Rural Women's Survivalist Livelihoods and State Interventions in Ga‐Ramogale Village, Limpopo Province

Abstract

Women constitute the majority of rural dwellers experiencing the worst effects of poverty while carrying the responsibility of securing a living for their households. Historically, rural women have practised a multiplicity of livelihoods that have always remained survivalist and less effective in generating cash income. However, well-intended state interventions through Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) projects for women's empowerment have instead removed women from their practice of survivalist livelihoods without offering them the necessary enabling conditions to establish independent biographies for practice of 'modern' cash generating strategies. Based on a systematic sample of 177 households and interviews with women in Ga-Ramogale, this article concludes that PAP projects have, rather than empowering women for sustainable participation in rural development, deepened their poverty and deprivation by enticing them away from the practice of livelihoods for which they had developed experience, skills and knowledge over years, and thereby effectively engendering increased reliance on dependency-oriented livelihoods.

What Can the Capabilities Approach Learn from an Ubuntu Ethic? A Relational Approach to Development Theory

“…We can extend the example further. For many African households that do not have access to piped water as a consequence of deliberate exclusion from water under apartheid, women often disproportionately bear the burden of fetching water from streams, springs and communal taps (Tsheola 2012). In such cases, while all family members have access to water as a consequence of this, the disproportionate burden on women implies that the capability is significantly marred.…”

(Re)constructing rural–urban spaces: gendered livelihoods, migration, and natural resources in South Africa

“…1). Much of this growth is attributed to peri-urban development whereby people migrate to urban and semi-urban areas to find housing, employment, and access to other services (Todes et al 2010;Tsheola 2012). In addition to the migration of people from rural areas, this urban expansion reflects the influx of labour from neighboring countries in southern Africa such as Zimbabwe.…”

“…Limpopo Province is the home of three former bantustans (Venda, Gazankulu, and Lebowa) where concentrations of Black Africans remain crowded onto marginal land with overburdened services and infrastructure (Tsheola 2012). With 5.4 million people, Limpopo had approximately one tenth of South Africa's overall population in 2011.…”

Paradoxes of Gendered Rurality, Women’s Non-Economic Constructions, Disempowerment and State Capitalism in South Africa

“…Rural households in developing countries such as South Africa are generally highly vulnerable to the risks associated with poverty because they lack the necessary instruments for adequately managing the deteriorating ecological and macroeconomic circumstances (Tsheola, 2012). The primacy of rural livelihoods as "one of the key pillar(s) in an effective and sustainable rural poverty-reduction strategy" (Anderson, 2003, p.161) is unquestionable.…”

“…The primacy of rural livelihoods as "one of the key pillar(s) in an effective and sustainable rural poverty-reduction strategy" (Anderson, 2003, p.161) is unquestionable. Evidence show that over the years, "theoretical frameworks and operational models of how the poverty situation could be transformed" (Mabogunje, 1989, p.14) were formulated and implemented, but that rural populations in developing countries remain exposed to the harsh neoliberal capitalist development and the consonant ecological crises (Eshete, 1992;Tsheola, 2012). Decades of thinking and evolution of mechanisms for the "eradication" of rural poverty have produced skeletal interventions over rural landscapes, fraught with obstacles that militate against the transformation of the colonial strictures (Nabudere, 2006;Bado, 2012;Tsheola, 2012).…”