A post-apartheid (rural) citizen, 1986 – 1991: Provisional Notes on Rural Transformation Association

Historians and social scientists have portrayed the late 1980s as perhaps the most tumultuous and violent times in modern SA history, with valid reasons. In this political tragedy, KwaZulu-Natal experienced most of the political conflict in the dying days of apartheid. Simultaneous with this state of confusion and flux, there were other initiatives that sought to undermine the system of apartheid by beginning a process that would culminate – if successful – in the birth of a post apartheid (in this case) rural-citizen. According to one of the initiatives such a citizen would have access to land, acquire land rights or full ownership of the land they occupied and be literate. The Rural Transformation Association (RTA) was a champion of this vision.