M.A. / The modern day approach towards community development is to facilitate a community-driven and self-sustaining development process. Development is a process by which the members of a society increase their personal and institutional capacities, mobilise and manage resources, produce sustainable and justly distribute improvements in their quality of life consistent with their aspirations. The reasons why farm workers in commercial agricultural communities are becoming involved in their own development; what motivates them; and the capacities they need to remain involved; are some of the areas that this study addresses. This study focuses on the labour-extensive and labour-intensive farming communities in the Boland/Swartland regions of the Western Cape Province. A purposeful non-probability sample was taken from five labourextensive and five labour-intensive commercial farming communities within a fifty kilometre radius of Wellington. Focus groups as method were used to interview the specifically selected respondents. Qualitative data was collected according to a participatory research method and a visualization technique was utilized to record the data. Some of the important results of this study indicate that the commercial farmer has to take an interest as an important resource and partner in the development of the farm worker's communties. The farmworker's communities are seeking support from the new democratic structures, the Transitional Rural Councils, to assist them with their development efforts. The process of developing ownership and taking responsability for one's own development, needs to be strengthened by including the farmworkers in the decision-taking process on farms regarding community development through structures like farm-forums or farm-committees.

MPH / Department of Public Health

Thesis (Ph. D. Com. (Human Resource Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The purpose of this study was to explore workplace deviance, both constructive and destructive deviance, in order to understand and develop strategies that could be used to address different types of deviant behaviours amongst farm workers. Qualitative, explorative and descriptive research designs within the paradigm of constructivism were utilised to obtain rich and valuable data with regards to the participants’ views, experiences and meanings relating to workplace deviance, through a narrative approach to inquiry. Semi-structured interviews, using a critical incident technique, were employed in order to collect data on both constructive deviant behaviour and destructive deviant behaviour of farm workers from the research participants. Farm workers (n=30) and supervisors (n=9) from three farms belonging to the same conglomerate participated in the study. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected narrative data on farm workers’ workplace deviance. The study highlighted that both forms of workplace deviance, namely; constructive and destructive workplace deviance, seem to exist amongst farm workers. The various forms of constructive deviant and destructive deviant behaviours, which farm workers were more likely to engage in were identified. The constructive deviant behaviours were found to assist the farms in realising their objectives, while the destructive deviant behaviours seemed to negatively jeopardise the wellbeing of the farms. The managerial strategies which could be used in the farming sector in order to manage workplace deviance in a more holistic manner were identified. These included practices to encourage workers to engage in constructive deviant behaviours, while discouraging them from engaging in destructive deviant behaviours. The managerial practices revealed in this study may assist farm management to manage farm workers in such a way that may enhance the farms’ competitiveness. KEY CONCEPTS Workplace deviance; Destructive deviant behaviour; Constructive deviant behaviour; Farming sector; Farm workers.

This thesis is an investigation of the impact of commercial game farming on former farm workers in the Bushman's River area of the Eastern Cape. In its examination of the broader economic and political changes that have facilitated a move from agriculture to game farming, it analyses how these changes affect farm workers. The main concern of the thesis is the ways in which farm workers (at the local level) respond to changes at the national and global level (legal and political changes, the advent of tourism, and the injection of foreign capital and businessmen into the area). Lack of knowledge about their rights under the current political dispensation, as well as the perceived need for mediation between themselves and foreign landowners, points to a general sense of powerlessness. Feelings of alienation from local government structures aimed at fulfilling this function indicate a significant gap between the statute at the national level and the local reality. Local reality is informed by a strong conservatism which is generated by African Independent Church structures and local Xhosa perceptions of manhood and respectability. This conservative discourse leads to a frame of reference which is largely informed by pre-1994 interactions with farmers and government. This results in a situation in which farm workers, largely unaware of their rights in the new dispensation, operate as they did in the past; waiting for landowners to decide their fate for them. What ensues is a lack of meaningful interaction with government and landowners, perpetuating their subjugation and cynicism as to whether government structures are in fact working in their interests. The thesis comes to three main conclusions. The first is that game farming has been negatively received by farm workers due to the associated threats of unemployment and eviction. The second is that despite high levels of subjugation, even the very poor are agents to some degree. The creation of a masculine identity which is internally articulated, as opposed to outwardly expressed, and the grounding of reputation in the family suggest that farm workers have developed mechanisms to deal with their disempowered position. Lastly, farm workers are in possession of social capital which has made it possible for them to deal with their low status in the societal hierarchy. This includes the Church, family and fellow community members. These coping strategies have however proved a disadvantage in the current era because they prevent direct communication with landowners, government and NGOs.

Research show that post 1996 period has experienced an unprecedented increase in game based operations. The corporate citizenship or corporate social responsibility of the game reserves is of much interest to this study with a focus on the rights of previous and current occupants of farms, workers’ well-being, job creation, quality of life and poverty alleviation within the game/tourism industry. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study and the tools employed for data gathering include: a review of the relevant literature, interviews (face-to-face), the administering of a questionnaire survey and document analysis from diversity of resources which include the Department of Labour, East Cape Agricultural Research Project, and through use of multiple data sources. The approach taken in this dissertation is to examine to what extent the private game reserves in the Makana Municipality can be labelled as “corporate citizens” and this was done by means of a case study of one private game reserve. The areas that are deemed to be most important in this regard are (i) employment history (ii) educational opportunities (iii) wages (iv) housing (v) land tenure. The study established that younger, better educated people are likely to secure better paying employment on PGR. The nature and conditions of sale of the farm to the PGR can impact on the employment secured by workers in the new dispensation. Workers are tied to these jobs because of the very long hours that prevent them from doing anything else to earn money. Some of the workers had opportunities to learn new skills but the question remains; which people are these and how long will growing differentials in earnings reproduce the poorly educated worker in the next generation. The study also high lightened the need for academics and researchers to come with a common set of corporate citizenship measures such as to measure corporate social impacts.

Thesis (MScAgric)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It is generally acknowledged that South African commercial agriculture will have to be restructured to integrate the previously disadvantaged communities in the agricultural economy of the country. This is so because of the prevailing disparities between agriculture amongst the black societies and the traditional "white" commercial agriculture. After the inception of the ANC governance in 1994, affirmative action measures viz inequalities and inequitable access to resources and markets became necessary to remove these imbalances. However, it is not seen as a quick fix; it will take decades to eradicate the imbalances created during the period of apartheid rule. A farmworker equity-sharing scheme (FWESS) was first introduced at the Whitehall farm in the Grabouw area of the Western Cape in 1992. The South African Department of Land Affairs adopted this strategy in the face of land reform as one of the major Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programmes to provide basic support to the farmworkers in order to enable them to participate in the financial stakes of the commercial farming in South Africa. The main research objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of FWESSs and assess the contribution of the programme to the improvement of the living standards of the previously disadvantaged individuals, viz farmworkers. This was achieved through a survey, which included five FWESSs administered by the Cape Town regional office of the Department of Land Affairs (DLA). Interviews were conducted amongst the ordinary farmworkers, members of the board of worker trustees and the original owners. Among other things, the motivations, characteristics of governance, socio-economic factors and financial performance of the schemes were evaluated. It is evident from the investigation that the original owners are in the forefront in the initiation of the equity-sharing schemes on their farms. Job security was shown as the most important motivation by some farmworkers for their participation in equity-sharing schemes, while other shareholders (original owners) indicated that the initial capital injection in the business and the empowerment of the farmworkers through capital appreciation and dividends was the most important motivation. Equity-sharing schemes are a relative new concept in farms that were included in this study and after the initial negative impact with the change in the management of the organisation, the schemes are faring good financially. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Dit word algemeen erken dat die Suid-Afrikaanse kommersiële landboubedryf herstrukturering sal moet ondergaan om voorheen-benadeelde gemeenskappe by die landbou-ekonomie van die land te integreer. Dit is toe te skryf aan die ongelykhede wat ten opsigte van die landboubedryf tussen swart gemeenskappe en die tradisionele "blanke" landboubedryf bestaan. Na die bewindoomame van die ANC-regering in 1994, is maatreëls vir regstellende aksie ten opsigte van ongelykheid en onregverdige toegang tot hulpbronne en markte in werking gestelom hierdie ongelykhede uit die weg te ruim. 'n Kitsoplossing is egter nie moontlik nie; dit sal tientalle jare neem om die ongelykhede wat gedurende die apartheidsbewind geskep is, uit te wis. Die eerste plaaswerker kapitaaldelingskema is in 1992 op die Whitehall-plaas in die Grabouw-distrik van die Wes-Kaap ingestel. Die Suid-Afrikaanse Departement van Grondsake het hierdie strategie as een van die hoofprogramme vir grondherverdeling vir die ontwikkeling van die landboubedryf aanvaar, om basiese steun aan die plaasarbeiders te verleen om hulle in staat te stelom 'n deel in die finansiele belang van die kommersiële landboubedryf in Suid -Afrika te verkry. Die hoof navorsingsdoelwit van hierdie studie was om die uitwerking van die plaaswerker kapitaaldelingskema te evalueer en die bydrae van die program tot die verbetering van die lewenskwaliteit van voorheen-benadeelde individue, naamlik plaasarbeiders, te beoordeel. Dit is bewerkstellig deur middel van 'n opname wat die vyf plaaswerker kapitaaldelingskemas wat deur die Departement Grondsake se streekkantoor in Kaapstad geadministreer word, te betrek. Onderhoude is met gewone plaasarbeiders, lede van die raad van arbeidertrustees en die oorspronklike eienaars gevoer. Evaluering is onder andere gerig op die motivering agter deelname aan die skemas, kenmerke van die bestuur daarvan, sosio-ekonomiese faktore en die finansiële prestasie van die skemas. Dit het uit die ondersoek duidelik geword dat die oorspronklike eienaars die voortou geneem het met die inisiriëng van die kapitaaldelingskemas op hul plase. Werksekuriteit is as die belangrikste motivering deur plaasarbeiders gegee vir die deelneming aan die kapitaaldelingskemas, terwyl die ander deelnemers (oorspronklike eienaars) die aanvanklike kapitaal-inspuiting in die boerderyen die bemagtiging van die plaasarbeiders deur kapitaalappresiasie en dividende as die belangrikste motiverings aangedui het. Kapitaaldelingskemas is 'n relatiewe nuwe konsep by boerderye wat in hierdie studie betrek is en na die aanvanklike negatiewe bëinvloeding met die verandering in die bestuur van die organisasie, is die skemas besig om finansiël goed te vaar.

Thesis (MAgricAdmin)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study evaluated farmworker equity-sharing schemes administered by the Worcester regional office of the Department of Land Affairs in the Western Cape. The objectives were to investigate the performance of farmworker equity-sharing schemes against recent literature, to evaluate the motivation for the establishment of these schemes and whether they served the purpose for which they were established. Through investigating the role these schemes play in improving the farmworkers ' livelihood, the study investigated the changes farmworkers experienced on the farm since the establishment of the schemes. The perceptions of farmworkers regarding the schemes were also investigated. The study found that at all the farms evaluated there was a lack of formal training to all the levels of farmworkers, including committee members and shareholder workers. These farms did not have the funds to finance training programmes for their farmworkers. Poor training impeded farmworkers to utilise their skills and participate in decision making on the farm. Contrary to the objectives of financial participation and farmworker equity-sharing schemes, most of these schemes did not achieve the broad objectives of the participation schemes such as empowering their workers. Living and working conditions seem to have improved on most of the farms although some farms seem to have experienced no change at all. The ESTA Laws could be the cause of the improvements in housing and working conditions but not the implementation of the farmworker equity-sharing schemes. Respondents did not seem to experience discrimination due to gender. Financially the schemes are not performing well. This is evident from the number of schemes that were liquidated due to financial problems and for which financial statements could not be obtained. These schemes face various institutional and structural challenges, which includes financial challenges. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het plaaswerker-aandeelhouerskemas wat deur die Worcesterstreekskantoor van die Departement van Grondsake in die Wes-Kaap bestuur word, geëvalueer. Die oogmerke van die studie was om die verrigting van plaaswerkeraandeelhouerskemas teenoor onlangse literatuur te ondersoek, om die motivering vir die vestiging van hierdie skemas te evalueer en te bepaal of hulle wel die doel dien waarvoor hulle gevestig is. Deur die rol van hierdie skemas in die verbetering van plaaswerkers se bestaan te ondersoek, het die studie ook ondersoek ingestel na die veranderinge wat sedert die vestiging van die skemas deur plaaswerkers ervaar is. Die plaaswerkers se persepsies van die skemas is ook ondersoek. Die studie het bevind dat daar by al die plase wat betrek is 'n tekort aan formele opleiding aan al die vlakke van plaaswerkers was, met inbegrip van komiteelede en aandeelhouer-werkers. Hierdie plase het nie oor die fondse beskik om opleidingsprogramme vir hulle plaaswerkers te finansier nie. Swak opleiding strem plaaswerkers in die toepassing van hulle vaardighede en in hulle deelname aan besluitneming op die plaas. In stryd met die doelwitte van finansiële deelname en plaaswerker-aandeelhouerskemas het hierdie skemas nie in hulle doel geslaag nie. Woon- en werksomstandighede op die meeste plase het blykbaar sedert die vestiging van die skemas verbeter, alhoewel sommige plase skynbaar geen vemaderinge ondergaan het nie. Die Wet op die Uitbreiding van Sekerheid op Verblyfreg kan 'n verklaring vir die verbetering in behuising en werksomstandighede wees, en nie noodwendig die implementering van die plaaswerker-aandeelhouerskemas nie. Respondente het volgens alle aanduidings nie diskriminasie op grond van geslag ondervind nie. Die skemas presteer finansieel nie goed nie. Dit is duidelik uit die getal skemas wat as gevolg van finansiële probleme gelikwideer is en waarvoor finansiële state nie verkry kon word nie. Hierdie skemas staar verskeie institusionele en strukturele uitdagings in die gesig, waaronder ook finansiële uitdagings.

Thesis (MPhil (Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa is unique in that its globally significant biodiversity, which is under major threat, coexists with an apartheid history of dispossession that produced a starkly unequal land ownership pattern and widespread rural poverty. It is in this context that the post-apartheid government must fulfil constitutional and international obligations to safeguard environmental assets as well as undertake land reform benefiting the previously dispossessed. Consequently, there is a continuous challenge of reconciling complex and often conflicting relationships between poverty, inequitable access to resources, and the protection of biodiversity. Current efforts to conserve the Cape Floral Kingdom emphasise partnerships between private landowners and existing nature reserves to promote sustainable utilisation of biodiversity. This paper explores the potential impact of this approach on farm dwellers, and how changing land use may affect their land tenure rights and livelihoods. Primary research was undertaken in the Baviaanskloof, where this model is in an early stage of implementation. The paper identifies systemic and structural tensions in current attempts to reconcile biodiversity conservation and farm dwellers’ interests, and documents issues of process and principle that could become important in the future. In doing so, it highlights the influence of on-farm power relations and highly complex institutional arrangements in determining the real extent of participation by affected farm dwellers and the efficacy of social safeguard policies. Findings also caution against an over-reliance on ecotourism as the major occupation and argues instead for support to multiple livelihood strategies.

Thesis (M Social Work (Social Work))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / This research investigates the powerlessness and dependency on wine farms in the Western Cape from the viewpoint of an understanding the lived experience of farm labourers and the high incidence of habitual drinking, violence and other social phenomena. The first farm labourers in the Western Cape were Slaves. When Slavery was abolished in 1834, Cape Slaves were freed but not compensated and so remained on farms, working as labourers, and powerless and dependent. After slavery had been abolished, the relationship between landowner and labourer evolved into a paternalistic relationship where the labourer was tied to a particular farm through housing, debt ,economic impoverishment and political marginalisation. Over the last few decades constitutional and political developments have resulted in changes to labour laws and working conditions on farms. Change has filtered down to the level of labourer at different rates in different areas. By and large, while working conditions may have improved, many labourers remain dependent and powerless to become masters of their own destiny. They remain unable to break free of the legacy of Slavery. Slavery is not the only legacy that casts a shadow over farm labourers. The infamous Tot System, initiated by Jan van Riebeeck and continuing late into the twentieth century, has enslaved many labourers in a cycle of habitual drinking, social violence and poverty. Habitual drinking has become the norm on farms, a weekend ritual that few labourers manage to escape. The purpose of this research is to broaden the field of knowledge for practitioners and organisations dealing with substance abuse and other social problems on farms. One particular farm is used as a sample of farm life. The farm in question has a children’s programme (crèche and after–school). There have also been several attempts over the last five years at social development and income–generation projects aimed at empowering adults on the farm. The experience of the farm management when attempting to introduce and establish these projects has been an overwhelming sense of immobilisation and apathy from the labourers. The empirical research used a qualitative method to examine (by means of semi structured interviews and questionnaires) themes of hopelessness, dependency and powerlessness. The meaning and particular pattern of habitual drinking on farms was also explored through interviews and questionnaires. There is evidence that habitual drinking continues on wine farms, generation after generation. It has become a legitimate way of life, a ritual so entrenched, that the community cannot imagine life any other way. To not drink is to place oneself in the position of outsider, opening oneself up to ridicule, disdain and verbal abuse. Individuals who do give up drinking do so as a result of an external threat rather than a conscious choice to change the course of their lives. Furthermore, this study found that farm labourers consistently surrender responsibility for their children, their homes their behaviour, while they cling to the remnants of paternalism, avoiding at all costs becoming masters of their own destinies. This study indicates that the abolishment of the tot system has not significantly reduced the incidence of habitual excessive drinking. Whilst achieving sobriety is a key intervention in achieving social harmony, in isolation, the outlook for sustained success is poor. Working for change on wine farms is not the exclusive domain of any one role player. In any geographical area a partnership between farming communities is needed to address labourers’ needs, and gaps and overlaps in service delivery. A comprehensive plan should be formulated by all role players with the empowerment of workers as the key outcome. Concerning social and domestic violence, a zero tolerance of abuse and violence needs to be taken by farm management and implemented, making use of legislation and law enforcement agencies. Early childhood development, educational enrichment and primary health care facilities are essential services on farms and should be staffed by qualified professionals dedicated to the upliftment and empowerment of farming communities. Finally there remains a need for further research into accessible, appropriate and sustainable intervention strategies on farms that empower labourers and break the cycles of habitual excessive drinking, social violence and hopelessness on farms.

This thesis focuses on relationships of opportunity and constraint among farm workers in the Sundays River Valley (SRV), Eastern Cape Province. Relationships of 'constraint' include those experiences of displacement and forced removal and war, including forced removals by the apartheid state in 1960 and 1970. Relationships of 'opportunity' include the ways in which residents in the SRV have contested their experiences of upheaval and domination, and the formation of a regional sense of place and belonging/ investigate how farm workers actually draw elements of locality and identity from their experiences of upheaval, and how displacement bolsters feelings of belonging and place. Instead of viewing displacement as a once-off experience, this thesis investigates displacement in historical terms, as a long-term, 'serial' experience of human movement, which is continued in the present- specifically through the creation of the Greater Addo Elephant National Park. I concentrate on developing a spatialised and cultural notion of movemenUplacement. 'Place' is investigated as a term that refers to rather indeterminate feelings of nostalgia, memory and identity, which depend on a particular connection to territory (ie: 'space'). I emphasise that elements of place in the SRV are drawn from and expressed along dualistic lines, which juxtapose situations of opportunity and constraint. In this way, farm workers' sense of connection to farms and ancestral territory in the SRV depends on their experiences of stable residency and work on farms, as well as their memories of removal from land in the area. I emphasise that those elements of conservatism (expressed as 'tradition' and Redness) among Xhosa-speaking farm workers are indications of a certain hybridity of identity in the region, which depend on differentiation from other groups (such as so-called 'coloured' farm workers and 'white' farmers), as well as associations between these groups. This thesis lays emphasis upon those less visible and definable 'identities' in the Eastern Cape Province, specifically by shifting focus away from the exhomeland states of the Ciskei and Transkei, to more marginal expressions of identity and change (among farm workers) in the Province. I point out that labourers cannot solely be defined by their positions as farm workers, but by their place and sense of cultural belonging in the area. In this sense, I use the idea of work as a loaded concept that can comment on a range of cultural attitudes towards belonging and place, and which is firmly embedded in the private lives of labourers - beyond their simple socio-economic conditions of farm work. I use Bourdieu's conception of habitus and doxa to define work as a set of dispositions that have been historicised and internalised by workers to such an extent, that relationships of domination are sometimes inadvertently obscured through their apparent 'naturalness'. Moreover, I point out that work can be related to ritualised action in the SRV through the use of performance and practice-based anthropological theory. Both work and ritual are symbolic actions, and are sites of struggle within which workers express themselves dualistically. Rituals, specifically, are dramatic events that combine disharmonious and harmonious social processes - juxtaposing the powerlessness of workers (on farms), and the deep sense of belonging and place in the SRV. I argue that the deep historical connections in the SRV have largely been ignored by conservationists in the drive to establish new protected zones (such as the Greater Addo Elephant National Park), and that a new model of shared conservation management is needed for this Park.