An interesting social experiment: White labour forestry settlement programme in South Africa, 1917-1938
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Date
1989-05-15
Authors
Roach, Tom
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Abstract
Over seventy years ago, South Africa's Department of
Forestry started a large scale tree planting programme. The
scheme involved the establishment of communities of poor whites in
areas suitable for afforestation. The residents of the
settlements were recruited from amongst the nation's unemployed
and dispossessed. The first settlements were founded in the Cape
in 1917 and the final settlement was built in north- eastern
Transvaal during 1934. For locations, see figure 1. Up to 1938,
the settlements were operated by the Department of Forestry in
conjunction with other government Departments, notably the
Department of White Labour, the Department of Labour and the
Department of Labour and Social Welfare. In 1938, control over the
settlements was passed to the Department of Social Welfare. At the
same time, the planting programme in which the settlers were
taking part effectively came to an end. Basic details about the
settlements are given in table 1.Today, South Africa, including the Bantustans, is nearly
independent of outside sources for forest products such as sawn
timber, wood pulp, paper, and many of the chemical derivatives of
wood and cellulose. Practically all this material comes from
trees grown in plantations. Currently, a total of 1 181 608
hectares are under cultivation of which 780 650 hectares,
sixty-six percent, are privately owned. In 1987, some two hundred
thousand people were employed in the forestry and timber
industries of South Africa. Ninety percent of these employees were
unskilled workers. Practically all employees, ninety-five
percent, are African, thirty percent are women. Prior to the
start of the settlement programme, the Union's Department of
Forestry had planted approximately 14 000 hectares of woodland in
addition to the 7 300 hectares afforested by the two British
colonies in the years between 1880 and 1910. In the ensuing two
decades, the Department planted some 100 760 hectares, about 26%
of the afforested area owned by the government in 1987. This large
and important industry got its start from the social experiment
described in this paper.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 15 May 1989
Keywords
Forestry projects. South Africa, Land settlement. South Africa, Whites. Relocation. South Africa