President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech failed to inspire confidence.
EFE-EPA/ANC handout
The year ahead promises to be a very difficult but also a very decisive year for South Africa. Is President Ramaphosa equal to the challenge?
Large estates in Vietnam were collectivised.
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Land reform has always been closely tied to shifts in the wider political economy of countries.
Zimbabwe’s food insecurity is more complex than the headline figures suggest.
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Zimbabwe’s food insecurity is not just about food production, but access too. It is affected by, among others, the value of assets when sold and social and cultural dimensions that go into exchange.
Many Zimbabweans have turned to hawking to keep the wolf from the door as the economic crisis in the country deepens.
EFE-EPA
It’s time for a new approach as it becomes increasingly clear that protests won’t topple the Zanu-PF government.
Inkosi Mhlabunzima Maphumulo, right, with Dali Mpofu and Winnie Mandela in 1989.
Thobekile Maphumulo Family Papers, Author provided (No reuse)
Colonialism and apartheid sought to make traditional leaders accountable to white officials by tying them to land.
Mining activities in South Africa’s rural areas tend to occur at the expense of local communities and the environment.
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South Africa’s rural communities where mining licenses have been granted are often excluded from consultations and bear the brunt having their environment and livelihoods destroyed.
Children play in a cabbage patch near their home in Modderspruit, near Rustenburg, South Africa.
EFE-EPA/Halden Krog
The abandonment of crop farming fields isn’t new. But some researchers say it’s accelerated in the last two decades.
South Afriocan President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering his third state of the nation address.
EPA-EFE/Roger Bosch / Pool
Ramaphosa offered five simple yet bold goals for the next ten years that cut across the social and economic structural constraints that inhibit South Africa’s potential.
Villagers till their fields in South Africa’s North West Province. Access to land for small holder farmers remains unresolved.
Epa/Jon Hrusa
Land reform programme has done very little to improve access to land for black South Africans.
Farmer-led irrigation comes in many different shapes and forms.
Remi Nono-Womdim/Flickr
The green revolution: small-scale, informal irrigation is expanding in Zimbabwe and small scale farmers are leading the way.
A Xolobeni villager protesting against mine development.
Flickr/Patricia Alejandro
Villagers from a community in South Africa’s Eastern Cape fought to be consulted and for the power to consent to mining their land.
Communities in South Africa’s North West Province are embroiled in battles with chiefs over land.
EPA/Jon Hrusa
South Africa has made progress towards interrupting the looting of land by chiefs, state officials and mining capital.
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The main reason land reform in South Africa has been lethargic is not the Constitution, but a flawed approach.
Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic stimulus package shows that he and his political allies are in charge of economic policy.
GCIS
Ramaphosa’s stimulus package is more interesting for what it says about the politics of economic decision making than for its likely impact on the economy.
Support for land redistribution tends to be stronger among economically disadvantaged South Africans.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludrick
A survey shows that support for land reform in South Africa differs according to race.
Land is a contentious and emotive issue.
Jon Hrusa/EPA
Some South African land owners feel like the current debate portrays them as being opposed to reform rather than cooperative.
US President Donald Trump is accused of siding with white right wing groups on South Africa’s land reform issue.
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The US president’s comments about South Africa’s land reform stem from his view that whites are under attack from blacks.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is accused of pandering to Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini (right) and other traditional leaders.
GCIS
South Africa’s ruling party, the ANC , is mishandling the process leading towards land expropriation without compensation.
Lacklustre economic activity has rendered millions of South Africans unemployed and poor.
EPA/Nic Bothma
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to take South Africa’s ruling party seriously when it talks about economic reform.
South African land reform debates reflect a tricky balance of power post Jacob Zuma’s rule.
GCIS
South Africans can’t afford to let the land debate be reduced to a shouting match.