Rethinking the rural-urban divide in postApartheid South Africa : Investigating social linkages between urban migrants in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and their natal villages in the Eastern Cape Province
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2012-06-08
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In this thesis, socio-economic ties across rural and urban regions in contemporary South Africa
constitute the most central point of attention. At first glance, the relationship between urban and
rural populations in South Africa is in many ways difficult to observe. Here, the continuity of
socio(-economic) ties between urban migrants and their families in the rural area are investigated.
Subsequently, insights are presented in the nature, value and role of these ties, in order to
substantiate general claims on the proclaimed rural-urban divide, in the context of South African
society. The research question was formulated as follows: What is the influence of rural-urban
migration from Guquka and Koloni to Port Elizabeth and Cape Town on the rural-urban divide in postApartheid
South Africa?
To provide an answer to this question, two rural villages were selected as the point of departure of
this research. Guquka and Koloni, as they are named, are situated in the former Ciskei area in the
Eastern Cape Province. This region is named to be the poorest region of the country and is
characterised by a lack of basic facilities and a vast unemployment rate of its inhabitants. The
development of deagrarianisation has been in process for a certain number of years now, implying
that people increasingly find their resources from e.g. social grants and remittances. Moreover, the
region could be conceptualised as a ‘place of leaving’ in the context of rural-urban migration patterns
in South Africa.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen