THE POLITICS OF CLAIMS-MAKING ON CAPE TOWN’S URBAN PERIPHERIES: THE ITHEMBA FARMERS’ LAND OCCUPATION by Laura Vaz-Jones A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography Graduate Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto © Copyright by Laura Vaz-Jones (2016) The Politics of Claims-making on Cape Town’s Urban Peripheries: The Ithemba Farmer’s Land Occupation Laura Vaz-Jones, 2016 Graduate Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto Abstract This paper investigates land occupation on the urban peripheries of Cape Town and the use of de facto land rights to sustain survival strategies and to make broader claims for accessing the state and accessing the city. Using extensive qualitative research in Cape Town with the Ithemba farmers, I investigate the politics of claims-making among a group of ‘squatting farmers’ who have established their access to land owned by the state and explore their insurgent practices and livelihoods. In doing so, I examine the disconnect between policies and lives on the ground indicating desires for equitable and integrated human settlements supporting peoples’ hybrid livelihood strategies and contesting ongoing experiences of social and spatial exclusion post-apartheid. This work is situated within broader discussions of the peripheries as sites of contestation and agency and brings the land question into conversation with contemporary processes of urbanization and unemployment in South Africa. ii Acknowledgements I would first like to thank all of those at Ithemba farms who so generously gave up their time to speak with me and went out of their way to help me conduct my research and to make sure that I was safe. I am also grateful for the time that my key informants took out their busy schedules to speak with me. I also am grateful for the support I received from the Surplus People Project, who made my first visit to Cape Town in 2013 such a stimulating experience. I am grateful for the diverse exposure I gained through my internship with them two years ago and for the support, time, resources, and open arms with which they welcomed me back. I most especially want to thank Ronald Wesso, for pushing me in my thinking and for always making me laugh. I am eternally grateful for your mentorship and friendship. Thank you also to Pedro, Harry, Zayaan, Henry, Mandy and Herschelle. Thank you also to my co-supervisors Dr. Thembela Kepe and Dr. Mark Hunter for your extensive guidance, feedback, and support throughout this process. I am also grateful to Dr Sharlene Mollett for her involvement on my committee and the direction and feedback I received from her. Furthermore, I am thankful for the experience I had while working for PLAAS at the University of the Western Cape and for the stimulating learning environment it provided and the opportunity to gain experience conducting policy analysis. Thank you especially to Ruth Hall, whose work and presence are both inspiring. During my time in South Africa, I also attended PLAAS’ 20th Anniversary symposium and a Rural Women’s Assembly march, which both provided fruitful learning experiences that helped shape the direction of my research. I am also lucky for the love, support, and encouragement I received from family and friends from my time in Cape Town through the entire writing process - especially my parents, brothers, sister-in-law and darling nephew. Thank you Ali, Pegah, Nathan, Adrian, Saroja, Travis, and Natalia for your peer and friend support as well. Lastly, I woul like to acknowledge the funding I received to conduct this research from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, through their Canadian Graduate Scholarships- Master’s Program and Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement – as well as the RBC Fellowship in Public and Economic Policy. iii Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………………...ii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………..iii List of figures ………………………………………………………………………………………..vi List of Acronyms ……………………………………………………………………………………vi 1. CHAPTER ONE: Introduction – Struggles for land in Cape Town 1.1. Struggles for land in Cape Town: from Khayelitsha to Ithemba…………………………………….1 1.2. Research statement and objectives ………………………………………………………………….3 1.3. Chapter breakdown……………………………………………………………………………….....4 1.4. Context of the Ithemba farmers’ land occupation ……………………………………..……..…..…5 1.5. Legislative framework for informal land rights in South Africa ……………………………….…..8 1.6. Theoretical framework ………………………………………………………………………….…..14 1.7. Research Methods …………………………………………………………………………………..19 2. CHAPTER TWO: Rethinking the land question on Cape Town’s urban peripheries 2.1. The agrarian question of labour in contemporary South Africa …………………………………...24 2.2. Urbanization and livelihood diversification ……………………………………………………….25 2.3. The land question on the urban peripheries ……………………………………………………….27 2.4. Mapping Cape Town’s apartheid geography ……………………………………………………...29 2.5. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………...41 3. CHAPTER THREE: Politics of claims-making at Ithemba 3.1. Overview of the Ithemba conflict …………………………………………………………………42 3.2. Disputed narratives ………………………………………………………………………………..45 3.3. Establishing de facto rights to land ……………………………………………………………….47 3.4. Strategies of struggle: food sovereignty and smallholder rights ………………………………….51 3.5. Land as a platform for claims-making ……………………………………………………………59 3.6. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………..67 4. CHAPTER FOUR: Land and livelihoods at Ithemba 4.1. Hybrid Livelihood Strategies ……………………………………………………………..……….69 4.2. Farming-based livelihoods ………………………………………………………………………...70 4.3. Livelihoods beyond farming ……………………………………………………………..…..…....82 iv 4.4. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………............87 5. CHAPTER FIVE: Layers of legality, authority, and exclusion at Ithemba 5.1. Government-farmer relations …………………………………………………………………...89 5.2. The ‘will to improve’……………………………………………………………………………89 5.3. Governmentality and deepening claims to land at Ithemba ……………………………………93 5.4. Differentiated citizenship and relative rights to land among the Ithemba farmers ………….…96 5.5. Contesting a notional community at Ithemba ………………………………………………….96 5.6. Elite pockets of power …………………………………………………………………………98 5.7. Race and resentment …………………………………………………………………………...105 5.8. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………..108 6. CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion - Reflecting on the politics of claims-making and citizenship at Ithemba 6.1. Politics of claims-making …………..……………………………..…………………………..110 6.2. Rethinking the urban peripheries ………………………………….…………………………...111 6.3. The land question and access to the city ………………………………….……………………111 6.4. Contesting historical legacies through integrated human settlements ……….………………...112 1. 2. 3. 4. v List of Figures Figure 1 City of Cape Town Locality Map of Erf (plot) 996 with shaded area indicating the location of the Ithemba farm (courtesy of the Surplus People Project) Figure 2 Classification of residential areas in Cape Town prior to and after 1950 Group Areas Act Figure 3 Map of Cape Town residential areas by race under the Group Area Act. The Ithemba farm is indicated in red within a former coloured area adapted from Oldsfield (2003 pg. 197) Figure 4 Map of Ithemba farms (indicated in white) and surrounding area of Electric City, Blue Downs, and Eersterivier (adapted from City of Cape Town Planning and Building Development Management Locality Map and courtesy of the SPP) Figure 5 Satellite images illustrating the change in settlement at Ithemba between 2005 and 2015, with notable human settlement and building occurring in 2009 List of Acronyms ANC African National Congress CCT City of Cape Town DA Democratic Alliance DAFF Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries DRDLR Department of Rural Development and Land Reform EFF Economic Freedom Fighters ESTA Extension of Tenure Security Act GEAR Growth Economic Employment Redistribution IPILRA Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act IFA Ithemba Farmers’ Association LFTEA Less Formal Township Establishment Act LRMF Land Rights Management Fund MEC Member of the Executive Council PIE Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land PLAS Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy PLAAS Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies RDP Reconstruction and Development Program SPLUMA Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act SPP Surplus People Project TRA Temporary Relocation Area (WC)DHS Department of Human Settlements (of the Western Cape) WCHC Western Cape High Court WCPG Western Cape Provincial Government vi 1. CHAPTER ONE Introduction - Struggles for land in Cape Town 1.1. Struggles for land in Cape Town: from Khayelitsha to Ithemba On Easter Monday April 6th 2015, reports emerged of a mass land invasion in Khayelitsha approximately twenty kilometres from the Cape Town central business district. Five hundred people had allegedly invaded state-owned land and began clearing vegetation and erecting structures on the land over a period of several days (Eye Witness News 2015). In response to the land occupation, the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) - a radical socialist party that emerged which has dominated headlines with their controversial and calls for Zimbabwe-style land occupations and expropriation without compensation - made a nationwide call to “identify open and unoccupied land wherever they choose” and indicated the invasion was part of a wider campaign that would