(University of Cape Town (Thesis), 1987) Bank, Leslie
It is my aim in this paper to trace the slow re-emergence of
class differentiation in Witsieshoek after the rebellion of 1950 and to
the consider the implications of this process for political
struggles waged in Qwaqwa during the contemporary phase of
'homeland self-government'. The paper focuses centrally on the
emergence of a commercial petty bourgeoisie in the Qwaqwa since
the 1960 and its changing political profile over the past two
decades. In developing this analysis I focus mainly on licensed
retail traders in Qwaqwa. My discussion proceeds in three parts.
The first part deals with the period 1960 to 1974 and is
dominated by an investigation of the activities of the Bantu
Investment Corporation (BIC) in Qwaqwa. The second section of the
paper concentrates on the period 1974-1980, a phase of mass
population relocation and rapid economic differentiation. It
concentrates on the unfolding of political struggle between the
homeland political elite and the emergent commercial petty
bourgeoisie. In the final section of the paper I focus on
changing economic opportunities for African traders in the early
1980s as they are brought under the wing of the Qwaqwa
Development Corporation and the Mopeli government. The paper
concludes on a comparative note by addressing similarities and
difference in the changing political strategies of traders in
Qwaqwa in the face of economic centralisation with those of
storekeepers and artisans in ninetenth century Europe.