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Snoek, the lifeblood of West Coast fishing towns

By Maia Nangle The snoek run is a quintessential part of life in fishing communities on the West Coast and in the Cape Town metropolitan area. This bony fish, which has a distinctive taste due to the anchovies and sardines on which it preys, is consumed throughout the year, but particularly at Easter. Although snoek can be caught year-round, it…
PLAAS
October 21, 2021
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Remembering Marikana

By Andries du Toit A dream died in South Africa on 16 August 2012: the dream of trust between a government and its people. When we made the transition to democracy in 1994, we knew that a rocky path still lay ahead. What we were celebrating was not the end of struggle, but the hope that the struggle for justice…
PLAAS
August 16, 2021
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Food producers, traders and vendors should be prioritised in Tanzania’s Covid-19 relief package

By Luitfred Kissoly and Azizi Rweyemamu and Sadikiely Dalley As Covid-19 continues to spread and mutate across the globe, national governments are playing catch-up in their policy responses to the socio-economic threats posed by the pandemic, and the programmes adopted have been quite varied. For example, while many governments in Africa have rolled out targeted relief and stimulus programmes, relatively…
PLAAS
August 16, 2021
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African Food Systems, Gender Dynamics and SSF Perspectives

By Moenieba Isaacs, Patricia Blankson Akakpo, Maia Nagel, and Editrudith Lukanga On 3 June, the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape hosted a webinar on the African food systems, gender dynamics and Small-scale fisheries (SSF) perspectives.  This webinar formed part of the TBTI open house global World Oceans Week  – and…
PLAAS
August 16, 2021
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What landmark KwaZulu-Natal court ruling means for land reform in South Africa

By Ben Cousins In a landmark judgment a South African high court has declared that people living on customary land in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, notionally held in trust by the Ingonyama (king) of the Zulu people, are the “true and beneficial owners” of that land. It confirms that the Ingonyama Trust Board is not the real owner of this land. It, therefore, cannot…
PLAAS
June 28, 2021
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The ‘silent’ dispossession of customary land rights holders for urban development in Zimbabwe

By Phillan Zamchiya, Owen Dhliwayo, Cynthia Gwenzi and Claris Madhuku The dominance of and preoccupation with the radical repossession of largely white-owned commercial farms – since 2000 – for reallocation to millions of black families, although very important, has occluded attention to contradictory but silent processes of state-led dispossession of black communities living under communal tenure systems in Zimbabwe’s rural…
PLAAS
June 21, 2021
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Zambia’s new customary tenure relations and implications for women and policy

By Phillan Zamchiya, Jesinta Kunda, Elias Simbeye and Dyless Mbewe New customary tenure relations that transcend the dualism between statutory and idealised customary systems as officially reflected in land policies are emerging in Zambia. What is driving this process? What are the new features? Who are the winners and the losers? What are the wider benefits and challenges that can…
PLAAS
June 18, 2021
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Small-scale food traders squeezed under Covid

By Nduduzo Majozi and Nkanyiso Gumede Although many supermarkets made significant profits during South Africa’s hard lockdown, business was harder for informal vendors and bakkie traders in Pietermaritzburg whose incomes fell dramatically, write Nduduzo Majozi and Nkanyiso Gumede The Maharaj’s fruit and vegetable shop is a family business which has been in existence for more than 50 years. Started by…
PLAAS
June 11, 2021