Are we tribalistic? Demarcation disputes in Vuwani Vhembe District

Africa's Public Service Delivery and Performance Review

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Are we tribalistic? Demarcation disputes in Vuwani Vhembe District
 
Creator Khowa, Thandeka
 
Subject development-sociology municipal demarcation; Vuwani Vhembe District; tribalism; good governance; rural land
Description Background: Vuwani community expressed their rejection of the municipal boundary demarcations which resulted in the formation of the Collins Chabane Municipality made-up of parts of Vuwani community and Malamulele community. A number of media reports had alluded that much of what is presented as demarcation disputes is largely fueled by tribalism (Baloyi 2018).Aim: Using relevant literature, this study aimed at examining claims of tribalism in Vuwani demarcation disputes. In so doing the study examines the claims of tribalism as a catalyst in the demarcation disputes in Vuwani.Setting: The area of study is Vuwani Vhembe District in South Africa. However lessons learnt are not limited to South Africa but contributes to the body of knowledge on demarcations in Africa and worldwide.Methods: A qualitative approach was adopted using in-depth and focus group discussion analysed through Territorial and Inclusion theories.Results: The findings revealed that clustering Vuwani demarcation disputes as being merely tribalistic is a narrow and dismissive approach to the amalgamation disputes in Vuwani. The findings further revealed the contributing factors to the demarcation disputes in Vuwani such as lack of adherence to good governance principle, lack of transparency etc. have led to many misconceptions which fueled the ongoing demarcation disputes.Conclusion: Adherence to good governance principles and policies is essential in redrawing of the spatial boundaries. Land, especially rural land is a sensitive commodity in Africa because of the effects of colonialism and apartheid. Thus, redrawing of spatial boundaries need to be carried out with extreme caution.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2022-01-28
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — qualitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/apsdpr.v10i1.534
 
Source Africa’s Public Service Delivery & Performance Review; Vol 10, No 1 (2022); 9 pages 2310-2152 2310-2195
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://apsdpr.org/index.php/apsdpr/article/view/534/1036 https://apsdpr.org/index.php/apsdpr/article/view/534/1037 https://apsdpr.org/index.php/apsdpr/article/view/534/1038 https://apsdpr.org/index.php/apsdpr/article/view/534/1039
 
Coverage South Africa 2018-2020 Vuwani Vhembe communities
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Thandeka Khowa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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