RESEARCH

FHISER seeks to play a significant role in the development and expansion of a dynamic research culture on the East London campus of the University of Fort Hare. It strives to achieve this objective through dedicated research and post-graduate programmes, which focus on critical social, cultural and economic research issues in the Eastern Cape, and beyond.

The FHISER Land, Livelihoods and Rural Development Programme emerged out of the Institute’s involvement in research into land restitution claims in the Eastern Cape in the early 2000s. Starting with the verification of a set of forestry claims in the former Ciskei and developing into a thorough-going involvement with the complex issues around betterment and restitution, the theme group developed a broadly-based interest in the issues of land, livelihoods and rural development.

Current research

Rural Housing Demand Survey

FHISER was recently commissioned by the Housing Department to conduct a rural housing demand survey in the Eastern Cape. Fieldworkers administered a questionnaire to the field during the last week of September 2008 in more than 30 different Traditional Authority areas stretching from Flagstaff to Peddie.

The questionnaires were designed to glean the perceptions and views of people living in these areas on current housing, household access to basic services, land use and migration patterns.

Previous research conducted by FHISER has revealed some interesting issues according to FHISER Director, Professor Leslie Bank:

•  Approximately half of all rural residents are dissatisfied with their dwellings, half of those living in traditional structures were dissatisfied yet interestingly, a quarter of those living in formal dwellings were also dissatisfied;

•  The new rural housing policy states that access to a housing subsidy will require proof of continuous occupancy, yet very few households held title deeds (5%), the majority (55%) have informal tenure such as permission to occupy (PTOs) or other written proof and 35% have only verbal approval;

•  Local municipalities play a minimal role in rural land and site allocation even though the national housing policy states that municipalities have a major role to play in housing delivery; and

•  Research reveals that most rural people are unaware of organizations (governmental or non-governmental) that can assist them with housing.

The survey will be completed by the end of October 2008.

Completed research

 The Communal Land Rights Act (ClaRa) Project

FHISER was commissioned by the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) to carry out a baseline study in communal areas in the Eastern Cape to inform the implementation of the Communal Land Rights Act (CLaRA) in the Eastern Cape . The Act is aimed at formalising communal land tenure systems by converting insecure old-order rights to secure new-order rights. This entails, among other issues, the handing over of the right to allocate and administer land, currently being held in trust by the Minister of Land Affairs, to tribal authorities in communal areas.

The act is very controversial and is the subject of an ongoing Constitutional Court challenge. The law's detractors argue that the act could effectively dispossess communities as some community members could find themselves alienated of their land. Other commentators view the Act as entrenching, in practice, apartheid tribal authorities which exaggerate chiefly power and undermine indigenous accountability checks such as village councils and development committees.

The baseline study aimed to reflect on five critical themes: the nature of existing tenure systems, current land administration structures and their operational dynamics, local levels of development in communal areas, land use practices and the delineation of communities.

Sample selection and the identification of the research areas was carried out by the Department of Land Affairs. It spun over 14 Local Municipalities (LMs). Within these LMs, 35 Traditional Authorities were researched. Of the 14 LMs, 13 were in the Eastern Cape (EC) and one ‘UMzimkhulu' was in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN). Of the 35 TAs, 32 were in the EC and three (3) were in KZN.

Key findings of the study

Institutional arrangements: The literature review pointed to the fact that traditional authorities are not, and have never been, uniformly understood nor functioning institutions and, even within the Province, there exist discrepancies in their roles and responsibilities.

Many rural communities are loosely defined and poorly organised, often resulting in an inability to give clear voice to their needs. Loyalties are commonly divided between two types of local government – elected local authorities and traditional leaders – neither of which has been able to ensure delivery of policies aimed at improving livelihoods.

At the same time, there is a clear need for more effective and integrated planning at the project and district levels, across a range of local, provincial and national government agencies. If the first decade of democratic land reform emphasised restorative justice, the second must surely focus on redistribution of productive assets to a much wider social base as a potential route for overcoming decades of rural poverty and neglect.

Poverty and household income: Poverty is very widespread in the Eastern Cape in rural localities. In particular, the survey concludes that households in the rural areas of the former Bantustans reflect significantly high levels of poverty in relation to income and that these vulnerabilities are particularly pronounced in female headed households. It is in these rural areas that households are also the largest – approximately 5 persons per household and there are 53% female to 47% male headed households overall in these areas. This is higher than in the urban areas surveyed. Of the rural households surveyed, over 45% are single female households with children.

It is apparent that the rural areas show very high youth dependency ratios and that there are higher numbers of aged people in these areas as well.

The survey also revealed a very high reliance on social grants. Indeed, the various social grants constitute a critical livelihood resource and often determine whether a household experiences significant food shortages.

Land administration and chieftaincy: The findings reveal that land allocation and control is largely the responsibility of traditional institutions and ‘amaphakathi' play a prominent role. This is true for the allocation of residential, arable and grazing land, and it can be concluded that placing land administration under the auspices of democratically elected institutions like local municipalities may meet with resistance from rural residents.

The interesting point to note is that the traditional institutions that were regarded as oppressive prior to democracy are the ones that still administer land affairs in rural Eastern Cape . Their mandate is largely supported by the majority and this has compromised the development of democratic local government in communal areas.

Although there are arguments that the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act (TLGFA) seeks to promote rural democracy, the transformation of Traditional Authorities into Traditional Councils has seen traditional leaders in these so called democratic institutions constituting the majority. Traditional leaders still have the mandate to appoint 60% of members of the TC. It should be noted that although CLaRA states that TCs ‘may' then elect a Land Administration Committee, TCs are not in a position to let go their land allocation and administration role, as illustrated by this baseline data.

It was also found that women still play an insignificant role in land matters in communal areas and this has resulted in them accessing land primarily at the prerogative of men. The most disadvantaged are married women who are regarded as subordinates to their spouses.

Land use in communal areas: The study revealed that there are no uniform rules governing the access and use of grazing land across TAs. It is worth noting that most grazing lands in some TAs are being used for residential purposes; though most TCs would like to use arable land for residential purposes when there is demand. There are no limits on the amount of stock a family can keep and this has contributed significantly to over grazing and land degradation. Grazing rotation is non-existent in these communal areas.

Fencing of arable land still remains a big issue. Arable lands are largely left fallow; fieldwork found that people said they would prefer to produce from their gardens, and they cite challenges such as lack of fencing and the migration of able bodied people to urban areas as the cause.

Survey results indicated that more than 50% of arable land remains fallow in most communal areas and this is indicative of de-agrarianisation that is currently experienced in the province.

Access to services: The provision of infrastructural and other developmental services in communal areas has not met the expectations of the rural poor. Many rural residents find electricity too expensive, the majority of rural residents in the province still draw drinking water from unprotected sources – a risk to the health and safety of the population.

Local government tensions: Disputes are primarily a result of apartheid boundaries that created the so called tribal authorities (TAs). This has further been compounded by the creation of local municipalities which often overlap with TAs. This has serious implications for service delivery.

As illustrated in the section on land administration, the unclear roles of traditional authorities/councils and local municipalities have created confusion over who is responsible for what. This has been another major stumbling block for service delivery.

Following President Thabo Mbeki's 2001, State of the Nation address, in which he emphasised the need for the social and economic integration of former townships into the mainstream urban economies of towns and cities, Urban Renewal and LED were identified as key research themes in South Africa.

Urban renewal is also associated with the regeneration of the central business districts in South African cities. The emphasis on urban integration in both economic and social terms has found further expression in a number of new policy initiatives, such as the Breaking New Ground housing strategy of 2004, and recent economic policies stressing the urgent need to breakdown the dual economy of the past through the promotion of a viable and integrated second economy.

It is against this backdrop, that the FHISER Urban Renewal, and Local Economic Development Programme was created to provide a space for social and academic research that would keep in step with this area of increasing importance in the country.

Current research
Current research is focusing on a wide variety of issues from material transformations and home-making practices among residents in East London and Fort Beaufort to revisiting Monica Hunter Wilson's field notes on her work in 1930s East Lonfdon, seeking to broaden her reading of urban dreams, paying attention to the city and countryside as spaces of the imagination.

Completed research

FHISER has completing the Second Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) Quality of Life Study, which involved the implementation of a municipal-wide household survey. The survey, which begun in February 2007, supplemented information gained from the first Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) Quality of Life Survey, which was successfully undertaken in 2001.

The second study provides up-to-date and important insights into the changing circumstances in BCM, as perceived by the residents of the city, allowing city planners to measure the impact of their programmes.

The Quality of Life survey, which assessed perceptions of residents on varied issues such as service provision, employment opportunities, transport, disposable income, recreation, sense of belonging and day-to-day concerns, was seen as a monitoring and evaluation project, with the primary aim of providing a well-researched, accessible and accurate source of information.

Click here to access the report.

The Culture, Heritage and Social Transformation Programme aims to encourage the development of new academic and public discourses, explanations and practices around heritage and culture in the Eastern Cape, while at the same time exploring the relationships between local cultural understandings and notions of heritage, museum practices and the development of public culture and cultural tourism in the region.

This programme is a NRF Niche Area of research, cutting across a number of departments and has established itself as an area of expertise and recognition. This recognition is one of few in the humanities, and the programme has been recognised by the NRF with an award as the best developing niche area in 2007.

Current research

A key project of 2008 was the organising and holding a major colloquium celebrating the legacy of Nelson Mandela who turned 90 this year. Entitled Critical Reflections on the Legacy of Nelson Mandela: Tracing the making and meaning of liberation struggles in African Museums and Heritage, the colloquium was held in conjunction with Fort Hare's Govan Mbeki Research and Development Centre (GMRDC), under which FHISER falls, and the Nelson Mandela Museum.

FHISER postgraduate students Phindizwa Mnyaka, Michelle Smith and Sinazo Mtshemla, played a key role in organising the event, which also proved to be important experiential training in the facilitation of such an prestigious academic event.

Academics and cultural activists came from far and wide and included Professor Raymond Suttner (University of South Africa); Professor Lulli Callinicos; Dr Harriet Deacon; Professor Dennis Goldberg; Ms Deirdre Prins Solani (Robben Island Museum); Professor Ben Magubane (South African Democracy Education Trust) and Professor Tom Lodge (University of London).

Fort Hare staff who gave papers included Kimberly Porteus, Vuyani Booi and Khwezi Mpumlwana. The four-day event was opened by Fort Hare Vice-Chancellor, Dr Mvuyo Tom while the opening address by Professor Kader Asmal was given in his absence due to illness.

YOUTH, GENDER and REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

The aim of FHISER's Youth, Gender and Reproductive Health Programme is to draw attention to the politics of reproductive health by using a historical and socio-cultural lens.

Students learn how to conduct both ‘rapid' and ethnographic research in this field, some of which will have implications for policy and planning with regard to issues including the biologisation, medicalisation and technologisation of women's health; men's health and masculinity; child care and women's reproductive health, teenage sexuality and reproduction, the inter-relation between reproduction and global trends.

Current research
Master's student Isabel Gwaze is researching the relationships between maternal infanticide and the social construction of motherhood in South Africa with special reference to women living in East London.

 This study aims to explore the relationships between maternal infanticide and the social construction of motherhood in South Africa with special reference to women living in East London. The Eastern Cape is the third most populous province in South Africa and is home to 14.4% of the country's population. Maternal infanticide in the form of child abandonment is rife in South Africa and statistical reports show that the Eastern Cape has by far the worst infant mortality rate with 68.3 deaths per 1 000 live births in 2003 (Cullinan, 2007). By focusing on the Eastern Cape, Gwaze intends to consider regional aspects of this seemingly national problem.

PhD student Ross Truscott is researching 'white' masculine subjectivities in post-apartheid South Africa. Of particular focus will be the discursive construction of ‘white' masculinities through, within, and in relation to, music and music scenes which are portrayed as being politically engaged, progressive and liberal.

Music in South Africa has historically played an important role in political struggles. In terms of challenging (troubling) the dominant norms of apartheid South Africa, music has acted as an agent of liberation — an oppositional space — and has played a major role as a means for, and as a site of, socio-political resistance.

This study is a qualitative exploration of ‘white' masculine subjectivities in post-apartheid South Africa. Of particular focus will be the discursive construction of ‘white' masculinities through, within, and in relation to, music and music scenes which are portrayed as being politically engaged, progressive and liberal.