The weak to strong state involvement and political accountability levels schema
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Mkize, N N
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: South Africa -- Socio-economic development South Africa -- Politics
- Language: English
- Type: text , Text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/165364 , vital:41237
- Description: The propositionis that socio-economic development from local to national levels often straddles at least four pathways that are driven by two main variables:the relative strength or weakness of (1) state (and government) involvementin the management of public affairs and resources and (2) the mechanisms for ensuring political accountability. The four pathways, with associated attributes, have presented opportunities or challenges that have promoted or collapsed the sustainable economic development of many post-colonial countries. Using the two main variables we can locate different countries in distinct categories (quadrants) across a two-dimensional Cartesianplane, with state involvement on the Y-axis and state and government accountability to citizens on the X-axis.
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- Date Issued: 2020
A cooperative benefits framework in South Africa's land redistribution process: the case of sugarcane farmland transfers
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142922 , vital:38176 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2012.741207
- Description: A good indicator of successful land redistribution cases has to be the continuation of viable productivity rates in their post-transfer periods. Continued productivity benefits all the stakeholders that are involved in the process. Unfortunately, negative productivity levels have been reported in numerous South African land redistribution transfers in recent years. A game theoretic perspective is adopted to illustrate and argue that cooperation among key stakeholders, which could be enforced through long-term contracts between land buyers, sellers and new owners, may lead to maintenance and higher productivity levels and other benefits within the country's land redistribution process.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Institutions and economic research: a case of location externalities on agricultural resource allocation in the Kat River basin, South Africa. A Rejoinder
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2013
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143002 , vital:38184 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1080/03031853.2013.798069
- Description: In Mbatha and Antrobus (2008), an argument was put forward against an importation or adoption of universal models or general theorems to explain locally prevailing socio-economic conditions and predict outcomes in varied geographical contexts such as in the Kat River basin. In response to this argument a comment in this edition argues that our “results are caused by, metaphorically speaking, comparing apples and oranges. If, however, all of the relevant information is taken into account, a simple economic model may suffice to depict the situation within the KRV.” Here we illustrate that the comment comes from a misreading of basic details in the original discussion and in its construction and presentation of an alternative model of the KRV conditions the comment reiterates our original argument that general models and theorems are likely to fail to explain local intricacies primarily because they are not founded on local historical institutions.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Physical, political and local practice factors as barriers to agricultural development: a case of the Kat River valley, South Africa
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2011
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142947 , vital:38178 , DOI: 10.2174/1874923201104010091
- Description: The Kat River Valley, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, provided a case study against which propositions of determinants of economic development were tested. Physical location was found to matter in determining the level of development and economic leverage which Middle Kat farmers had compared to those downstream in accordance with Bromley's (1982) proposition. Physical location, however, was not a determining factor for farmers in the Upper Kat River who were the least developed. As predicted by Ostrom (1990), high transaction costs stemming from information asymmetries, selfish interests coupled with poor leadership, an unequal distribution of power and the flouting of formal agreements ensured the demise of a once successful Hacop project in the Upper Kat. Finally, Hirschman's (1960) much earlier line of argument was supported in that the nature of proposed development programmes and the compatibility with community values or ‘self images’ contributed to the lack of success of an externally initiated development effort. The findings and conclusion serve an important lesson to economic researchers and decision makers not to duplicate policies for implementation in all geographical and social contexts on the basis of their success elsewhere.
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- Date Issued: 2011
A Game Theoretic Framework for Cooperative Benefits in South Africa’s land redistribution process: a case of Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal Sugarcane Farmland Transfers (No. 308-2016-5118)
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142958 , vital:38180 , https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/96156/
- Description: A good indicator of successful farm redistribution cases has to be the continuation of viable productivity rates in their post transfer periods. Continued productivity benefits all the stakeholders that are involved in the process. Unfortunately negative productivity levels have been reported in numerous South African land redistribution transfers in recent years. A game theoretic perspective is adopted to argue that cooperation among key stakeholders, which could be enforced through long term contracts between a land buyer, sellers and new owners, would lead to higher productivity levels and other benefits. Additional benefits would, for example, include market related prices paid by a buyer.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Institutions and economic research: a case of location externalities on agricultural resource allocation in the Kat River basin, South Africa
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142991 , vital:38183 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2013.798069
- Description: The Physical Externality Model is used to illustrate the potential limitations of blindly adopting formal models for economic investigation and explanation in varied geographical contexts. As argued by institutional economists for the last hundred years the practice limits the value and relevance of most general economic inquiry. This model postulates that the geographical location of farmers along a given watercourse, in which water is diverted individually, leads to structural inefficiencies that negatively affect the whole farming community. These effects are felt more severely at downstream sites and lead to a status quo where upstream farmers possess relative economic and political advantages over their counterparts elsewhere. In the study of the Kat River basin these predictions appear to be true only in as far as they relate to legal and political allocations and use of water resources.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Land price premiums in South Africa's land redistribution process: a case study of Northern Kwazulu-Natal sugarcane farms
- Authors: Mbatha, Cyril N , Antrobus, Geoffrey G , Van Rooyen, Jonathan
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/142980 , vital:38182 , DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2010.491298
- Description: The desire to transfer 30 per cent of commercial farmland into the hands of black South Africans has progressed slower than anticipated. Politicians and government officials have blamed the market approach to the purchase of land for the challenges and failures in the process. An analysis of the transfer of sugarcane land in two districts in KwaZulu-Natal over the period 2000 to 2006 permitted a comparison of the prices paid to commercial farmers both in private transactions and in the case of sales to government. Data did not support the contention that the slow rate of transfer was due to a manipulation of land prices by landowners in an attempt to stall the process. It was concluded that the state lost most of its bargaining power in the land reform market due to the drawn out nature of the land valuation processes.
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- Date Issued: 2010