Magwa Tea Venture in South Africa: Politics, Land and Economics

Agricultural parastatals were a common feature during apartheid and were intended, according to the government, to address poverty in the Bantustans. However the failure of these projects to achieve the publicised goals, mainly due to their heavy dependence on government funding, led to a belief that their establishment was motivated more by politics than the stated reasons. Following a review of these parastatals, the post-apartheid government is struggling to come up with new ideas on how to restructure or replace them. In Magwa Tea, a former parastatal in the Eastern Cape, economic, political and social issues are intertwined to the extent that neither the problem of poverty is resolved, nor the other goals relating to economics, politics or social issues are achieved.