The Caledon and Vaal rivers have Sesotho names that are very instructive. The Caledon is Mohokare and the Vaal is Lekoa.
Soweto, our melting pot of nations, in part is a result of this naming. The ubiquitous migratory labour system between SA and Lesotho has a long history.
It affects Lesotho more than any country in the SADC region in which Lesotho's only neighbour is SA.
Countries and regions devastated by war and civil strife remain fragile and vulnerable for decades after the fighting has ceased. In this post-conflict period, as social, political, and economic institutions are rebuilt, reconfigured or established anew, land is increasingly acknowledged as not only a key driver or root cause for conflicts, but as a critical factor for relapse and a bottleneck to recovery.
Returnees in the Jonglei area have advocated the setting up of land dispute commissions to assist in arbitration and mediation that would ensure that land is returned to its rightful owners.
The former refugees and internally displaced persons were speaking at the end of a consultative workshop on creating an enabling environment for returnees in their areas of origin.
Effective land management is predicated on proper ownership. It is those with legitimate documentation for the land they claim to own who can confidently make decisions on what to do with their parcels and maximise the potential.
Ownership is essentially determined by title deeds. Unfortunately, there is increasing conflicts involving land conflicts in the country that need urgent address.
Pretoria - The government was working tirelessly to ensure that land claims by communities forcefully removed from their property as a result of apartheid-era legislation were settled swiftly and claimants received compensation, President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed.
He made the remarks in Pretoria on Saturday while officiating at a land restitution ceremony which marked successful claims by 10 Gauteng communities who were presented with title deeds and financial compensation.
Under a land reformation act, millions of farmers across Myanmar could be forced from land they have tilled for generations. Many are unaware of the danger they face. Peter Yeung and Carlotta Dotto report from Yangon.
It took less than a day for Daw Oo Naing's entire banana plantation to be destroyed. A group of 21 men carrying long knives arrived quietly in the morning and made quick work of hacking down her 600 trees, which were still young with tender trunks.
In a watershed moment for land rights in Liberia and across Africa, President George Weah on Sept. 19 signed into law a land reform bill that extends land rights to millions of rural Liberians.
The Land Rights Act ensures, for the first time, that the land rights of rural Liberians are recognized, protected, and guaranteed by law – an essential ingredient for these communities to achieve secure land rights. Under the previous land tenure system, as much as 80 percent of Liberians lived without legally recognized rights to land.
Over the past ten years, the number of violent conflicts around the world has increased significantly, having a negative impact on food production and availability.
Since 2000, almost half of all civil conflicts around the world have taken place in Africa, where land issues have played a significant role in 90 percent of the 30 interstate conflicts.
Competition over land and water can trigger conflict, threatening the welfare and the food security of the most vulnerable.
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.
The collapse of the Soviet Union gave rise to a vast archipelago of unclaimed man-made objects and land in Russia and beyond. Thousands upon thousands of roads, bridges, water pipes, gas pipes, power grids, cemeteries, farmland, and more have passed from state hands to no one in the last 26 years. These assets aren’t just lying around. They’re being used.
By: Anastasia Moloney
Date: August 9th 2016
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Colombia is expanding its land restitution program into former no-go areas in the country's war-torn south aiming to return land stolen from farmers by illegal armed groups, the government has said as peace talks advance.
