From the Booth to the Dock: 2018 elections in Zimbabwe and the elusive search for electoral integrity
- Mwonzora, Gift, Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Authors: Mwonzora, Gift , Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159946 , vital:40358 , https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2020.1813457
- Description: The issue of presidential election petitions seems to be repeating itself with regularity in much of Africa, thus warranting the need for thorough analysis. Utilising the 2018 presidential election petition in Zimbabwe, the article examines whether electoral integrity and legitimacy can be derived from court-based action. Data for this article was gleaned from case law analysis, review of expert analysis from constitutional lawyers and election experts, video evidence, in-depth and critical reading of grey material. The article concludes that there are limitations in relying on litigation in seeking to realise electoral justice in much of Africa, including in Zimbabwe.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mwonzora, Gift , Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/159946 , vital:40358 , https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2020.1813457
- Description: The issue of presidential election petitions seems to be repeating itself with regularity in much of Africa, thus warranting the need for thorough analysis. Utilising the 2018 presidential election petition in Zimbabwe, the article examines whether electoral integrity and legitimacy can be derived from court-based action. Data for this article was gleaned from case law analysis, review of expert analysis from constitutional lawyers and election experts, video evidence, in-depth and critical reading of grey material. The article concludes that there are limitations in relying on litigation in seeking to realise electoral justice in much of Africa, including in Zimbabwe.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
The impact of land restitution and resettlement in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: restoring dignity without strengthening livelihoods?
- Authors: Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Reparations for historic injustices -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Land reform -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96336 , vital:31264
- Description: Land reform in South Africa, which is comprised of land redistribution, land tenure reform, and land restitution, continues to be an emotive subject and has largely racially polarised South Africa. The slow pace of land reform, expropriation, the amount of land to be returned to black people, debates around the role of the Constitution in land reform, the market-based approach and the perceived negative attitude of white farmers have dominated the debates on land reform. There is, therefore, a huge chorus on the struggles for land acquisition and less on what happens when people are given land. A few studies on post-settlement livelihoods experience have managed to close this gap slightly in the literature by showing that land reform has contributed little or no material and livelihood benefits to beneficiaries and that many farms are lying idle after land reform, especially land restitution, projects. These studies on post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land reform beneficiaries have not managed to capture fully the “voices” of beneficiaries on land and livelihoods. This dissertation seeks to provide a sociological documentation of the post-settlement livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries. It does this by primarily tracing the ability and/or the inability of land restitution beneficiaries of Macleantown, about 40 kilometres northwest of East London, in the Eastern Cape to reconstruct livelihoods after resettlement, bearing in mind that these land restitution beneficiaries have been resettled twice, during forced removals in the 1970s and after land restitution, post-1994. Therefore, the study engages with questions of whether or in what ways land compensated restitution beneficiaries have managed to reconstruct livelihoods after land transfer. To capture the livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries fully, I also studied the Salem restitution case, which is 20km away from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Because land restitution involves resettlement, I decided to use two resettlement theories, namely Thayer Scudder’s four stages model and Michael Cernea’s Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction (IRR), to understand risks associated with resettlement. Additionally, since this dissertation seeks to understand and document livelihood reconstruction and poverty reduction within the context of restitution resettlement, I also utilised the Sustainable Livelihoods approach and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. This thesis is based on multiple research methods that include documentary study, focus group discussions, conversations, archival research, in-depth interviews, transect walks, participant observation and life histories. My findings show that land transfer under the land restitution programme has largely not enabled land beneficiaries in Macleantown and Salem to reconstruct land-based livelihoods after settlement. I also established that land restitution beneficiaries face risks that are identified by resettlement theorists such as lack of proper planning, resettling trauma, struggles in community reconstruction and poverty. Beneficiaries have not managed to reap any meaningful benefits from the land, meaning that restitution has not led to self-sufficiency for these beneficiaries because all land beneficiaries are heavily dependent on social grants. However, one needs to emphasize that land restitution has restored the dignity of beneficiaries because beneficiaries have accessed their forefathers’ land that they fought for. This is because beneficiaries believed that it was their duty to fight for their land on behalf of their ancestors. I reach the conclusion that the whole idea that restitution claimants who are scattered all over can be grouped into a Community Property Association (CPA) and farm collectively as a ‘community’ to improve livelihoods is a misleading romanticisation of the envisaged outcomes of the land restitution project. Time has passed after land dispossession and land claimants are different human beings to what they were before land dispossession, i.e. far from the agrarian society they were before land dispossession. Group dynamics, lack of adequate post-settlement support (PSS), land reform designs, lack of commercial agricultural skills, as well as entitlement syndrome, old age of beneficiaries, infighting and marginality of agricultural business has made it nearly impossible for restitution beneficiaries to reconstruct land-based livelihoods. Additionally, the government appears to be more interested in ‘correcting apartheid’ rather than creating viable farms. It is important to state that this thesis does not advocate for the erasure of the restitution programme or to belittle land beneficiaries but argues for the rethinking of the restitution model in the context of massive failures, as well as coming up with a new and flexible model of land restitution that will meet the modern needs of beneficiaries. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the risks and the challenges of livelihoods reconstruction faced by resettling communities through an investigation into the post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land restitution beneficiaries through ‘thick descriptions’.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Reparations for historic injustices -- South Africa , Land reform -- Law and legislation -- South Africa , Land reform -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Agricultural development projects -- South Africa -- Social aspects , Land tenure -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/96336 , vital:31264
- Description: Land reform in South Africa, which is comprised of land redistribution, land tenure reform, and land restitution, continues to be an emotive subject and has largely racially polarised South Africa. The slow pace of land reform, expropriation, the amount of land to be returned to black people, debates around the role of the Constitution in land reform, the market-based approach and the perceived negative attitude of white farmers have dominated the debates on land reform. There is, therefore, a huge chorus on the struggles for land acquisition and less on what happens when people are given land. A few studies on post-settlement livelihoods experience have managed to close this gap slightly in the literature by showing that land reform has contributed little or no material and livelihood benefits to beneficiaries and that many farms are lying idle after land reform, especially land restitution, projects. These studies on post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land reform beneficiaries have not managed to capture fully the “voices” of beneficiaries on land and livelihoods. This dissertation seeks to provide a sociological documentation of the post-settlement livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries. It does this by primarily tracing the ability and/or the inability of land restitution beneficiaries of Macleantown, about 40 kilometres northwest of East London, in the Eastern Cape to reconstruct livelihoods after resettlement, bearing in mind that these land restitution beneficiaries have been resettled twice, during forced removals in the 1970s and after land restitution, post-1994. Therefore, the study engages with questions of whether or in what ways land compensated restitution beneficiaries have managed to reconstruct livelihoods after land transfer. To capture the livelihood experiences of land restitution beneficiaries fully, I also studied the Salem restitution case, which is 20km away from Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Because land restitution involves resettlement, I decided to use two resettlement theories, namely Thayer Scudder’s four stages model and Michael Cernea’s Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction (IRR), to understand risks associated with resettlement. Additionally, since this dissertation seeks to understand and document livelihood reconstruction and poverty reduction within the context of restitution resettlement, I also utilised the Sustainable Livelihoods approach and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. This thesis is based on multiple research methods that include documentary study, focus group discussions, conversations, archival research, in-depth interviews, transect walks, participant observation and life histories. My findings show that land transfer under the land restitution programme has largely not enabled land beneficiaries in Macleantown and Salem to reconstruct land-based livelihoods after settlement. I also established that land restitution beneficiaries face risks that are identified by resettlement theorists such as lack of proper planning, resettling trauma, struggles in community reconstruction and poverty. Beneficiaries have not managed to reap any meaningful benefits from the land, meaning that restitution has not led to self-sufficiency for these beneficiaries because all land beneficiaries are heavily dependent on social grants. However, one needs to emphasize that land restitution has restored the dignity of beneficiaries because beneficiaries have accessed their forefathers’ land that they fought for. This is because beneficiaries believed that it was their duty to fight for their land on behalf of their ancestors. I reach the conclusion that the whole idea that restitution claimants who are scattered all over can be grouped into a Community Property Association (CPA) and farm collectively as a ‘community’ to improve livelihoods is a misleading romanticisation of the envisaged outcomes of the land restitution project. Time has passed after land dispossession and land claimants are different human beings to what they were before land dispossession, i.e. far from the agrarian society they were before land dispossession. Group dynamics, lack of adequate post-settlement support (PSS), land reform designs, lack of commercial agricultural skills, as well as entitlement syndrome, old age of beneficiaries, infighting and marginality of agricultural business has made it nearly impossible for restitution beneficiaries to reconstruct land-based livelihoods. Additionally, the government appears to be more interested in ‘correcting apartheid’ rather than creating viable farms. It is important to state that this thesis does not advocate for the erasure of the restitution programme or to belittle land beneficiaries but argues for the rethinking of the restitution model in the context of massive failures, as well as coming up with a new and flexible model of land restitution that will meet the modern needs of beneficiaries. This thesis contributes to an understanding of the risks and the challenges of livelihoods reconstruction faced by resettling communities through an investigation into the post-settlement livelihoods experiences of land restitution beneficiaries through ‘thick descriptions’.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The developmental impact of non-contributory social grants in South Africa : a study of Ezibeleni, Queenstown
- Authors: Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Economic assistance, Domestic -- South Africa , Poor -- South Africa -- Queenstown , Poverty -- South Africa -- Queenstown , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991- , South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3402 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018919
- Description: Amartya Sen argued that poverty was the “deprivation” of the capability to lead a “good life”, therefore ending poverty meant meeting basic physical and social needs, and enabling meaningful economic and political choices. The principal objective of this research was to investigate whether (and if so, in what ways) post-apartheid state-provided non-contributory cash social grants in South Africa reduced “poverty” in Sen’s sense. This thesis used Ezibeleni, a historically black working class township at Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape, as a reference area. Using in-depth interviews, it found that social grants did help reduce poverty, both in terms of helping meet basic needs and enabling grant recipients to make more choices, including facilitating job searches and small businesses. However, it was also found that grants fall short of ending poverty, as the grants were too small to adequately cover basic needs in the context of large family sizes, a serious and long-term lack of resources, persistent unemployment, and high indebtedness, and could also enable only a limited expansion of choices. The grants played a positive role, but were inadequate to remove the “unfreedoms” facing the poor.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Xaba, Mzingaye Brilliant
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Economic assistance, Domestic -- South Africa , Poor -- South Africa -- Queenstown , Poverty -- South Africa -- Queenstown , South Africa -- Economic conditions -- 1991- , South Africa -- Social conditions -- 1994-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3402 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1018919
- Description: Amartya Sen argued that poverty was the “deprivation” of the capability to lead a “good life”, therefore ending poverty meant meeting basic physical and social needs, and enabling meaningful economic and political choices. The principal objective of this research was to investigate whether (and if so, in what ways) post-apartheid state-provided non-contributory cash social grants in South Africa reduced “poverty” in Sen’s sense. This thesis used Ezibeleni, a historically black working class township at Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape, as a reference area. Using in-depth interviews, it found that social grants did help reduce poverty, both in terms of helping meet basic needs and enabling grant recipients to make more choices, including facilitating job searches and small businesses. However, it was also found that grants fall short of ending poverty, as the grants were too small to adequately cover basic needs in the context of large family sizes, a serious and long-term lack of resources, persistent unemployment, and high indebtedness, and could also enable only a limited expansion of choices. The grants played a positive role, but were inadequate to remove the “unfreedoms” facing the poor.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
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