Towards integrated sustainable rural development in the Ugu District, KwaZulu/Natal South Coast

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts iu partial fulfilmeut of the requirements for the degrree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (D.PHIL) In the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2003.

The Ugu District is characterised by economic duality* where poverty co-exists with affluence. This duality persists even within the rural areas. Whereas the commercial farming sector were characterised by undemtilisation of agricultural land, the subsistence agricultural sector is characterised by overpopulation, land degradation, low agricultural productivity and underdevelopment. The helpless subsistence farmers have been further victimised by marginal and erratic rainfall, marginal soils, and the frequency of natural hazards such as drought, floods, hail, frost and disease that have frequently inflicted heavy losses in agricultural production over the years. They lacked mfrastructure such as roads, electricity supply, clean tap water, sanitation, health facilities and training centres for skills development. The rural population is characterised by high fertility rate, high man/land ratios, high unemployment rate, high illiteracy rate, high dependency ratio, low-income levels and poverty. The abuse and mismanagement of agricultural land resources through the cutting of trees for fuel, overgrazing, and overcultivation was a common phenomenon among the poverty stricken population The challenge facing South Africa is to find ways and means of achieving overall economic growth and reduction in the level of poverty while maintaining me ecological integrity of the resource base. South Africa has formally embarked on a national Local Agenda 21 campaign, assisting local authorities to make the global agenda towards sustainable development part of every day activities. Agenda 21 of the Rio Earth Summit is based on the belief that unless sustainable development is placed at the top of the international development agenda, the global environmental degradation will continue to marginalise the poor, damage human health, slow down growth and world food productivity (Johnston, 1993). Environment is interpreted very broadly to include physical, biological, social, economic, and institutional dimensions vvithin which a farming community lives and operates. This calls for process-based research in sustainable agricultural development, integrating social, economic, and ecological perspectives. Meeting sustainable development challenges will require new orientations away from the old practice of treating each issue or sector separately and towards dealing with the issues of poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation, in a integrated way. This new approach to sustainable development should embrace issues of development, participation, empowerment, accountability, indigenous knowledge, poverty alleviation and environmental conservation in a holistic systems approach. Integrated development planning (IDP) was first introduced in South African planning law by the Development Facilitation Act, 1995, the Local Government Transition Act, 1996, and more recently the Local Government Municipal Systems Act, 2000. Integrated development planning seeks to integrate the physical, social, economic and political aspects of planning. One of the major targets of the IDP is the eradication of poverty, as a step towards sustainable development. Poverty in South Africa is primarily a feature of the historically disadvantaged population. Dispossession and exploitation is at the root of poverty. About 72 percent of South Africa's poor live in rural areas, which are often highly dispersed and difficult to access for support and service. About 61 percent of the rural poor are Black. The study was carried out in Vulamehlo, a local municipality that forms part of Ugu District Municipality. As a predominantly rural municipality with severe poverty challenges, Vulamehlo was identified with other similar municipalities within Ugu District as a nodal point in terms of Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme (ISRDP). This thesis explores the effectiveness of the ISRDP in Vulamehlo. It was found that the organizational structure of the Vulamehlo ISRDP was sufficient for the overseeing of the implementation and monitoring of ISRDP. The Vulamehlo municipality incorporated spatial development framework in its ISRDP, which is a positive sign towards sustainability. The phasing of the ISRDP followed the prescribed procedures of development planning, including a popular participation consultation process. The shortage of locally generated development capital is one of the most serious problems to agricultural development in Vulamehlo.

National Research Foundation (NRF)