Tshintsha

Amakhaya

Debates about land redistribution from white farm owners to black hands tend to be silent on the question of farm dwellers. This is despite the fact that over two million black people are estimated to be living on commercial farms. Many residents have lived on commercial farms for generations, and they are arguing that their plight should be at the centre of land debates, and that redistribution of commercial farmlands must deliver primarily to them. By SITHANDIWE YENI. 

The dominant debates about land in South Africa often focus on the transfer of land from a few white hands to the black majority. The discussion seldom unpacks who constitutes the “black majority” as this is not a homogeneous group. In instances where the debate touches on land use, again the focus is often limited to agricultural production and whether or not small-scale farmers are productive. This narrow framework clearly has to be broadened and we need to ask deeper and more strategic questions than the ones we have been asking.

Tshintsha Amakhaya (TA) is an action learning platform for civil society organisations that support local community struggles in land and agrarian reform. Through action research, campaigns, and building active participation, the TA alliance seeks to enhance rural people’s capacity to secure and realise their livelihoods and rights and to promote alternative models of land tenure and agricultural production for food sovereignty.

A community submission to the Chief Director of  The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform Policy Research and Legislation, Mr S Ogunronbi, on the Green Paper on Land Reform in East London - 23 November 2011.

On 11 November 2011, representatives of 18 community organisations and 12 non-governmental organisations from around South Africa met in Balgowan in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands to discuss the Green Paper on Land Reform released by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

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.

Since its formation, Tshintsha Amkhaya held a number of gatherings, either workshops or indabas with resolute and progressive outcomes - from activities igniting the spirit of activism, a quest to call for accountability and planning of broad actions to be taken by a collective to challenge the status quo. 

Amongst others, reports of these gatherings can be found by clicking on the following links: