Prof Cousins holds a DPhil in Applied Social Science from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) (1997), and a BA in Sociology and Geography from the University of South Africa (Unisa) (1982). He currently holds a Chair in Development Management at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), and has directed PLAAS since its inception in 1995.

He has worked in agricultural training and extension in Swaziland (1976–83) and Zimbabwe (1983–86), and carried out research into land reform and rural social dynamics in Zimbabwe (1986–91) and South Africa (1991–2007). His main research interests are common property management, land tenure reform, livestock production and communal rangeland dynamics, rural social differentiation, and the politics of land reform.

bcousins@uwc.ac.za

Prof. du Toit focuses on the political economy of poverty and policy discourses in South Africa.

He graduated from the University of Stellenbosch before proceeding to complete his doctoral thesis at the University of Essex in 1996 on discourses of paternalism on Western Cape wine and fruit farms. Prof. du Toit has developed policy and institutional capacity in the restitution programme of the Department of Land Affairs (DLA), training DLA and Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights officials and facilitating the development of organisational capacity.

He co-ordinated a ministerial review of the restitution process that recommended sweeping changes to the implementation of the programme and a shift away from a court-oriented adversarial system to a primarily administrative one.  He has done extensive research on the politics and sociology of poverty and equitable change on commercial farmlands, particularly in the Western Cape, focussing on the social relations of labour, and of the transformative potential of fair trade, supermarket codes and BEE.

His current research focuses on the dynamics of chronic poverty and vulnerability in urban-rural linkages, and on the conceptual and methodological issues involved in the measurement and analaysis of structural poverty and vulnerability. Prof. du Toit leads the qualitative component of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), and was one of the organisers of the Living on the Margins conference held in March 2007.

presence@iafrica.com

He holds an MA in Public Policy from the University of Michigan (1988) and a PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin (2000).

He previously held the post of Research Director at the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria, where he conducts research projects on land reform, rural development and poverty reduction. He was formerly a technical assistant to the Department of Land Affairs (1998-2001), and apart from South Africa has undertaken research and/or consultancy work related to land policy in Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi, Uganda and Kenya.

He joined PLAAS in January 2008 as a Senior Researcher on land.

Ruth Hall holds a Masters degree in Development Studies from the University of Oxford and an Honours degree in Political Studies from UCT. She is currently registered for a doctoral degree in Politics at Oxford.

Before joining PLAAS, she was Senior Researcher at the Centre for Rural Legal Studies (CRLS), Stellenbosch, where she led research on farm workers’ wages and conditions of employment in South Africa as part of an investigation by the Department of Labour into minimum wages for farm workers. She has also done research on land reform policies and practices in South Africa and in India, focusing on gender equity.

She joined PLAAS in 2002 to work on an evaluation of land and agrarian reform in South Africa.

rhall@uwc.ac.za

Dr Hara’s current research is on the drivers of poverty in fishing communities, HIV/AIDS mainstreaming into fisheries policy and  Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), with a particular focus on fisheries.

He obtained his PhD from UWC in March 2001, his thesis evaluated whether co-management could provide a solution to problems of artisanal fisheries management  on the southeast arm of Lake Malawi.

He co-ordinates the National Coastal and Fisheries Co-management Programme in South Africa, a joint initiative between PLAAS, the Environmental Evaluation Unit at UCT and the Environmental Office at the Branch: Marine and Coastal Management of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

Before moving to PLAAS in April 2000 he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Southern African Studies (CSAS) in the School of Government at UWC. Dr Hara also lectures on Resource Management in the Masters in Public Administration course in the School of Government, in the MPhil in Land and Agrarian Studies at PLAAS.

Dr Isaacs obtained her PhD from UWC in March 2004, her thesis focusing on the implementation of the new fisheries policy in four fishing communities in South Africa. Her research project is a collaboration between PLAAS and the Norwegian Fisheries College, University of Tromsø, Norway, and her thesis was supervised by Prof Bjørn Hersoug of this College.

misaacs@uwc.ac.za

Karin Kleinbooi holds a Social Work degree from the University of Stellenbosch. Before joining PLAAS she was employed at a rights-based NGO in Stellenbosch for five years, researching and advocating farm workers’ and dwellers’ land and labour rights and developed an interest in the scope and the impact of international agricultural labour standards. Prior to that, she worked as a research assistant at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Stellenbosch and her work focused on migration and population studies.

In May 2004 she joined PLAAS as a researcher. Her research experience is in existing and emerging land policy issues, farm labour, women’s land rights and monitoring and evaluation of land reform implementation in South Africa. She is currently broadening her scope of work in regional land reform in Southern Africa.

misaacs@uwc.ac.za

Themba is a community activist concerned with land and HIV/AIDS issues. He joined PLAAS in July 2005 as a researcher on the Land redistribution and poverty in South Africa project and is based in the Limpopo Province. He previously worked at Nkuzi Development Association, conducting research into the impact of HIV/AIDS on land reform and land-based livelihoods. Themba is the provincial representative of the Treatment Action Campaign. He is also a member of the District Youth Council in the Makhado sub-region, where he serves on the secretariat. Themba holds a National Diploma in Teaching and has also completed two modules in marketing at UNISA. He is the father of a six-year old son.

Tshililo Manenzhe’s association with PLAAS started in 2003 when he registered for the MPhil in Land and Agrarian Studies. He is currently working on the mini-thesis as part of this programme. He joined PLAAS as a researcher in July 2006. He is based in Limpopo Province and carries out research on land reform and rural livelihoods. Tshlilo previously worked at Nkuzi Development Association, a land rights NGO in Limpopo Province.

Dr Matose holds a DPhil in Development Studies from the University of Sussex’s Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and an MSc in Rural Sociology from the University of Alberta.

He is a Senior Researcher/Programme Manager of the Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS), University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) programme on People Centred Approaches to Natural Resource Management, previously referred to as Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM).

Prior to joining PLAAS, Dr Matose worked at the Centre for International Forestry Research’s (CIFOR) Regional Office for Southern and Eastern Africa in Harare as a team leader for the Adaptive Co-management of Forests Project from 2000-2003. Prior to that, he was the head of the Social Forestry Unit of the Research and Development Division of the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission. His main research interests are in exploring policy processes in natural resource management particularly in providing space for different local people, collaborative natural resource management, social forestry, as well as environmental issues in so far as they relate to community development in general.
fmatose@uwc.ac.za

Jan holds an MPhil (Political Management) from Stellenbosch University where he had just completed post-graduate research in Social Anthropology focusing on the Women on Farms Project as a case study. He also holds degrees from UCT, namely BSocSci (Social Work) as well as BSocSci (Hons) in Social Policy and Management. He is currently a candidate for the SANPAD Research Capacitation Initiative of 2007. In 2006 he was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu/Natal, where he conducted research on the new social movements in South Africa. His areas of interest are globalization, civil society, development and African Politics. Jan joined PLAAS in November 2007 as Researcher on the Social Movements and Poverty Project, a joint PLAAS/University of Manchester project.

jmogaladi@uwc.ac.za

David Neves holds a Masters degree in Research Psychology from Rhodes University.

He brings a theoretical interest in human development and the microdynamics of social change, to issues of chronic poverty and rural livelihoods. Having previously lectured at Rhodes University, the University of Fort Hare and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, he served as one of the founder members of the Centre for Applied Social Research and Action at Rhodes University, in 2000.

He has completed research for a number of bodies including the National Research Foundation (NRF), various provincial and local governments and the Water Research Commission (WRC).

His recent work on the Vulnerability, Labour Markets and Social Protection (VLMSP) study is concerned with better understanding the determinants, mediators and trajectories of poverty in South Africa.  Much of his ongoing poverty related work is being done in conjunction with the UK based Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC).

dneves@uwc.ac.za

Shirhami joined PLAAS in July 2007 as a Researcher on the Farm Dwellers Project, based in Limpopo.

He holds BA and LLB degrees from the University of Kwazulu-Natal and in May 2007 was admitted as an advocate to the High Court of South Africa. He worked as a volunteer for a Land Research Project in Limpopo Province, as an initiative to establish Nkuzi Development Association - he became its first employee.

Shirhami has been a farm dweller activist for eleven years. From 2004 he performed the function of Legal Officer at the Nkuzi Development Association Elim office.

sshirinda@uwc.ac.za

Barbara Tapela joined PLAAS in May 2003.

She holds a BA from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), a BA Hons in Geography from the University of Venda, an MA in Geography from the University of Pretoria and an M.Phil in Water Resources Studies from the University of the Western Cape.

Before joining PLAAS, she worked for the Working for Water Programme (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry) as the Education Officer. She has also done some applied and academic research on rural development, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), integrated water resources management (IWRM), natural resources management, land reform and rural local government. Barbara is currently a researcher for the PLAAS-NORAGRIC (Centre for International Environmental and Development Studies, Agricultural University of Norway) collaborative project entitled Human Rights and Governance in South Africa's Land Reform. (Noragric is the Centre for International Environment and Development Studies of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences).

She is writing a PhD thesis entitled ‘Livelihood impacts of commercialisation in emerging small-scale irrigation schemes in the Olifants Catchment Area of South Africa’, with emphasis on the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme (ISRDP) nodal areas. This research is co-funded by the International Water Management Institution (IWMI) and the IUCN,s Trans-Boundary Protected Areas Research Initiative (TBPARI).

Her research interests include the role of land and water rights in rural poverty reduction, community-based natural resource management, trans-boundary natural resource management, and sustainability issues in public works programmes. Barbara represents PLAAS in the Southern African Water Network (WATERNET).

btapela@uwc.ac.za

Ritu Verma works on the gender, socio-cultural and political-ecological aspects of access, control and equitable rights over land and natural resources within an international development context in Southern and Eastern Africa. Her current work and interests focus on action research on women’s rights to land in Southern Africa, the anthropology of development, and changing gender identities and their impact on power relations, access to resources and livelihood coping strategies.

She has an M.A. Dist. in international relations and development from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a P.Eng. in civil engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Anthropology at SOAS in London, England. Her doctoral research focuses on the interfaces and disconnections between the social and work lives of development practitioners and rural farmers in Madagascar focusing on “women’s projects” as well as those pertaining to dams, irrigation, agriculture and rice cultivation.

Before joining PLAAS, she was a senior research fellow at CIAT, where she worked on rural farmers’ strategies for sustaining their soils in Kenya, capacity strengthening of participatory and gender-sensitive approaches to development, and pastoralists’ land rights in Kenya. She has also worked as an independent consultant on the implications of climate change and disasters on vulnerable groups of people and their environment, and gender and land tenure issues in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Madagascar.

rverma@uwc.ac.za

Phillani joined PLAAS in July 2006 as a Research Intern as part of the Policy Options for Land and Agrarian Reform (POLAR) project and the Belgian Government Scholarship Programme. He previously worked as a Research Intern at the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (SA Office).

Phillani holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Politics and Administration from the University of Zimbabwe. Phillani has just been appointed as Research Assistant on the Shadow of Conflict Project. He is also currently registered for the MPhil in Land and Agrarian Studies at UWC.
pzamchiya@uwc.ac.za