Botha reformism, the Bantustan strategy and the marginalization of the South African periphery

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Periodical article

Title:	Botha reformism, the Bantustan strategy and the marginalization of the South African periphery
Author:	Southall, Roger J.
Year:	1982
Periodical:	Labour, Capital and Society
Volume:	15
Issue:	2
Pages:	6-39
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	urbanization bantustans
Abstract:	The rapid pace of capitalist development since 1870 has provided the major impetus to the transition of South Africa from a mercantile agrarian to a predominantly industrialized society. The most remarkable feature of the rural-urban migration attendant upon industrialisation in the South African case is clearly the extent to which urbanisation of Africans has lagged behind that of other racial groups, as successive white governments have deliberately sought to impede the flow of Africans from the countryside to the towns. This objective has: been pursued through the reserve and bantustan policies in the successive eras of segregation and apartheid respectively. The present paper examines the continuity of present with past trends, and through analysis of the 'retention' of the African population in the 'countryside' by coercive means in the contemporary period, demonstrates how current government policy under the reformist programme initiated by Prime Minister Botha operates as a causal factor in the further underde-velopment of the South Africa 'periphery'. Notes, tab., sum. in French.