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Greater Durban, South Africa
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Beall, Jo |
| Copyright Year | 2009 |
| Abstract | South Africa was not atypical in having to accommodate indigenous institutions in its new political order when the country made its transition from minority rule to a non-racial democracy in 1994. In many parts of the world, and especially post-colonial states, customary forms of governance remain salient, being deeply rooted in local institutions. Indigenous institutions are not immutable and have connected with, and been engaged by, colonial powers and western states in a range of ways and to varying effect over many decades. Yet it is increasingly recognised that institutional multiplicity and competing claims to social and political legitimacy need to be taken seriously within hybrid political orders. State making and peace building in post-apartheid South Africa was made possible by the creation of an administrative machinery that could contain customary authority structures within a broader polity, political structures and processes that channelled the ambitions and grievances of traditional leaders, and a system of local government that drew on the presence and experience of chieftaincies to bring development to hard-to-reach areas. This was a contested process that is by no means over and it has had mixed results. Yet pockets of success have emerged out of the transitional period, especially in the city of Durban, where inclusive elite coalitions have promoted developmental outcomes. The key ingredient for success was the commitment to development of influential political leaders with local links into ubukhosi, the institution of chieftaincy, as well as strong connections to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) both locally and nationally. From this core they were able to forge broader coalitions that included traditional leaders, elected councillors, businessmen, social activists and the church. In some instances they were successful in breaking down political boundaries and antagonisms in the interest of inclusive developmental strategies. 1 A number of terms used in this paper are contentious, including the concepts ‘indigenous institutions’ and ‘traditional leaders’ that appear in the title. In using this nomenclature I recognise that ‘traditional’ can imply stasis when in fact the people and processes I am describing are often adaptive and dynamic. Nevertheless, the term is widely used in South Africa, both in common parlance and official documentation and by traditional leaders themselves. Similarly, by using the term ‘indigenous’ I am not suggesting that the institutions I thus describe are somehow more authentic or legitimate that those that come later or that are introduced from the outside. Rather the idea advanced here is that they have some degree of domestic rootedness that is recognisable and accepted within prevailing political norms, bureaucratic standards and social practices. When using these terms, therefore, I avoid repeated caveats or the cumbersome insertion of inverted commas in the text. Also contentious are the variety of racial categories that pertained during the colonial period, the segregationist period, under apartheid and in the post-apartheid period. Here too I recognise that terms such as ‘native’ and ‘bantu’ are anachronistic and may be pejorative. They are reproduced in the text only when they appear in the title of legislation or when quoted in secondary sources. 2 This paper was written at the request of the Leaders, Elites and Coalitions Research Programme (LECRP) (www.lecrp.org) as a direct follow-up of work on traditional leaders undertaken during Phase One of the Crisis States Research Centre. 3 Mduduzi Ngonyama is a Masters student in the Department of History at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and provided invaluable research support for this project. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.lse.ac.uk/international-development/Assets/Documents/PDFs/csrc-working-papers-phase-two/wp55.2-indigenous-institutions-traditional-leaders-elite-coalitions.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28487/1/WP55.2.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
