Cleaner Energy Cooler Climate

Developing sustainable energy solutions for South Africa

This book examines the emerging patterns of agricultural finance in Zimbabwe since the advent of the Fast Track Land Resettlement Programme (FTLRP) implemented from the year 2000, drawing from the Nairobi debates of the 1980’s on contract farming and the peasantry in Africa.

More and more of global economic wealth and decision-making power rests with fewer and fewer people, while acute socio-economic inequities continue to afflict large rural communities in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Land inequalities remain a burning question for rural communities.

Images of striking COSATU workers, singing, marching and toyi-toying are a familiar sight for most South Africans and external observers of the country's politics. Similarly, COSATU's feisty general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi has become a household name, commanding respect and admiration among millions and loathing and fear among his enemies and those who are on the receiving end of his fiery political oratory. But how much do we know about what COSATU workers think about their workplaces, their unions, politics and the economy? What influences COSATU members' decisions to vote for a particular political party? Why has COSATU women members' support for the ANC declined? Why do some union members think there may be good reasons to assault non-strikers and scabs during strikes? What do unionised workers think of service delivery and what role did they play in the recent spate of service delivery protests? These and many other questions are examined in this volume which is based on the fourth run of the COSATU Workers' Survey conducted a few months before the 2009 elections. Contrary to stereotypes reproduced in the media and other public platforms which portray trade union members as a herd led by all-powerful 'union bosses', A Contested Legacy deftly presents a picture of a multifaceted organisation whose members are steeped in the traditions of internal democracy, leadership accountability and mandated decision-making. But these traditions are not static. They are fiercely contested among different groups and categories of union members women and men; migrant and urban workers; skilled and unskilled workers; blue collar and white collar and professional workers; permanent and part-time and casual workers.

This book gets to grips with the complexities of policy change in South Africa, asking how evolving doctrines and policies shape the way water use rights are conceptualised and governed. It offers an historical overview of the evolution of water resources policy and legislation, before going on to explore in-depth the process of formulating the Water Allocation Reform policy. This is then contrasted with an 'on-the-ground' case study that brings into relief the dynamics occurring at the policy level. The book offers a new perspective that emphasises the discursive construction of rights - how different principles are privileged in diverging discourses around scarcity, equity, efficiency and sustainability, and how such 'allocation discourses' are transformed at the local level by new processes of politics and power. The book sets these processes within the wider context of political and economic change in South Africa, and draws lessons for the broader experience of water policy and legislation in an international context. The book is aimed towards researchers, policymakers and practitioners and a broader international readership interested in water policy and development.