ABSTRACT
The rural expansion of South Africa’s platinum industry has not benefited ordinary residents. The post-apartheid state’s attempts to re-establish traditional (‘tribal’) authorities and subject rural residents, once more, to the control of local chiefs lies at the root of this paradox. As a result of the distorted interpretation of some post-apartheid legislation, the dominant assumption has been that chiefs are now the custodians of communal resources and the legitimate mediators of mining deals. Consequently, grassroots resistance to the chiefs and mining expansion has intensified, including conflict and competing claims over the mineral-rich land and mining revenues. In this chapter, I argue that South Africa’s post-apartheid mineral policy reform, particularly its redress mission, has been significantly challenged by the complex rural social milieu that characterises South Africa’s platinum belt. The local institutions that shape the structure of power at the local level tend to compromise the state’s redistributive policy mechanisms, particularly in the former ‘homeland’ areas, where local chiefs retain tight control over communal land.
