“This paper focuses on one area of government
policy – land reform – looking at the
institutional forms that have been developed
as part of that policy, the strategies
being applied to implement it, the linkages
between it and other areas of policy, and
the achievements of the policy to date. In
doing so, it seeks to understand the impact
of land reform policy on the livelihood
opportunities of the rural poor. This is
done through a detailed study of land
reform policy in the Eastern Cape province,
with a particular emphasis on the former ‘homeland’ areas of Ciskei and Transkei.The study begins by looking at the importance of small-scale land-based activities – principally cropping, livestock and gathering of wild resources – to rural livelihoods in the Eastern Cape. It then looks at the policies that have been put in place by the state to improve access to land, and the rights people enjoy over land, particularly in terms of the Land Reform Programme of the Department of Land Affairs. In the final section, a six-part framework developed by Goldman is used to assess the land reform policy in the Eastern Cape from a sustainable livelihoods perspective.”
