South Africa
Displaying 25 - 36 of 214
19 May 2022
In less than a month, Nelson Mandela Bay will become the first South African metro to run out of water. In an appeal and warning that is almost unimaginable, the metro’s water chief has called for prayers as the disaster moves closer, confirming that water for drinking, washing, flushing toilets…
19 May 2022
The impoverished locals – who blame mining for the loss of arable land and destruction of the rural agrarian economy – want the Twickenham mine to open or forfeit mining rights.
Sekhukhune residents have given mining giant Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) until December to reopen a mine that was…
5 May 2022
Mining in the former homelands in South Africa remains highly contested. At issue is the tendency of many mining companies to trample land rights, negotiate deals with elites to avoid securing informed consent while sowing division and conflict in poor rural communities. A recent Land Portal data…
5 May 2022
Land reform can only happen by targeting private property ownership, says Tembeka Ngcukaitobi
Government should abandon the policy of land restitution because it is not economically or politically feasible, and rather go back to redistribution.
The concept of private property came about as a result…
24 April 2022
The ruling ANC wants farmers to donate land for redistribution to emerging black farmers as part of a significant shift in land expropriation policy. The proposal is found in a discussion document prepared for the party’s policy conference scheduled for July, the Sunday Times reports.
The proposal…
20 April 2022
Severe weather, rain and flooding are at the forefront of the minds of many South Africans, especially those in KwaZulu-Natal. Early last week (11-12 April 2022), the province’s coast received heavy rain, with some areas recording over 300mm in 24 hours. This is about a third of the annual rainfall…
Floods cause devastation in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, mostly for the poor in informal settlements ()
12 April 2022
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…
30 March 2022
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…
29 March 2022
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Land Portal are launching a new blog series on the governance of land-based investments in the Global South. The series will explore practical strategies and approaches adopted by rights defenders and others to address common…
29 March 2022
El International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) y el Land Portal lanzan una nueva serie de blogs sobre la gobernanza de las inversiones basadas en la tierra en el Sur Global. La serie explorará estrategias y enfoques prácticos adoptados por los defensores de los derechos y otros…
What’s behind Creecy’s legal backtracking on protecting communal land right holders against mining? ()
28 March 2022
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?
If you were the owner of a…
27 March 2022
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…