Community Empowerment Facility Profile

BACKGROUND

The Free State Province was one of the first areas in which the 1913 Land Act took place, and the province where it was implemented in full. Consequently, there was complete abolition of independent tenancy for African people and rural residents were either forced into wage labour on white-owned farms, or displaced from the Free State to Bantustan adjacent provinces. Agriculture in these Bantustan areas soon collapsed under the weight of rapidly growing populations.

This history of dispossession has given rise to an extremely vulnerable and marginalized rural population. In fact, dependent on wage labour contracts for access to housing and other basic services, and with few alternatives for other land to move to and settle on, farm residents (particularly women and the elderly) are among the most disadvantaged groups in the country. Illegal evictions, in a region of weak unionization and lack of farm residents' organizations, and unfair labour practices are commonplace.

The Government has promulgated an Act to oversee the manner in which farm residents are evicted, and which attempts to provide for greater tenure security. Its impact, however, has been very limited. A number of land claims have been filed based on the ‘Restitution of Land Rights’ Act, although there has been very little progress in addressing these claims. Redistribution is another aspect, and the most problematic element of the government’s land reform programme. The new ‘Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development’ programme was only launched in late 2001, and has been extremely slow in getting off the ground. It is therefore difficult to assess its potential in addressing land needs.

Sustaining land claims through institutional capacity building: Among the objectives, is to enhance the institutional capacity of the FSRDA so that it is efficient and effective in its operations. This will guarantee a sounder outcome and increase the capability of the organization to better participate in some dedicated networks and mechanisms. The enhancement of FSRDA is an integral part of the project implementation from both FSRDA and Coalition standpoints. Being the only NGO dealing with land rights in the region, FSRDA is seen as a reliable catalyst on the issue. The range of activities carried out is fully in line with the overall CEF goal and vision. Moreover, the activities conducted contribute to the creation of common ground in accordance wit the Coalition’s overall programme in South Africa.

FSRDA – Free State Rural Development Association - is an association which strives to develop peri-urban and rural communities through rural development strategies. These are to facilitate the emergence of localized rural economies, thus forging a sense of self-reliance and independence among the involved communities. Farm residents’ needs to access land are a central focus of the FSRDA. In terms of restitution and redistribution of land, the organization, due to its limited resources and capacity, made the strategic choice to focus on restitution aspects.

FSRDA intervention in relation to farm residents and land restitution, focuses on building community capacity-building for land reform, and on providing practical and legal assistance in relation to protecting or securing of land rights. Community capacity-building for land reform is to ensure that occupiers and claimants are at the centre of whatever interventions or processes take place, and that an independent voice of the rural poor emerges. Given the marginalized position of women within rural communities, the issue of gender will cut across all of the FSRDA work, with specific activities geared at building women’s representation and organizations.

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GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

The project’s overall goal is to assist claimant communities to secure their land tenure and restore their rights. Consequently informing farm resident communities, with a special focus on women, of their rights and fostering them to exert them; promoting and supporting the acquisition of land rights by restitution to farm resident communities.

Specifically, these objectives are to be achieved through various activities:

Issue-based education, training and information dissemination: These activities are geared at building specific capacities at a community level, and at facilitating informed choice;

Community learning and sharing through exchange visits: These visits will be between groups that the FSRDA works with, and with other groups in different parts of the country;

Support to community organization building: Organization building may be specific, for example the creation of land holding structures for restitution communities. It can also be more broad-based such as in supporting the emergence of a rural women’s movement.

Monitoring and publicizing restitution and farm eviction and labour issues: The organization will monitor evictions in the province as well as progress in restitution. The outcomes of this monitoring will be publicized through media campaigns and lobbying and advocacy activities;

Practical and legal support to claimants and occupiers: Claimant communities will be assisted in pursuing their claims to land. Assistance will include facilitation and legal support where necessary. The FSRDA will also play a critical liaison role in linking communities and bureaucrats in provincial and national government (Department of Land Affairs and the Restitution Commission and their provincial structures).

Lobbying, advocacy and strategic litigation: The outcomes of monitoring, and lessons derived from support to claimants and occupiers, as well as research into farm tenure alternatives, will inform advocacy activities. The aim here is not only to highlight the plight of the rural poor, but also to pressure for changes in policy and legislation to address current shortcomings.

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WHO WILL BENEFIT?

The project aims at securing land rights of rural communities of the Free State, targeting seven restitution claimant communities in the province. Due to a multiple-funding system, CEF is requested to assist in partly funding two of the seven identified claimant communities. Therefore, two claimant communities of the Tshiamelo & Segogoane’s Valley and the Rehauhetsoe Tseki Trust, comprising of 640 households are the direct beneficiaries.

The two communities have nominated and voted for their steering committees of 14 members who will be trained in Project Management, Financial Management, Conflict Resolution and Land management, including long-term planning for sustainable development. Moreover, general meetings will be organized, at least twice a year, to facilitate information sharing among all the beneficiaries, including those of the other communities.

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CONCLUSION

The International Land Coalition supports the project, together with some other cooperating organizations, such as HORIZONT 3000, Bread for the World, the Austrian Dreikonigsaktion, and other domestic partners, among which the NLC, a member of the Coalition.

Addressing land needs in an area in which the commercial farm sector still employs over 40% of the rural population was deemed to be of high value. Restitution of land to farm residents specifically, represents a possible means of entry for black communities and other marginalized groups into productive agriculture. Enhancing an organization devoted to improving access over land was also believed to be of strategic relevance, considering FSRDA expressed the will to broaden its core activities to land redistribution as well as land restitution.

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