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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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Using local practices and records to secure individual tenure rights in common property situations
The paper asserts that in order to be effective it is important to work with and from existing tenure systems and to build upon them, rather than expect that they can be “demolished and replaced by efficient new systems”. Experience both here and elsewhere in Africa also tells us that attempts to change tenure tend to result in a “defaulting” back to what is known, often with increased confusion and conflict over procedures and adjudication authorities.
Learning about promoting tenure security for the poor and vulnerable
A report with annexures reviewing lessons emerging Leap projects and partnerships, focusing on tenure in relation to a set of issues affecting poor people’s livelihoods and local economic development
Perspectives on Land Tenure Security in Rural and Urban SA
Approaches to securing tenure have been dominated by debates about whether titling advances secure land tenure and development in developing countries or whether it is either ineffectual or detrimental to socially more relevant systems. While the policies of many developing countries, including South Africa, continue to support titling approaches to securing tenure, there is widespread confirmation in the literature that title can be problematic for poor people living in both urban and rural areas.
Spotlight on language
Simplification is a process in which all the essential provisions of an existing Legalese constitution are captured in plain language. Simplifying a constitution is more complex than simplifying the language within it. It involves digging out and putting in order the meaning of a document, as well as writing it in plain language.
Scoping report on Communal Property Institutions in Land Reform
This report was prepared for the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) in South Africa. In 2001 DLA set up the Communal Property Institutions (CPI) Task Team to review land reform legal entities. The purpose of the review and this report is to improve the situation and functioning of CPIs in order to move towards, rather than away from, achieving the objectives of land reform. To do this, the report covers:
• Methods of assessing and analysing cpi performance
• CPI assessment and analysis
• Offering explanations for causes of CPI problems
Scoping report on Communal property Institutions in Land Reform
This report was prepared for the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) in South Africa. In 2001 DLA set up the Communal Property Institutions (CPI) Task Team to review land reform legal entities. The purpose of the review and this report is to improve the situation and functioning of CPIs in order to move towards, rather than away from, achieving the objectives of land reform. To do this, the report covers:
• Methods of assessing and analysing cpi performance
• CPI assessment and analysis
• Offering explanations for causes of CPI problems
Leaping the fissures
This archival paper takes a hard look at the claim that Communal Property Institutions established as part of South Africa's land reform programme are failing. It argues that there are no meaningful indicators against which assessments of success or failure can be made. It asserts that the tenure security of the group and its members should be the primary purpose of land reform CPIs because secure tenure is the primary mechanism for reducing risk for vulnerable people and is the universal need of the group.
Legal Entity Assessment Project
LEAP came into existence in 1988 when a group of KwaZulu-Natal land practitioners from NGOs, government and the private sector began to focus on why the communal property institutions (CPIs) set up under land reform appeared to be failing. The Legal Entity Assessment Project, as it was initially known, questioned the widely held view that the land reform communal property associations (CPAs) and trusts needed capacity building.
Dispossession and redress: The challenges of land reform
This think piece sets out to:
A review of policy and practice impacting on the provision of farm worker housing, access to services and security of tenure
This report prepared for the Laborie Dialogue Initiative (LDI) draws on a recent review of the
literature and empirical research conducted for the Cape Winelands District Municipality; analysis of
farm worker tenure security conducted for the High Level Panel appointed by Parliament which has
been supplemented by further desktop research and policy analysis. The report also reviews current
tax, VAT and rates regimes and the ways in which these influence employers’ willingness to invest in