Another Countryside

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Florian Kroll: Picturing a nourishing food system.

Can pictures and images be used to solicit thoughtful and reflective discussion about one’s position in the food system?   PLAAS  and the Centre for Excellence in Food Security (CoEFS) worked together in 2018 to build a platform for a Community of Practice on food sensitive planning, and have been trying out some interesting ideas.   Food systems research  has highlighted the…
Andries
May 13, 2019
Blog

Ben Cousins: Land policy must change South Africa’s agrarian structure

In debates taking place about the direction of land reform in South Africa today, it is important to remember why we are doing this, and what reform is intended to achieve. One of its key objectives has to be to fundamentally change the agrarian structure inherited from the past. At present, a small minority of mainly white farmers own an…
Sam Salient
April 30, 2019
BlogFeatured Blog

Andries du Toit: Without the Blanket of the Land – the political consequences of jobless de-agrarianisation.

My latest journal article (‘Without the Blanket of the Land:  agrarian change and biopolitics in post–Apartheid South Africa’) is out at last, available now in the latest issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.  (You can access it here:  a great issue, by the way, with thoughtful and important contributions on the current state of agrarian Marxism  from a range of international scholars).…
Sam Salient
November 7, 2018
Blog

Mnqobi Ngubane: Obstacles facing a young black farmer in South Africa – a personal story

A new sense of urgency has entered South Africa’s land reform process after the country’s parliament took a resolution to amend the constitution to effect land expropriation without compensation. But even this will fail if the country doesn’t improve support for small and emerging black farmers who should be allocated a prime role in any reform process. International experience shows that small…
Sam Salient
April 12, 2018
Blog

Ben Cousins: Land debate in South Africa is clouded by misrepresentation and lack of data

South Africa’s parliament has passed a resolution to amend the constitution and allow expropriation without compensation. The decision has generated a storm of gigantic proportions as political parties, citizens, white farmers and commentators anticipate either the moment of salvation (‘real land reform at last!’) or disaster (‘the collapse of the market economy!’). Sadly, few contributions to the public debate are informed by…
Sam Salient
March 8, 2018
Blog

Cyriaque Hakizimana: Southern Africa node of the Network of Excellence on Land Governance (NELGA) successfully launched

On the 19th of February 2018, the Southern Africa node of the Network of Excellence on Land Governance (NELGA) was successfully launched, at an event held at the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Namibia. The launch was followed by a 3-day Master Class - from 20 to 22 February 2018 - on Land Governance and Corruption, attended by…
Sam Salient
March 2, 2018
Blog

Why government is failing to achieve land reform

The Constitution mandates a land reform process to provide equitable access to land (S25(5)), security of tenure (S25(6)) and restitution (S25(7)). No provisions of the ‘property clause’ may impede the state from taking measures to achieve these commitments. Overall, it is evident that apartheid patterns of land ownership remain largely intact, despite more than two decades of land reform. It…
Sam Salient
February 20, 2018
Blog

Ian Scoones: Settling the land compensation issue is vital for Zimbabwe’s economy

Ian Scoones, University of Sussex In his inaugural address the new President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, confirmed that land reform was both historically necessary and irreversible. He also made a commitment to compensate farmers who were forced off their land during the fast track land reform programme of the 2000s. Many international commentators read this as a sign of a more inclusive stance that could benefit…
Sam Salient
January 18, 2018