Academic literature on the topic 'Bafokeng'

Resource curse literature examines the causes and consequences of natural resources on economies. Within the literature, politico-economic theories provide insight into the relationship between institutional strength, the incentives facing the political elite due to the natural resource and the potential outcome for natural resource abundant economies. This paper argues that the Bafokeng Nation of South Africa provide an unusual case study for the resource curse. The Bafokeng's institutional strength is examined and the incentives facing the elite are analysed using Dunning's model. Dunning proposes three explanatory variables to explain the incentives facing the political elite (a) Volatility of Resource Revenues, (b) Societal Opposition to State Elites and (c) Prior Development of Non-resource Sectors. The Bafokeng are examined in light of Botswana to provide a comparative analysis. The analysis is supported by a Household survey of the Bafokeng, interviews with Bafokeng members as well as literature on both the Bafokeng and Botswana. The paper concludes that the institutional strength of the Bafokeng stems from their Tswana origins (similar to that of Botswana) and the current use of traditional governance structures, as well as the external constraints provided by the South African political system. Using Dunning's model this paper predicts that there would be diversification of the economy, political stability and mixed economic and fiscal stability. This however is strengthened by the unusual position of the Bafokeng as constrained by external factors as well as the internal strength provided by the traditional governance structures.

Tribal (rural) communities possess assets/resources that can be utilised in improving the quality of life of their residents. The processes involved in the usage of these assets toward community-led development can determine the success or failure of the development efforts by the community. The research conducted was aimed at investigating the processes involved in utilising these assets, with reference being placed on two community-led development approaches namely Asset Based Community Development and Sustainable Livelihood Framework. The research will examine the processes that the Royal Bafokeng Nation has used in the successful development of its community. A comparison of the community-led development processes will be compared to the Integrated Sustainable Development Strategy formulated by the South African government to develop rural communities. The results indicate that development is not just about asset identification, it‟s more complex than that. If development was just about resource identification then a lot of tribal communities would be developed. Development is about the interactions between leaders, community and external sources and in the case of RBN, administration as well. It is about interaction between leaders and community in the form of participation in development efforts; interaction between leaders (and administration) with external sources such as municipalities to enhance development; and interaction between community and external sources through social capital. The results also indicate that whilst it is the duty of government to provide basic services, communities can partake in other development initiatives. That development in it‟s entirely should not be left to government if communities have the means of initiating development. That government has to improve certain aspects in their development strategies, but that it has made strides in formulating strategies to develop rural communities. The challenges for government come in the implementation of these strategies. That partnership between community and government can lead to better and sustainable development initiatives.

This thesis presents a materialist analysis of the modem African chieftaincy. Chieftaincy is conceived as a dialectical unity of local state and corporate land relations that are both form and effect of the contradictory development of the capital relation in sub-Saharan Africa under conditions of colonial imperialism. As a state institution the chieftaincy is everywhere constituted as a territorialised tribal authority, while as a landed institution it has the potential (though by no means the necessity) to assume the `class function' of modern landed property in relation to agrarian and industrial capital. The thesis terms this phenomenal form `tribal landed property'. Drawing on oral histories, institutional interviews and archival data collected during a year's local-level fieldwork (2000-2001), the thesis applies this theoretical framework to a detailed case study of the BaFokeng chieftaincy. It proceeds at two increasingly concrete levels of analysis. The first explores how the core relations of tribal authority and corporate landed property that have defined and dynamised the modern BaFokeng chieftaincy were historically constituted in the course of South Africa's `racial capitalist' development (1837-1977). This establishes that the institution was a creation and, in key ways, a beneficiary of the emergent colonial, segregationist and apartheid orders, while casting new light on key themes in rural South African historiography. The second focuses on the (celebrated) struggles between this chieftaincy and an alliance of the Bophuthatswana homeland regime and the Impala mining company over the rights to the vast platinum reserves in BaFokeng and the distribution of their revenues (1977-1994). Analysis of the 'economic' dimension of this struggle demonstrates the utility of conceiving the BaFokeng chieftaincy as a distinctive form of modem landed property in contradictory relationships with mining capital, mine labour and the state. This also contributes an oriýtinal account of the increasingly important platinum industry. The logic of this 'tribal landed property' approach may open the way to a more general materialist conception of `communal' tenure forms typically considered beyond the reach of political economy.

Resource control as a form of community participation in the mineral economy has gained much recognition. One prevailing argument is that direct control of natural resources by local communities is an important precondition for equitable utilisation of the natural resource wealth, peaceful co-existence between mining corporations and indigenous communities, and congenial relations between local communities and the state. Studies have also shown that the absence of direct community control of mineral wealth remains a major factor in the communal resistance and socio-political conflict witnessed in the natural resource-endowed regions of countries such as Nigeria, Ecuador, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, little is known about mineral resource control at the community level. Does community control necessarily translate to equity? How does local involvement in the mobilisation of mining royalties benefit different segments of the community? Indeed, how do different segments of the community “control” the wealth? What is the specific model adopted to engender broad-based community participation in the utilisation of mineral wealth – and does it matter? These theoretical and practical questions were the impetus for undertaking this study in the Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela – two platinum-rich ‘traditional’ communities in South Africa’s North West Province that have significant control over platinum resources in their territories. Utilising ethnographic data collected in the two study communities in 2008 and 2009, the thesis examines the character of community participation in platinum wealth utilisation; specifically, the conditions under which community participation promotes or hinders sustainable community development. The analysis uses a “three-dimensional participation ladder” conceptual scheme, based in part on Sherry Arnstein’s (1969) “ladder of citizen participation” and subsequent typologies of participation. Among the key findings of the thesis are that despite observed benefits, the interface of resource wealth and community development is fraught with tokenistic participation, elite-targeted grassroots anger, and local tensions – all linked to the contradictory nature of participation. The thesis further reveals that in some instances the challenge of platinum wealth-engendered community development tends to undermine existing customary and democratic spaces for participation, and that this is exacerbated by community-level issues such as poverty and inequality. The findings of the study compel a shift of analytical focus from conflict as an epiphenomenon of collective community exclusion and deprivation (as in the case of many natural-rich countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere), to conflict as also resulting from collective community inclusion (in natural resource utilisation). At the policy level, the study generates insights that will, hopefully, assist mineral resource-endowed countries, such as South Africa, in dealing with the challenge of developing appropriate policy frameworks for regulating business and social partnerships between local communities and mining corporations, and within resource-rich communities themselves.

M.A. (African Languages)<br>This research is based primarily on the praise poems of the Bafokeng of Phokeng, and their history. Achievements of the tribe as well as their downfall from the previous Chiefs to the present Chief are documented. The study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter looks at the aim of the study, which is preservation of the history of Bafokeng and their praise poems, both heroic and clan poems. The second chapter is a brief outline of the history of the Bafokeng tribe, their heroic as well as their clan poems. The historical backgrounds of these poems are also outlined, as are performances at different occasions. The third chapter focuses on the divining bones, the actual divination and praises of divining bones as performed by witchdoctors of Phokeng upon consultation. The fourth chapter presents the structural features of these poems e.g. language, repetition, rhythm, eulogues etc. The final chapter of this study looks at the experiences during the time of research, as well as discoveries and recommendations.

Lebone II College of the Royal Bafokeng, the first private school initiated with the wealth generated from the platinum mining of the Royal Bafokeng Nation comes into the limelight after many years of work. Like a butterfly, the school has undergone a metamorphosis of ideology, philosophy and geography to make it what it is today. The principal tenet of this institution was to produce agents of social change within the Royal Bafokeng Nation schools but at the same time geared at being the key instrument for the broader education strategy of the Royal Nation project. A large majority of students in this school were selected from the public schools of the Royal Bafokeng Nation. As such, this research investigates the experiences of the students as they transition from the public to the private schools arena so as to determine if the envisaged goal is being achieved.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering<br>The thesis describes the determination of the steady state line for the Merriespruit gold and Bafokeng platinum tailings by means of triaxial undrained compression tests. It shows that there are numerous steady state lines for the above mentioned tailings products and thatthe location oftheirsteady state lines in void ratio- mean confining effective stress space is influenced by the percentage fines (particles smaller than 0.075mm) present in the tailings, among other factors. As the percentage fines increases so the steady state line for the particular material shifts downwards in void ratio- mean confining effective stress space. The difficulty of defining a unique steady state line for a particular fines content tailings, due to errors in measurement of initial size, mass, etc. and changes in void ratio due to flooding, saturation and consolidation of the moist tamped triaxial test samples is illustrated and it is recommended that error bands be assigned to the steady state lines. The steady state lines determined for the Merriespruit gold tailings and the concepts of liquefaction are combined with evidence obtained from the post failure investigation into the Merriespruit flow slide failure to prove the premise that the flow slide was as a result of static liquefaction failure of the tailings. It is also illustrated that the notion of using a single steady state line to evaluate the liquefaction susceptibility of a tailings dam is insufficient due to the particle size distribution of the tailings varying along the beach length of the tailings dam and the location of the steady state line being influenced by the percentage fines content. Flume modelling using the Merriespruit gold tailings were carried to obtain a qualitative understanding of the behaviour of flow slides. Comparisons between the flume model tests and the Merriespruit flow slide (prototype) showed that it is difficult to obtain a correlation between the two due to the influence of scale, different dominating forces in the model and prototype and the inherent variability associated with such geotechnical phenomena- particularly in the preparation and deposition of the tailings in the flume model. Keywords: liquefaction, steady state line, flow slide, failure, flume modelling, Merriespruit, Bafokeng, gold, platinum, tailings<br>AC 2018