Zimbabwian Farm Workers in Northern South Africa.

Abstract

This article analyses the precarious livelihoods of Zimbabweans working on commercial farms in northern South Africa. Based on research carried out in 2004 and 2005, we examine how these Zimbabweans seek pathways of survival and, for a few, potential accumulation across space, sectors, and international boundaries. The article analyses how the Zimbabwean farm workers are situated in an ambivalent legal terrain, the neo-liberal restructuring of agriculture and thre articulation of paternalistic rule into a far more authoritarian logic of rule on the farms, all of which have made the border-zone state of exception for them which conditions their livelihoods. The article highlights that although these processes intensify labour exploitation, they also recalibrate the survival strategies of Zimbabweans and generate varied forms of resistance. Zimbabweans working on the farms in northern Limpopo province, South Africa are becoming more visible in public policy debates. They have been...