- Title
- The land restitution programme on Rural Livelihoods in the Amathole District, Eastern Cape: The case of Cata Community land claim.
- Creator
- Mnqandi, Nomgqibelo Beauty
- Subject
- Restitution -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Land tenure -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- M Soc Sc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/10453
- Identifier
- vital:35475
- Description
- The history of South Africa has been shaped by the dictatorial laws of the apartheid regime which ushered an order of domination and segregation, ostensibly to perpetuate social inequality along racial lines. In the process the white minority intended to stifle the potential of the black communities and render them subservient and unable to question or stand against white domination. To this effect the white minority instituted discriminatory laws such as The Native Land Act of 1913, among others, in a bid to give impetus to the dispossession of black communities of their land. The dispossessed people were eventually forcefully removed from their land and posted to the middle of nowhere, at the so-called Ciskei and Transkei territories. In these homelands, as these states were called, the black South Africans started to feel the pinch of apartheid more. The worst of all, these people were impoverished since they had no jobs. It is only after the emergence of the democratic dispensation, in 1994, that the transformative action was taken even though it failed to deliver as expected. In the process, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform was established with a mission to transform and redress the evils of the past by either giving the dispossessed back their land, alternative land or financial compensation, among other arrangements. However, since it was difficult to give people back their land, the most popular option became financial compensation. This choice, it has been argued, was influenced by the high levels of poverty, high unemployment rate, low rural household incomes and poor levels of education – instances which may have led to the beneficiaries attaching little or no value towards land ownership and other possible means of land restitution. As such, ii the majority of the community thought that financial compensation would lead to sustainable livelihood and would, therefore, not allow such opportunity to slip off their hands. However, more than two decades after the emergence of the democratic dispensation, the popular financial compensation has not yielded the expected results. Yet there is a Cata community which, being among the first members of the society to successfully claim for land restitution opted for land restoration and financial compensation award was given to claimants to pay for houses that were demolished during the betterment process. Out of the award, the Cata community took a calculated risk and invested 50% of the compensation money towards the development and improving the livelihood of the Cata community. This being the case, the study sought to explore to what extent the restitution programme (with the financial compensation option) could succeed in improving the livelihoods of the Cata community. In a way, while this statement is the main objective of the study, it also satisfies the key question of the study. It will ensure that the Cata community, in their attempt to lead sustainable livelihoods, will become creative and ensure that people have good paying jobs, they budget and rationalise before using money; and that they are even prepared to take calculated risks in order to succeed, just as the Cata communities have done. No doubt this would ensure that every member of the society enjoys and is regaled by the fruits and transformative actions of the new democratic dispensation. Qualitative research methodology has been selected to conduct research of this study because it requires a researcher to dig deep to the research problems and give out rich research findings with insight because community experiences can only be understood qualitatively not through the statistics. The main findings of this study among others are that financial compensation should be linked with iii development in order to sustain livelihoods of the rural poor as the case has been with Cata community. A number of communities who opted financial compensation did not lead a sustainable livelihood instead they either became poorer or fell victims of poverty because they fail to use their financial compensation award wisely.
- Format
- 209 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Management and Commerce
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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