LARC statement on Traditional Council Bill hearings

PUBLIC HEARINGS OVER CONTENTIOUS TRADITIONAL COURTS BILL TO START IN SOME PROVINCES

Press Statement issued by Land and Accountability Research Centre, University of Cape Town 

The Land and Accountability Research Centre (LARC) is alarmed and concerned that the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) seems to be rushing to complete a public consultation process on the Traditional Courts Bill – one of the so-called “Bantustan Bills” which are deeply problematic for how they remove rights from the 18 million South Africans living in former homelands.
There is little information available to the public on how the various provinces will be managing public hearings.

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DARDLR’s Portfolio Committee meeting: 8 & 9 October 2019

LARC attended the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform’s Portfolio Committee meeting on the 8th and 9th of October.

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The National Council of Provinces revives the Traditional Courts Bill alongside 14 other Bills

On 17 October, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) plenary adopted a resolution to revive the Traditional Courts Bill (TCB) along with 14 other Bills that had lapsed at the end of the 5^th Parliament after having been processed by the National Assembly (NA) and referred to the NCOP for concurrence.

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Report: Deepening Democracy: Dialogue on the ‘Bantustan Bills’

On July 30^th2019, over fifty community activists, ANC veterans, researchers, lawyers, NGOs, government officials and journalists gathered in Johannesburg for a dialogue on two bills that particularly affect people living in rural South Africa. Community activists have labelled the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill (TKLB) and the Traditional Courts Bill (TCB) as the “Bantustan Bills” because they reinforce the boundaries of the old Bantustan tribal authorities.

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Media Release: The Baloyi Commission Report, Sedibelo and Siyanda

The Baloyi Commission’s report about the Bakgatla BaKgafela chieftaincy and financial corruption will be released by the Northwest Premier at 2 pm today, Monday 26 August 2019. LAMOSA was an active participant in the proceedings of the commission of inquiry over two years since 2016.

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‘Bantustan Bills’ trample on the rights of rural people

The two bills default to the colonial and apartheid denial of the property rights of people who have inherited their homes and land over generations.

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Traditional leadership bullying needs to stop

Rural communities bear the brunt of the abusive and discriminatory comportment of traditional chiefs who enjoy state support.

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The Ingonyama Trust tramples on the democratic rights of citizens

The law creating the Ingonyama Trust was passed on the very last day of existence of the Bantustan administration and created a pocket of land in democratic South Africa that would be immune to any state land reform programmes: a pocket where residents would be held to different rules and rights than elsewhere in the country.

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The chief, the mines and the lost Bakgatla billions

After two years of investigations of the flow of billions of rands into and out of the Bakgatla ba Kgafela community, the work of the Baloyi Commission of Inquiry may come to nothing. Since the report of the Commission was released at the end of August, showing how Chief Nyalala Pilane presided over the mismanagement of the community’s considerable wealth, the Chief has apparently re-positioned himself in a newly created Communal Property Association that is now asserting control over the Bakgatla villages.

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South Africa Wrestles Over Zulu King’s Vast Landholdings

JOZINI, South Africa—In her battle to secure the rights to her dusty homestead, Hluphekile Mabuyakhulu has joined a small group of South Africans squaring off with a powerful landlord:
the king of the Zulu nation.

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