The Constitutional Court’s October 2018 judgment was pivotal in protecting the secure land tenure by persons previously disadvantaged by apartheid laws
The current clamour for redistribution of land in SA has heightened interest in land reform and placed raging sociopolitical discourse at centre stage.
Politics trumps policy in the push for a constitutional amendment to expressly allow land expropriation without compensation. That much became clear at Thursday’s bruising and at times chaotic meeting of Parliament’s constitutional review committee. But in the world of politics it’s not necessarily what’s up front and visible that determines outcomes, particularly with the looming 2019 elections.
SINGRAULI, India -- After years of developing the thermal energy sector to meet the demands of a nation prone to outages, India is now facing a power glut with over 30 such producers teetering on bankruptcy. Yet the government shows no letup in its drive for more coal power and the effect of oversupply is rippling out to other sectors such as banks.
India's embrace of coal has allowed it to triple power generation over the past 15 years to 344 gigawatts, surpassing Japan to become the world's third largest electricity market.
AgriSA represents 28,000 commercial farmers. It believes the reason land reform has failed is not because of inadequate legislation.
The Constitution should only be changed if it is deemed impossible to implement proper land reform under the current legal framework.
There is, however, no compelling reason why the Constitution must be amended to enable land reform, the country's largest commercial farmers' union will tell the parliamentary committee reviewing South Africa's highest law.
GULU, Uganda - When Julius Peter was finally freed after seven years held hostage by Uganda's notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, he and his family hoped their lives would finally return to normal.
Instead, it was the start of a whole new ordeal.
As President Donald Trump ponders his response to yet another chemical weapons attack in Syria, advisers and commentators alike are mired in short-term calculations. But one day the Syrian conflict will come to an end. Whether this will involve the kind of negotiated settlement being sought in Geneva, or a much less formal accommodation of a bleak status quo, the resolution of housing, land and property (HLP) rights will be an essential part of any future peace.
An international conference, organised by the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI), will take place in The Hague from 16-17 March 2018.
Authoritarian populism is on the rise, boosted by support from rural areas. The conference examines why, and explores the alternatives: the social and political processes in rural spaces that are resisting or responding to regressive, authoritarian politics.
For over fifty years, Hamisi Bidii farmed a small piece of land 50km north of Mombasa in Kilifi County, Kenya. Hamisi grew cashew nuts, palm and mango trees on his four-acre plot – which provided a modest income for his family – and served his community and country as a local Administration Chief in the years immediately following Kenya’s independence.
The government had reclassified four economic land concessions as state property, reclaiming almost 20,000 hectares earlier handed to private firms to use for rubber plantations.
A sub-decree issued on August 31 said the land in Kratie, Kampong Thom and Ratanakkiri provinces was to be taken back from four companies following an Agriculture Ministry proposal in March.
The companies were all supposed to develop rubber plantations, but failed to do so, clearing the land and then abandoning it.
en years ago today, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.