Resource information
In 2013, South Afrika marked its 100 years without natives land. Then, Tshintsha Amakhaya (TA) - launched the Mayibuye iAfrika Campaign in 2011 at a national land reform workshop. The Campaign was intensified in 2013 - the centenary of the 1913 Native Land Act – through local actions, platform discussions, and country-wide events. The 2013 Campaign was aimed at amplifying the voices of rural women and men through supporting and connecting local struggles for land and agrarian transformation.
Tshintsha Amakhaya has adopted the Black Thursday Land Campaign - launched by the Southern Cape Land Committee and their constituency - to unify and mobilize, and increase the visibility of the Mayibuye iAfrika! Campaign. The public was called upon to wear Black and Green every Thursday to express solidarity with landless people, help put a stop to the continuing injustice of land dispossession of Black People in South Africa and force the Government to make good on their promise to redress the injustices of the past.
The Mayibuye iAfrika! Campaign sought to mobilize specifically around the need for radical land reform, the poor conditions of farm workers and farm workers, and the potential of smallholder farming for food sovereignty. These were our demands:
Protect the rights of farm workers and farm dwellers
Reopen the restitution claims process
Secure equitable rights to land and other resources
Advance the rights of rural women and children
Democratic structures for land ownership and management
Effective support to smallholder farmers, fisher-folk, and forest communities
We need RADICAL land reform
Organisations push for land and agrarian transformation
ACTIVITIES:
20th February 2013
“Let’s walk together; not separately. Let’s make do with what we have and let’s make it stronger”, Monique Salomon, Tshintsha Amakhaya
On 15 and 16 February, Tshintsha Amakhaya, an alliance of civil society organizations (CSOs), and the Land Access Movement of South Africa and their affiliates, held a joint planning workshop at Community House in Cape Town. Close to 40 organizations and social movements in land and agrarian reform came together to share their plans for the 2013 Native Land Act Centenary. See report Land and Agrarian Civil Society Organisation Joint Planning Workshop Report Fri 15- Sat 16 Feb 2013
Caravan campaign to mark centenary of 1913 Land Act
21 May 2013
The enactment of the Native Land Act in 1913 was one of the most significant events in South African history, affecting thousands of rural communities and the lives of millions of South Africans. To mark its centenary, Tshintsha Amakhaya (TA), an alliance of NGOs in land and agrarian reform, and Land Access Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA), will journey through the rural areas of South Africa in two Mayibuye iAfrika! Caravans to show how after 100 years the 1913 Land Act continues to impact on the lives of rural people.
The caravans will depart from Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg on 1 June 2013, each traveling to TA and LAMOSA partners’ sites to share experiences and campaign for the rights of farm workers/dwellers, smallholder farmers, fisher folk, and mining communities. Both caravans will meet up with social movements at the People’s Space in Moretele Park in Mamelodi on Fri 7 June and hand over a petition at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Sat 8 June.
100 years since the promulgation of the infamous Native Land Act of 1913 and nearly 20 years into democracy, South Africans are faced with a changing social environment and increasingly polarised society. As an alliance of civil society organisations, we are particularly concerned with the lack of progress in land and agrarian transformation.
The government’s failure to implement land reform is well documented. Our research has shown that skewed land ownership patterns and insecure tenure compound to the high levels of poverty and unemployment prevalent in most rural areas. Fuel prices continue to escalate the price of food and the general cost of living. Multinational agrochemical companies and national supermarket chains dominate the agro-food value chain at the expense of small scale farmers. The commodification of food from seed to table and monopoly of large agri-businesses keep micro- and small-scale farmers on the margins, while rural households still go to bed hungry.
The caravans
To highlight the lack of land reform and agrarian transformation and provide a platform to unite people, the journey of the caravans will demonstrate the various ways in which dispossession and patterns of accumulation play themselves out in the lives and struggles of rural people. As the caravans engage with the various sectors and collect stories of those who face daily challenges in reclaiming rights to land, healthy food, control over natural resources and lives of dignity. The picture of what is needed to realise agrarian transformation will become clearer.
The caravan is symbolic to South Africans’ bid to reclaim their heritage and rights to land and livelihoods. This campaign is also an opportunity to showcase the potential of a vibrant and prosperous rural countryside where people live with secure tenure, take control over their own food and determine their own future. The caravans will end in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, where social movements will meet to articulate and draw attention to pressing issues in land and agrarian transformation. A submission, videos and testimonies will be presented to the decision makers with demands for pro-active action towards agrarian transformation.
The People’s Space
On Friday 7 June and Sat 8 June social movements will converge in Moretele Park in Mamelodi and claim the People’s Space. LAMOSA provinces will set up their provincial tents and hold activities. Youth will facilitate a team building exercise. Four parallel side events will be held on burning issues identified by TA and LAMOSA partners: History of Dispossession and Land Reform, Extractives in South Africa, Support for Small Scale Farmers and Rural Women, and Climate Change. A cultural evening will be held with rural women and men exhibiting their traditional foods, and a DJ playing struggle songs. Other ideas are still to engage the crowds. Young people will bring their tents, and 160 beds without blankets have been secured for the People’s Space. Communities are mobilising, some are sponsoring the event, small-scale farmers are donating food, and several communities pay for their buses and refreshments. The group will leave Moretele park on Saturday at 9 AM, and proceed to the Union Buildings to hand over a memorandum. The office of the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform and the Chief Commissioner on Restitution have acknowledged our request to receive the memorandum and will advise on who will be coming receive it. LAMOSA and TA partners have been invited to the budget speech in Cape Town on 31 May, and we hope to have their solid commitment there.
Tshintsha Amakhaya “Working together for rural change”
Mayibuye iAfrika! Memorandum Pretoria
8 June 2013
We have come together as community organizations, social movements, and non-governmental organizations to demand the fast-tracking of land and agrarian transformation.
100 years after the 1913 Land Act and nearly 20 years into democracy, rural realities have not improved. Skewed land ownership patterns and insecure tenure compound high levels of poverty and unemployment prevalent in rural areas. The rural-urban divide and the gap between rich and poor are growing. Read more
Mayibuye iAfrika! Caravans Press Release
14 June 2013
On 1 June 2013, the month of the Land Act Centenary, Tshintsha Amakhaya and LAMOSA embarked on a week-long journey to witness the continuous marginalization and to build solidarity among landless people and the rural poor.
Two Mayibuye iAfrika! Caravans travelled through the countryside of the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo and documented the testimonies of farm workers, farm dwellers, smallholder farmers, people on communal lands, commonage farmers, Act 9 communities, forest dwellers, fishing communities, and people affected by mining. Read more
People’s Assembly Land, Race and Nation Conference Declaration
22 June 2013
Preamble
1. Nearly twenty years after the end of apartheid, the 1913 Natives’ Land Act continues to haunt the South African countryside. The land question, which was so central to the struggle against apartheid, remains unresolved. Millions of South Africans continue to be dispossessed of their lands, and the rural geography of apartheid (bantsutans and white South Africa) continues to exist. Urban areas also reflect the spatial geography of apartheid. The massive social and economic inequalities under apartheid have deepened since 1994, and remain racialised. Read more
Caravan routes
ROUTE 1 TREK FROM THE CAPE - Western and Eastern Cape
This Caravan will set off from Cape Town where the Dutch settlers first set foot on the South African soil.
June
1 Cape Town – send-off event at Iziko Slave Lodge
Citrusdal - Farmworkers, farm dwellers and people living on church land (SPP)
2 Rawsonville – Women farm workers (WFP)
3 Suurbraak – Smallholder farmers and Act 9 community (TCOE)
Hessequa– Commonage and Act 9 communities (SCLC)
4 Keiskammahoek – Betterment restitution and smallholder agriculture (BRC)
5. Travel to Mthatha
6 Hobeni – Fishing communities (TRALSO)
7 Travel to Pretoria - Join social movements at the People’s Space in Moretele Park in Mamelodi
8 Pretoria – Rally at Union Buildings
ROUTE 2 TREK FROM THE BERG – Kwazulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo
This caravan will set off from Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal Province, named after Piet Retief and Gert Maritz who led the Voortrekkers across the Drakensberg mountains into Natal and the Transvaal.
June
1 Pietermaritzburg – send-off event at KwaZulu-Natal Museum
2 Bergville – Communal grazing and land reform (FSG)
3 Amajuba – Farm dwellers/labour tenants (AFRA)
4 Moutse – Land reform community and traditional authorities (LAMOSA)
5 Ngwaabe – Mining, land reform, and game reserve (LAMOSA)
6 Mokopane – Mining community (Nkuzi)
7 Travel to Pretoria - Join social movements at the People’s Space in Moretele Park in Mamelodi
8 Pretoria – Rally at Union Buildings
Video:
Filmed by Simphiwe Mthiyane & Ziba Mthethwa, attached is a video titled "100 years without our Land" showing the Mayibuye iAfrika! Caravan Campaign.
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=UBqHwaNZ0RI )