scholarly journals Negotiating Elusive Justice: Dilemmas of Land Distribution in Southern Africa

Obiter ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Anstey

Transitions to democracy across southern Africa have been difficult and inevitably flawed. Shifts in international values, national demographics and power realities see social conflicts mutate through time, making societal transformation not a point of arrival, but an ongoing process. In Zimbabwe, and more recently Namibia and South Africa, land ownership and control have become bitterly contested issues. If one accepts that injustices were perpetrated in the past, what principles should guide their remedy? This article considers the complexities arising from competing conceptions of justice over land ownership and management in the context of changing political pressures and dilemmas as to who land might be taken from, along with future dilemmas about equitable distribution and productive management. If the crisis-driven experience of Zimbabwe is to be averted, stakeholders in Namibia and South Africa must find jointly acceptable principles to guide action into the future, and it is likely that no single principle of justice will suffice – a principled multi-track approach based on a mix of utilitarian, restorative and economic empowerment logics must be negotiated ... and then urgently implemented.

Author(s):  
P. C.B. Turnbull ◽  
M. Diekman ◽  
J. W. Killian ◽  
W. Versfeld ◽  
V. De Vos ◽  
...  

TURNBULLP, P.C.B. DIEKMANNM,M., KILIAN, J.W., VERSFELDW, W.,DE VOS, V., ARNTZENL, L.,WOLTER, K., BARTELS, P. & KOTZE, A. 2008.N aturally acquired antibodies to Bacillusa nthracisp rotective antigeni n vultureso f southern Africa. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, T5:95-102 Sera from 19 wild caught vultures in northern Namibia and 15 (12 wild caught and three captive bred but with minimal histories) in North West Province, South Africa, were examined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbenats say( ELISA)f or antibodiesto the Bacillus anthracis toxin protective antigen (PA). As assessed from the baseline established with a control group of ten captive reared vultures with well-documented histories, elevated titres were found in 12 of the 19 (63%) wild caught Namibian birds as compared with none of the 15 South African ones. There was a highly significant difference between the Namibian group as a hole and the other groups (P < 0.001) and no significant difference between the South African and control groups (P > 0.05). Numbers in the Namibian group were too small to determine any significances in species-, sex- or age-related differences within the raw data showing elevated titres in four out of six Cape Vultures, Gyps coprotheress, six out of ten Whitebacked Vultures, Gyps africanus, and one out of three Lappet-faced Vultures, Aegypiust racheliotus, or in five of six males versus three of seven females, and ten of 15 adults versus one of four juveniles. The results are in line with the available data on the incidence of anthrax in northern Namibia and South Africa and the likely contact of the vultures tested with anthrax carcasses. lt is not known whether elevated titre indicates infection per se in vultures or absorption of incompletely digested epitopes of the toxin or both. The results are discussed in relation to distances travelled by vultures as determined by new tracking techniques, how serology can reveal anthrax activity in an area and the issue of the role of vultures in transmission of anthrax.


Author(s):  
Sindiso Bhebhe ◽  
Mpho Ngoepe

South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa that has a running oral history association. In some countries, especially in southern Africa, these oral history associations have arisen and then died a natural death. For example, Oral Traditions Association of Zimbabwe (OTAZI) did not last long. Therefore, it is a positive development for South Africa to have a functioning oral history association. The Oral History Association of South Africa (OHASA) is the brainchild of the government and is mainly funded by the government. It is involved in the coordination and documentation of stories that were silent during the apartheid era. Therefore, with this highly perceived task it is necessary to critically evaluate its successes and failures in meeting the objectives of the National Oral History Programme (NOHP). This paper, through document analysis and purposively selected interviews, critically evaluates the achievements and shortcomings of the OHASA from its inception to present with the aim of proposing a ‘working’ model which involves the setting up of a monitoring and evaluating system. The paper concludes that although OHASA unveiled the muted marginalised voices, it soral history programme demonstrate elitism in critical emancipatory as mostly the stories of the elites are covered. Furthermore, such recorded stories are not accessible as the recordings are stashed in the boxes in archives repositories.


Author(s):  
Sindiso Bhebhe ◽  
Mpho Ngoepe

South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa that has a running oral history association. In some countries, especially in southern Africa, these oral history associations have arisen and then died a natural death. For example, Oral Traditions Association of Zimbabwe (OTAZI) did not last long. Therefore, it is a positive development for South Africa to have a functioning oral history association. The Oral History Association of South Africa (OHASA) is the brainchild of the government and is mainly funded by the government. It is involved in the coordination and documentation of stories that were silent during the apartheid era. Therefore, with this highly perceived task it is necessary to critically evaluate its successes and failures in meeting the objectives of the National Oral History Programme (NOHP). This paper, through document analysis and purposively selected interviews, critically evaluates the achievements and shortcomings of the OHASA from its inception to present with the aim of proposing a ‘working’ model which involves the setting up of a monitoring and evaluating system. The paper concludes that although OHASA unveiled the muted marginalised voices, it soral history programme demonstrate elitism in critical emancipatory as mostly the stories of the elites are covered. Furthermore, such recorded stories are not accessible as the recordings are stashed in the boxes in archives repositories.


1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-384
Author(s):  
Layi Abegunrin

Southern Africa has become a battleground between two ideologically and fundamentally opposed constellation of states, Pretoria and Lusaka constellations. The conflict between the two basically concerns the domestic racial policies and the future of South Africa. The Pretoria constellation was launched on July 22, 1980, and is led by P. W. Botha, the South Africa's Prime Minister. The Botha's axis is a designed strategy which essentially aims at using South Africa's economic power and wealth to manipulate its neighboring nine black ruled states; and to exert subtle pressure to ensure that they cohere with the white minority regime of South Africa. This ambition of the Pretoria constellation is a vital part of the total strategy of survival of the Botha government. This particularly involves the use of the economy as an instrument of maintaining ultimate political power and control based on the maintenance of the basic structures of apartheid. This has in turn motivated South Africa's opposition to the policies of economic and political liberation of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) states. The second, the Lusaka constellation and also known as the “Southern Nine” was launched on April 1, 1980. It consists of the nine Southern African States of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The declared aim of the Southern Nine is to form an alliance which would pursue an economic strategy that would reduce or eliminate their economic dependence on South Africa. To this end, the Southern Nine and the South African-occupied territory of Namibia unanimously adopted a Programme of Action aimed at stimulating inter-state trade with the ultimate objective of economic independence from South Africa.


2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 935-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAY CHAZAN

ABSTRACTOver the past few years, the pivotal roles older women play in responding to the unprecedented HIV/AIDS epidemic in southern Africa has received increasing recognition by academics, governments, funding agencies, non-governmental organisations, and citizens around the world. Yet, discourses surrounding AIDS and ‘grandmotherhood’ are laden with a number of ungrounded assumptions that have important implications for researchers, advocates and decision-makers. Drawing on ethnographic and survey data predominantly from South Africa, this paper challenges seven such assumptions. The paper illustrates how certain prevailing ‘wisdoms’ about grandmothers and AIDS in southern Africa are not entirely accurate and may mask many women's struggles and vulnerabilities, perpetuate stereotypes and misguide well-meaning policies. It also suggests that the societal impacts of AIDS in the region are, at present, not as dramatic as often portrayed, largely because the strength and resilience of many older women have cushioned some of the negative consequences. The paper thus calls for more nuanced and forward-looking analyses and interventions – ones that recognise grandmothers as central to the society's thin safety net and that grapple with older women's complex and diverse vulnerabilities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ntobeko Dlamini

The year 2018 marked the 60th anniversary since the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) resolved to be a “One and Undivided” church in 1958. It was at the peak of apartheid when the MCSA was brave enough to embark on a journey of oneness. This was a mission policy seeking to unite Methodist people of all races in the midst of segregation in South Africa. This paper, therefore, seeks to evaluate the implementation of this mission policy over the past 60 years. The paper will interrogate the inclusion of black clergy into critical positions in the church, the Black Methodist Consultation, and the formation of geographic circuits and cross-cultural stationing as means of achieving the mission statement. The important question in this study is: Looking back, 60 years later, is the MCSA now “One and Undivided?”


2001 ◽  
Vol 178 (4) ◽  
pp. 382-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Emsley

South Africa is a country of great fascination to those interested in the origins, development and behaviour of humankind. For example, recent fossil discoveries appear to confirm Darwin's hunch that Africa – and perhaps southern Africa – was the cradle of humankind. Caves in the Sterkfontein Valley near Johannesburg have produced abundant scientific information on the evolution of modern man over the past 3.5 million years. This is of interest not only from a historical point of view but also in terms of modern science. With the significant advances in medical genetics in general, and psychiatric genetics in particular, there has been a growing interest in homogeneous populations with novel gene pools. South Africa is a rich source of homogeneous populations with an apparently common ancestry.


2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kleinen

Abstract This article deals with aspects of official land registers in pre-colonial and colonial Vietnam and their relationship with marginal lands since the eleventh century and especially since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The changing pattern of land ownership and control is studied in detail in one specific village in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. Several practices of land use and land distribution are discussed, as are various efforts in parts of Vietnam to expand agricultural land, in particular near rivers and coasts, especially as a result of land reclamation. The study of marginal lands is focused on alluvial lands, which were seen originally as empty or waste lands but gradually developed into safety nets for the poor. The traditional social function of these communal waste lands, managed by village elites, was eroded and became a tool for manipulation in the hands of state and village authorities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 760-775
Author(s):  
Robert Edgar

AbstractThe recent racial reckoning has challenged scholars to recover Black voices that have been erased from historical accounts. This essay is my reflections on the challenges I faced in conducting research on African voices in politically and racially charged settings in Lesotho and South Africa over the past half century. After the political atmosphere began changing in South Africa in 1990, I served the individuals and communities I write about by rectifying historical injustices such as returning a holy relic to a religious group, the Israelites, and facilitating the return of remains of Nontetha Nkwenkwe from a pauper’s grave in Pretoria to her home.


1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Simbi Mubako

In the past fifteen years African heads of state and the Organization of African Unity have striven with little success to unite liberation movements fighting the settlers and colonialists in their countries in Southern Africa. The first attempt was made by Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and other leaders, and was directed at uniting the Pan-Africanist Congress and its rival African National Congress of South Africa soon after both were banned and forced into exile following the Sharpeville demonstrations. When leaders of both parties fanned out into the world to solicit support, some of the would-be supporters forced them into a makeshift marriage of convenience.


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