News
A man sitting next to me at a land workshop in Rustenburg last month asked me sadly whether the problems on the platinum belt meant, as some younger delegates alleged, that Mandela had indeed sold black people out during the negotiations leading up to the 1994 transition to democracy. People were sharing their experiences of being evicted by mining companies from land they had owned for generations; of waiting over twenty years for land restitution with no hope in sight; of government officials blocking their claims and stealing their land.
LARC’s work is enriched by the partnerships that we form with other organisations and individuals. Our ongoing engagements with the national organisation Students for Law and Social Justice (SLSJ) has provided an opportunity for law students to learn more about legislation-making processes, traditional governance and land issues, and the concerns of rural communities. In turn, the students have played a critical role as monitors at public hearings taking place across the country. Their documentation and perspectives form a critical component of our records of how public processes have played out. In this feature, former SLSJ monitor, and now candidate attorney, Thobeka Cele, speaks about her experiences as a monitor and her subsequent career path.
LARC land researcher, Zenande Booi, was interviewed on the Power FM Drive time show on land security and tenure.
LARC director, Dr. Aninka Claassens, was invited as one of the academics to present at the land colloquium organised for the Constitutional Review Committee on the 8th of June 2018 before they commenced with the nationwide public hearings.