Situational Analysis and Development Recommendations by and for Farm Dwellers in Amajuba District Council 2008 | Land Portal

Resource information

Date of publication: 
February 2008
Resource Language: 
Pages: 
83

A key challenge facing South Africa’s economic development is overcoming the structural poverty created through the systematic dispossession of the majority of its citizens. Although radically marginalized during apartheid, there is poor public acknowledgement of the losses experienced by those families who, through the passing of various racially biased, land and labour laws, became farm labour on commercial farms.

The options for farm dweller families' active and sustainable participation in this structure of commercial agriculture and national food security strategies is unclear. It is an urgent dilemma district municipalities, tasked with development and guided by transformative land use principles, need to confront. The ability of farm dwellers to participate in and influence the establishment of norms and the outcomes of plans is what must be considered here.

Attempts by various stakeholders (both private and public) to introduce Agri-village concepts as settlement options that would bring service delivery and possible "development", has been met with fierce resistance from many farm dweller families (ADM Agric sector plan). There is mounting research and daily evidence of the lengths that families will go to remain on agricultural lands, in this post apartheid period (see cases in KZN from land legal cluster reports of disputes over land rights- KZN Land legal 2007). 

Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s): 

Compiled by Amajuba Farm dwellers with the support of the Utrecht, Newcastle and Dannhauser farm dweller committees and the Association For Rural Advancement (AFRA).
Written by Lisa Del Grande

Publisher(s): 
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AFRA is a land rights advocacy non-governmental organisation (NGO) working since 1979 to support marginalised black rural people, with a focus on farm dwellers. We are working towards an inclusive, gender equitable society where rights are valued, realised and protected, essential services are delivered, and land tenure is secure. We work intensively with communities in and around the uMgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and extensively in offering support and advice.

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