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Rick has over 40 years experience working in the land sector in Southern Africa. He is part of the Land Portal knowledge engagement team working to research and develop knowledge resources including data stories, blogs and in-depth country profiles for Southern, Central and Eastern Africa.
Rick is also a Senior Research Associate with Phuhlisani NPC - a South African land sector NGO and the curator of specialist Southern African land news and analysis website https://knowledgebase.land
He tweets on land related issues Twitter account https://twitter.com/KnowledgebaseL
He has a PhD from the University of Cape Town. His research in Langa, Cape Town features as the central case study in a recent book Urban Planning in the Global South (2018), co-authored with the late Vanessa Watson, which examines the on-going contestations over land and housing in the rapidly growing cities of the global South.
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Lessons from the Cape Town water crisis and the need for a renewed technical agenda
Cape Town, South Africa faced a crippling drought between 2016 and 2018. The widely reported “Day Zero” crisis, wherein the city faced the real possibility of the taps being turned off, presented an acute shock and highlighted major vulnerabilities in the city’s water supply system, which relies largely on six large dams.
Floods cause devastation in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, mostly for the poor in informal settlements
As KwaZulu-Natal continues to count the cost of the floods that have ravaged the province, poor residents who have lost their homes are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, said the shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.
“The number of people who have lost their lives has yet to be confirmed, but our members witnessed people, including at least two babies, being taken by the water and many people are missing,” said the organisation, which is active in KwaZulu-Natal’s informal settlements.
Congo Government Publishes Scathing Report on Logging Industry
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Audit says ministry gave illegal permits, didn’t collect taxes
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Publication is step to unlocking $500 million in climate funds
Photo essay: Shifting seasons and the search for water in Karamoja - Uganda
Karamoja sub-region, located in north eastern Uganda, is characterised by harsh climatic conditions. These range from frequent droughts to high temperatures, with hot and dry winds all year round. In the last few months, the area has been experiencing particularly erratic rains across its nine districts.
Fears mount over ‘free-for-all’ iSimangaliso forest invasion
Managers of iSimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu-Natal say they are still committed to further engagement with community leaders over recent attempts to occupy land in the southern Futululu section of the park — but have also pledged to not ‘fold their arms’ in the face of the land invasion.
This would include pursuing legal options to safeguard the park’s World Heritage Site conservation status, the park’s senior biodiversity conservation manager, Sizo Sibiya, told an iSimangaliso investors’ conference at the weekend.
What’s behind Creecy’s legal backtracking on protecting communal land right holders against mining?
Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy has withdrawn an amendment to legislation that helped protect, among others, communal land rights holders from unwanted mining on their land. Was this because of Cabinet pressure from the mining ministry?
Implications of Ukraine Conflict on Food Access and Availability in the Eastern Africa Region
The World Food Programme has published a second update on the implications of the war in Ukraine for food security in Eastern Africa
Key Messages
• The disruptions in imports, production and the related surge in food prices induced by the current conflict in Ukraine have the potential to worsen the food security situation in the Eastern Africa Region, which is already been impacted by the effect of three consecutive below-normal rainfall seasons.
Can a reforestation project stop land grabs? Villagers in the DRC give it a try
Kinandu village residents in southern Democratic Republic of Congo are taking part in a reforestation initiative in the miombo woodlands while land grabs are simultaneously on the rise.
Removal of landowner consent requirement a slap in the face of mining-affected communities
Minister of Environment, Barbara Creecy’s recent revocation of the 2021 Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations Amendment is effectively reversing some of the very important progress communities have made in their ongoing fight for environmental justice and self-determination.
In South Africa on 3 March 2022, mining-affected communities and the broader environmental justice sector woke up to the news that the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, had removed a vital protection for mining-affected communities.
Mozambique: Cyclone Gombe death toll rises to 53
Tropical Cyclone Gombe has killed at least 53 people since it hit Mozambique a week ago, a sharp rise from earlier estimates.
According to the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC) on Thursday, another 80 people have been injured and 400,000 affected since the cyclone swept into northern and central areas of the country, flooding towns and destroying houses.
The initial death toll in the southern African country was estimated at seven.