2.1 Environmental deficits in sa

Social sciences

Geography

Grade 9

Sustainable utilisation of resources

Module 7

Environmental deficits in south africa

1. Physical Geography

The South African ecosystem is characterised by low rainfall, water shortages and soil that is vulnerable to erosion. About 65% of the country has less than 500 mm of rain per year, the minimum required for rain-dependent crop-farming.

About 65% of the arable land in South Africa contains very little organic material (humus) and becomes impoverished quickly as a result of repeated usage.

The low rainfall and poor soil results in only 16% of the arable land being suitable for crop-farming. The rest of the land is used for grazing. Only about 16% of South Africa’s arable soil was situated in the ‘homelands’ of the past. This imbalance, combined with the low rainfall, led to extensive environmental deficits in the ‘homelands’.

2. Structural deficits during Apartheid

The apartheid system formalised the unequal social distribution of environmental resources in South Africa. It led to serious structural deficits within the black communities. They not only had inadequate access to land; their monthly income from farming did not make it possible for them to invest in their land. This shortage of land was made worse by the fact that the quality of the soil was poor and needed extensive cultivation.

Table 1: Comparison of population densities in rural South Africa, 1991

Table 2: Comparison of yield in crop farming, Natal and Kwazulu – 1983-1984

In the homelands the land was unequally divided and 20% of the farmers were in control of 80% of the production. Even in the Transkei (which is now a large proportion of the Eastern Cape Province) the shortage of land was a serious problem.

In urban areas, the black areas were situated in environments that were unusable for whites. They were overpopulated with too few houses and situated in areas downwind from industrial areas. The services and infrastructure were bad. The houses were built from waste material and were not proof against the elements especially water.

The structural deficit worsened the availability and the demand-driven deficits.

3. Demand-driven deficits

Of the estimated South African population of 42,6 million in 1995, 28 million lived in towns and cities while 15 million lived in urban areas. It was estimated that the black population of 32 million would have grown to 37 million and the white population would still be around 5 million by the year 2000.

This growth in the black population made the shortage of land even worse. During the apartheid era the population density in the homelands was 10 times higher than that in the white areas. The conditions in the homelands resulted from forced migration: it caused the population to grow from 4,5 million in 1960 to 11 million in 1980. The size of the homelands remained the same.