Farm Workers and Farm Dwellers in L impopo Province, S outh A frica

• Published in: Journal of agrarian change Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 47 - 70
• Main Authors: Hall, Ruth, Wisborg, Poul, Shirinda, Shirhami, Zamchiya, Phillan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-01-2013
• ISSN: 1471-0358; 1471-0366
• DOI: 10.1111/joac.12002

One of the less studied legacies of settler colonialism and agrarian dualism in
S
outh
A
frica is the substantial population of people living and working on (still mostly) white‐owned commercial farms – a feature distinct from most other countries in
S
outhern
A
frica. Many farm workers and farm dwellers in
S
outh
A
frica experience precarious tenure, and poor housing and labour conditions. This paper explores what is happening to farm labour and to agricultural capital in
L
impopo province. Findings from field research on four horticultural and livestock/game farms illustrate how economic pressures, combined with land restitution and labour migration, have produced new and contested trajectories of agrarian change – largely cementing a historical shift from independent land tenure to wage labour but also prompting diversification of livelihoods. We explore the ways in which actors on farms – workers, dwellers, owners and managers – have responded with regard to three spheres of contestation: ownership, production and employment; tenure and livelihoods; and family, gender and children. We argue that, contrary to official visions of reform, long‐term processes of agrarian change predating political transition – proletarianization, casualization and the externalization of farm labour – are being accelerated. These processes, and the ways in which they are producing new contours of social differentiation, are illustrated at farm level.