- Title
- The role of civil society organisations in land and agrarian reforms
- Creator
- Mazula, Mkhululi
- Subject
- Land reform -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Civil society -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Community development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Date Issued
- 2016
- Date
- 2016
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MA
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/11382
- Identifier
- vital:26916
- Description
- One of the actions introduced by government to address the effects of the past discriminatory land policies that created inequitable land ownership and denied the African majority access to land was the National Land Reform Programme. The democratic government that came into power in 1994 intended to replace all the discriminatory land policies with those that were aimed at redressing the skewed land ownership that was as a result of dispossession and past injustices. This study focused on land reform in the Eastern Cape with a specific reference to activities that were conducted by 6 community based organisations supported by the Multi Agency Grants Initiative. The research has been conducted through assessing their activities in the different municipalities that are helping land claimants to access land. This study was important in highlighting the role played by Community Based Organisations in land reforms as they are based in communities, easily reached when needed and they understand the challenges that confront community members, particularly those that relate to accessing land. The researcher had a relationship with the identified organisations as an employee of MAGI and focus group interviews were conducted in East London in one of the workshops that was attended by representatives of the CBO’s. These were conducted in isi-Xhosa and translated to English. As a result of this study the successes of the CBO’s were identified and highlighted. These included land claims that were settled through the beneficiaries being assisted by the CBO’s, claims made on people’s behalf and large numbers of people that were assisted successfully. Amongst the many challenges, we identified the lack of support from government and being unable to attract requisite skills due to lack of funding to be the most inhibiting. In view of the successes and identified challenges, the study provides recommendations to accelerate the land reform programme through providing support to the CBO’s who, through their programmes, have been able to contribute to changing people’s lives. Land reform in South Africa has been pursued under three broad approaches: restitution, redistribution and tenure reform. Land reform processes have faced challenges that have made it difficult for communities and civil society organisations (CSOs), to engage government to ensure that communities benefit as victims of past racial legislations. The Eastern Cape is one of the nine provinces located in the southeast of the country along the Indian Ocean. The area was the site of a prolonged struggle for land between the Dutch/Afrikaners and the British throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, which led to the defeat and subjugation of African people. The province covers an area of 169 875 square kilometers with 37 local municipalities and two metropolitan municipalities. The mid-year population estimates in 2013 estimated the population to be at 6 620 100 (Statistics South Africa: Mid-Year Population Estimates, 2013: 9). The Eastern Cape, being home to 6 620 100 people, is the third most populated province after Gauteng, which has 6.7 million people, and KwaZulu-Natal leading the statistics with 10.2 million people.as stated in the Socio-Economic Review of 2013 by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. The review further found that the female population is larger than the male population in Eastern Cape. This is attributed to the migration of males to bigger cities in search of better opportunities. The province is ranked top in the number of people that migrate, and this is proved by the fact that “241 758 people migrated from the Eastern Cape Province to other provinces between 2011 and 2016” (Statistics South Africa: Mid-year Population estimates, 2014:15).
- Format
- xii, 78 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
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