Since the end of apartheid, the question of access to land and redistribution has remained almost unanswered. The fact that agricultural land has become a globally contested resource has exacerbated this issue. A conference organized by the Campaign for Debt Relief and Compensation in Southern Africa (KEESA) will address the tension between the right to land and the right to property in the hands of a few people.
Over 100 years ago, the Natives Land Act, which restricted the sale of land to black people and their ownership of land outside the “scheduled areas” (later homelands), sealed the racial segregation that had already existed. Impoverished landowners were expropriated on a legal basis. Although this land law was replaced by a new law after the end of apartheid 22 years ago, the law from 1913 still characterizes South Africa today.
Land reform delayed Living conditions hardly change
In rural areas, great poverty still prevails. Only very few people even have the opportunity to feed themselves with small-scale farming or to earn an income: according to the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, 67 percent of all agricultural land is still in the hands of large-scale white commercial farmers.
The central demand to return the land has still not been met. Land reform has been slow, which in practice means that the black population still living in the former “homelands” is cut off from resources and infrastructure.
Access to land and redistribution
For this reason, terre des hommes schweiz would like to draw attention to the conference “Land conflicts in Southern Africa. Current developments in Zimbabwe and South Africa”. The KEESA conference will focus on two specific conflicts over land in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The concerns and experiences of the directly affected population will serve as an example of how conflict-prone the issues of access to land, its use and the fundamental demand for redistribution are in Southern Africa. (detailed conference program below)
terre des hommes schweiz has been supporting KEESA since 2000.
When: 15 and 16 November 2013 from 18.15
Where: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Klosterberg 23, 4051 Basel
Costs: Conference fees: CHF 50./CHF 25. (students)
Registration at: E-mail zasb(at)unibas.ch or phone +41 (0)61 267 34 82
Conference language is English (without translation). Contributions to the discussion in German or French are possible.
