District development forums? : towards an alternative to current land reform policy in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Muden is a poor, rural hamlet in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. The sub district of Muden formspart of the Presidential Lead Pilot Land Reform Redistribution Project within KwaZulu Natal.This study analyses the negative impact of the current land reform programme on this ruralenvironment. The research indicates a situation of severe poverty, high dependency, a lack ofsocial infrastructure and a need for strong participatory government at local level. It also showshow existing land reform policies and current development practises are inappropriate within theircurrent context. Proposals are formulated about a possible strategy that can be used to movebeyond these problems.This study follows a systematic approach in which the reader is first shown what the facts aboutland reform within Muden, KwaZulu Natal are, and secondly what challenges are induced by thesefacts. In each chapter the perspectives are altered to add depth and to illustrate the complexity ofthe situation. The focus also falls on moments or aspects of crisis and how the differentstakeholders have actually responded to these. From a normative perspective, guidelines areidentified in a reasoned manner from the discussion in each chapter that help identify what couldbe done in order to overcome the crisis of development and land reform in Muden.The first chapter introduces the reader to Muden, KwaZulu Natal, through a brief history of thedistrict from a land reform perspective. The reader is given an understanding of the currentsituation prevailing in the Muden Valley through an explanation of the origins of the conflict overland and other natural resources. In the second chapter the social fabric of Muden is described,considering the perceived ethical dilemma between development and environmental managementwithin the context of land reform. A need for an integrated management strategy emerges. In thethird chapter the social lens is exchanged for an environmental perspective, discussing the conceptof sustainability in terms of the natural environment. Through a discussion about the quality oflife of the people of Muden, both pre and post land reform, Chapter 4 brings together the socialand biophysical arguments and makes a case for sustainable development. Against thebackground of this overview of the current situation of Muden, Chapter 5 is used for a rigorousscrutiny of the current approach to land reform/rural development. In this chapter the criticalpoints of intervention are identified. These are points where decisions have impacted negatively upon the land reform project in the respective stages of project planning and projectimplementation and how these have contributed to the current crisis within Muden.The final chapter formulates a (hopefully) persuasive proposal towards the establishment ofDistrict Development Forums as an alternative approach to the current/conventional approach toland reform /rural development in Muden, KwaZulu Natal. I propose that these forums may forma practical institutional framework which have the potential to move us beyond the presentquandaries o f the current land reform/rural development experience.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University