everything else, including black welfare and health, second
to survival of white interests. It is up to the new South
Africa to make right the wrongs and bring the country back
to its proper place that will be conducive for human
development.

South Africa should not embark on the road that seems
to have been followed by the rest of the Western nations,
notably the United States, of excessive consumption
associated with affluence. Fuggle and Rabie (1992) warn
that more attention should be given to the promotion of
economic development for the alleviation of the pressure on
the resources. The authors are critical of the
conservationists who advocate for population control as way
of curbing poverty and thereby reducing environmental
degradation, but rather advocate for economic growth or

redistribution. As far as they are concerned focus should

59
be on building growth and encouraging redistribution of
resources and not turn a blind eye to the excessive
consumption by the affluent (Fuggle and Rabie 1992). They
contend that alleviation of poverty is more important than
population control because this scenario can curb
environmental deterioration directly by reducing pressure on
the critical resources exploited by the poor while
indirectly reducing the high population growth rate (Fuggle
and Rabie 1992). People can be an asset or liability
depending on how prepared and ready they are to play a
productive role in society.

In South Africa, the combination of apartheid and
capitalism has brought hardships for the majority of its
people, the black population. First, the land dispossession
of the black people forced them to migrate to the city and
to contribute to the capital production, mainly in the
mines. Second, this migration meant that the men were
separated from their families for lengthy periods. Third,
the earnings that they received from the mines were too low
to support the miners and their families in the homelands.

It should not be forgotten that these black
communities, in particular the homelands and townships were
designed and created by the state's policy of rural
dispossession and forced relocation and that the squatter
settlements is an attempt to repel state control and

repression in an effort to represent the people's struggle

60
for survival in urban areas. However the people's struggle
still continues because the problems on the environment
manifest themselves everywhere in various forms where the
poor black people try to make a living.

There is still a long way to go in solving the
environmental issues in South Africa, particularly as they
affect the poorer blacks. Even though the major political
parties in South Africa supportive of the environmental
concerns, the problem lies in correcting the damage already
done. Who has to pay for the remedy of the environment?
Given the debt crisis of South Africa, what resources will
the country have to reforest, care for aquatic resources,
and for rehabilitating lives? How will the decisions be
made in the future toward the environment when environmental
protection will increase costs of industries and, the latter
will argue for the cutting down of profits for stockholders
and the government’s taxes. Will it be possible to strike
trade offs regarding development and environmental
upliftment? Or must we assume that the time has not yet
come for South Africa to squarely address the environmental
problem while still saddled with other much more pressing
problems, including debt crisis, wide unemployment, and
other problems? Is this a critical issue for South Africa?
Can a high priority be placed on the environmental issues
and development? Can South Africa go ahead on a road to

democracy without first addressing this issue?

61

These are critical questions that need to be addressed
when we look at the question of environment and development.
The way I conceive development as applied by the West on the
Third World countries basically means dependency and the
exploitation of resources and the raising of profits. In
the mainstream discourse, development has come to mean
transformation, that has more often than not led to
dependency and degradation. There is a need for
reconceptualizing these broad and often demystified terms.
The Third World conception of development must center around
people's needs, most important, being democracy. Likewise,
environment has also been restricted to concerns isolated
from development. Environment and development need to be
redefined since they address similar issues. We need to
develop a framework in which environment and development
become mutually intelligible concepts in terms of one
another.

There is a long road ahead of South Africa as she seeks
to redress these issue in political debates, and it seems

the answers are still a long way off.

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