Nkanyiso Gumede and Katlego Ramantsima: Farm Worker Equity Schemes Blog

Nkanyiso Gumede and Katlego Ramantsima: Farm Worker Equity Schemes

Words by Nkanyiso Gumede and Katlego Ramantsima “We are tired!” shouted an angry farm worker. “We have been exploited for far too long. These schemes are not working for us”. That was the main message shared by farm workers from Witzenberg and surrounding regions in the Western Cape during the speak-out meeting held in Ceres on May 4, 2019. The…
Esté Beerwinkel
June 10, 2019
Stephen Greenberg: Neoliberals capture South African smallholder farmer support policy Blog

Stephen Greenberg: Neoliberals capture South African smallholder farmer support policy

Ideological and factional divisions and contradictions between neoliberals, ‘patrons’ and progressives have manifested in South Africa’s smallholder farmer support policy. This was evident at a national stakeholder consultation held by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) in April 2019. The policy is meant to support marginalised producers. But it has been thoroughly captured by neoliberals under the banner…
Deshnee Subramany
May 20, 2019
Florian Kroll: Picturing a nourishing food system Blog

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…
Deshnee Subramany
May 13, 2019
Ben Cousins: Land policy must change South Africa’s agrarian structure 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
Andries du Toit: Without the Blanket of the Land – the political consequences of jobless de-agrarianisation. 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).…
PLAAS
November 7, 2018
Mnqobi Ngubane: Obstacles facing a young black farmer in South Africa – a personal story 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
Ben Cousins: Land debate in South Africa is clouded by misrepresentation and lack of data 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…
PLAAS
March 8, 2018
Nkanyiso Gumede: The Launch of the Southern Africa node of the Network of Excellence on Land Governance (NELGA) Blog

Nkanyiso Gumede: The Launch of the Southern Africa node of the Network of Excellence on Land Governance (NELGA)

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
Mnqobi Ngubane: How black farmers are constrained by state corruption in eastern Free State Blog

Mnqobi Ngubane: How black farmers are constrained by state corruption in eastern Free State

In the shadow of the Vrede dairy farm saga, the struggling farmers on redistributed land in eastern Free State are neglected by the state, and forced to lease out greater proportions of arable land to white commercial farmers due to the lack of grain production machinery. Whilst their arable land is leased out to white commercial farmers, they focus on…
Sam Salient
February 26, 2018
Why government is failing to achieve land reform 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