| dc.description.abstract | The subject of rural development has been at the forefront of South Africa’s government
discourse and policy. In post-apartheid South African rural development policy has paid
significant attention to poverty alleviation, job creation and food security by attempting to
commercialize agriculture in the former ‘homelands’. This has been mainly encouraged through
agricultural programmes such as Masibambisane Rural Development Initiative (MRDI) and the
Massive Food Production Programme (MFPP). To support these agricultural development
programmes, the South African government has directed a significant amount of its public
budget towards their development. However, literature suggests that to a large extent these
agricultural programmes have not succeeded in improving the agricultural situation as well as
livelihoods of rural dwellers in the former ‘homelands’. Despite the efforts made by the South
African government, agriculture and field cultivation in rural areas continue to show a decline.
Furthermore, many agricultural projects that have been initiated to improve the lives of rural
people have been abandoned.
This thesis investigates the interface between the actors that are involved in agricultural
development projects in Mnquma Local Municipality in the former homeland of Transkei,
Eastern Cape. Two irrigation schemes in Mnquma Local Municipality are interrogated, namely
Ntuzenyandu Irrigation Scheme and Mirlees Masibambisane Irrigation Scheme, as case studies
for this study. The main objective is to investigate the causes of dissonances between the actors
that are involved in these agricultural projects, as well as how these dissonances influence the
outcomes of agricultural projects in Mnquma Local Municipality. It is the micro-politics of
development at the interface between the various actors that must be studied in order to gain a
full and nuanced picture of why the irrigation schemes have faced challenges. This study uses the
actor-oriented and social interface approach. The study identifies community politics, struggles
over state allocated resources, power relations between the actors, lack of community
involvement and a ‘discourse of blaming’ between the actors as key challenges that are hindering
the success of these agricultural projects. It is hoped that this study can shed some important
insights for policy makers on how to improve and implement state-funded agricultural projects
that will be able to achieve government objectives and expectations of the rural people. | en_US |
