This page is dedicated to partners and friends of LARC who made a difference in our lives.
Constance Mogale (1971 – 2023)
Vasco Mabunda (1972 – 2021)
Ma’Sizani Ngubane (1946 – 2020)
Constance Mogale (1971 – 2023)
“A happy Africa for me would be the one where Africans are free from the chains of debt, landlessness, and enjoy abundance of food, access and control of natural resources and equitable distribution of wealth.” May 2020
Constance Galeo Mogale is the second child of Bertha and Thadius Ramoshage Mogale. Born on 28 April 1971 at Goedgevonden Village from where they were forcefully removed to Vrischgewaagd. She completed her high school at Ramatlabama Village in Mahikeng, and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Land and Agrarian Studies from the University of the Western Cape. She was in the process of completing her Masters in Philosophy in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies with the University of the Western Cape’s Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS).
She played an active role in the reoccupation of Goedgevonden in 1991, which took place in the face of violence by neighbouring White farmers and the police. She was actively involved in rebuilding Goedgevonden, including volunteering as a teacher and making sure both schools in the area were rebuilt and registered.
Constance worked for the Transvaal Action Committee and was a leader in the Land Access Moment of Rural Woman. As the national coordinator of the Alliance for Rural Democracy, she played a pivotal role in bringing together many rural organisations. She did not hesitate to oppose the government when community land rights were threatened, and rural democracy was undermined.
Aus Connie, as she is affectionately known by many, is survived by a daughter, two sons, a foster daughter, grandson, three sisters and her mother (excerpt from Prof. Ruth Hall’s tribute, full article below).
In one of her affidavits she wrote:
“My grandparents and great-grandparents fought these battles and managed to bequeath land dignity and family cohesion to me and my siblings despite the enormous odds against them. To abandon these struggles for land and democracy is to abandon my own self. The ideals, traditions and rights that have sustained my family and my community are part of our legitimate customary law. They have made me who I am. Should we fail to preserve them and pass them on to the next generation, we doom our society to despair, corruption and disintegration.”
Monica de Souza-Louw, LARC: A personal tribute to Constance Mogale: land rights activist, leader and icon – click to read
Prof. Ruth Hall, PLAAS: PLAAS mourns the passing of activist icon and MPhil candidate, Constance Mogale (1971 – 2023) – click to read
Ben Cousins, Daily Maverick: Aus’ Connie Mogale — tireless land rights activist, true African leader, liberated woman and democrat – click to read
Post Judgment Media Summary: CONSTANCE MOGALE AND OTHERS V SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND OTHERS CCT73/22 – click to read
Ma’Sizani Ngubane (1946 – 2020)
Ngubane was born on November 24, 1946 in KwaMpumuza, near Pietermaritzburg. As a young girl, Ngubane witnessed her mother experiencing domestic violence from her male relatives and her own husband. In 1965, her mother had been kicked off of her own land by her brothers in law and went to a traditional leader to request land where she was denied because she had no sons. Ngubane said, “I grew up knowing I had to be part of the solution.”
Until her untimely passing in December 2020, Sizani Ngubane was a South African human rights defender who had dedicated her life to promoting gender equality and fought for women’s and indigenous rights.
She conducted research on rural women and contributed to the formulation of the Women’s Charter for Effective Equality in South Africa. Her contribution was instrumental to build the section on rural and indigenous women of the Bill of Rights within the South African Constitution, adopted in 1996.
Two years later, Sizani founded the Rural Women’s Movement (RWM), a vibrant movement of rural and indigenous women and girls, striving against gender-based violence and for women’s access to land, education, land rights, property and inheritance rights. RWM is now a coalition of some 501 Community Based Organizations with a membership of approximately 50,000 women, working at grassroots, national and international levels.
Most recently, she focused on fighting against the various traditional courts bills, and the Ingonyama Trust for dispossessing rural women from their land in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. Over the last four deacades, Sizani demonstrated her relentless commitment to women’s rights at large despite the numerous threats she suffered.
In 2020 she was nominated for the Martin Ennals Award together with Yemeni lawyer Huda Al-Sarari and Norma Librada Ledezma.
“My dream is that one day KwaZulu-Natal will be like other provinces, where…women are given the same power over land that men are keeping for themselves.”
Sizani Ngubane, founder of the Rural Women’s Movement. (Photo: Thobile Mathonsi)
Mam Sizani was an international icon, who co-founded regional movements like the Women’s Land Link Africa (WLLA), an initiative that was her vision since the Beijing Conference at the city of HUAIROU in China and worked with HUAIROU Commission and Groots International to realise this vision.
Dan Moshenberg, Women in and beyond the Global: The Traditional Courts Bill is dead. Long live Sizani Ngubane! – click to read
The Economist: How an apartheid-era deal still afflicts the land of the Zulus – click to read
Press Statement: Alliance for Rural Democracy Press Statement – click to download.
All Africa: Africa: South Africa’s Land and Women’s Rights Activist Sizani Ngubane Dies -click to read
Richard Raber: A radical rural woman: Remembering Sizani Ngubane – click to read
Mary de Haas, IOL: RIP Sizani Ngubane: The cruel and lonely Covid-19 death of an exceptional woman – click to read
Suthentira Govender, Times Live: Covid-19 claims champion of rural women’s rights Sizani Ngubane – click to read
NGO CSW NY: 2018 Woman of Distinction Award – click to read
Vasco Mabunda (1972 – 2021)
Vasco presenting Limpopo restitution land claimants at Union Building in Pretoria
He did not only fight for secure rural tenure. He also fought for expedited land restitution and sweeping land redistribution. We must honour him by continuing those fights. – Johan Lorenzen
A tribute by Molatelo Mohale, Nkuzi Development
Vasco Famunda Mabunda was born on the 12th of February 1972 in Bhungeni, Elim Limpopo. His activism started at an early age as he was involved in student movements at University of Limpopo and later in the civil society sector. Bova as Vasco was known in his circle of friends and fellow activists, started working for Nkuzi Development Association in 2001 as a volunteer. At the time Nkuzi was contracted to conduct restitution land claims validation processes. Nkuzi deployed him to form part of a team in Bushbuckridge area to do the same. His colleagues remember his high level of commitment that he would always put the interest of the organisation before anything else. He would push his colleagues to work beyond the normal working hours to ensure that the task at hand is undertaken quicker than envisaged.
Mabunda’s work rate during the validation earned him a lengthy contract at Nkuzi and got crafted into the farm dweller support programme. His passion and desire to assist the previously disadvantaged communities was visibly enormous. He assisted a lot of workers even outside the scope of the organisation like in construction, cleaning, and security sectors with cases of unfair labour practice.
Mabunda was a fearless activist. He confronted landowners in commercial farms with eviction cases defending the rights of the farm dwellers and workers in the province. In many instances, he would sacrifice his social time to be in solidarity with the evicted or families that are threatened with evictions and spending sleepless nights under harsh weather conditions.
Mabunda was not shy to engage stakeholders like government, policy makers, legislatures, parliamentarians, authorities, and media fraternity. He also made meaningful and massive contributions in the civil society work including Nkuz’s alliance partners and networks in the country and beyond. Each time an opportunity presents itself to engage – be it public servants, politicians, or decision makers for public’s interest, he would be the first to raise his hand. At some point Mabunda, a programme officer at Nkuzi was mistaken to be the Executive Director of the organisation amid his constant media engagements.
Although he left Nkuzi in 2019, a lot of people and organisations in the media, civil society, and government especially those that interacted with Mabunda for years could not detach him from Nkuzi. This was due to his footprint and continuous support to marginalised communities to demand their rights.
Mabunda’s legacy is characterized by fearlessness, analytical skills, and selflessness. The aforesaid were evident in his work when he mobilised rural communities, facilitated civic education sessions, and leading campaigns. In almost 2 decades of his experience in the civil society and training sectors, Mabunda had contributed to several major victories for the rural masses. This involves organising and gathering of evidence to form part of the survey titled STILL SEARCHING FOR SECURITY: The realities of farm dweller evictions in South Africa in 2005. The evidence gathering of Popela land claim court matter, which was concluded in 2007, was fundemental to the LAMOSA constitutional court judgement decided in 2019. This was a matter challenging the re-opening of land claims between 2014 and 2019. He was at the forefront of organising communities to solicit evidence to form part of the tribal levies court matter before he left Nkuzi.
Mabunda facilitated several on-farm and off-farm settlement initiatives for individuals and communities living on commercial farmlands. An example is in Baltimore, Nantes, Limpopo where he negotiated for acquisition of land for 4 households following evictions who were largely women-headed. Today, the land is home for 16 households.
Constance Mogale and Vasco Mabunda – image credit: Johan Lorenzen
Image credit: Capricorn FM News
PoliticsWeb: Limpopo residents say land claims and reform failed – click to read
Mukurukuru Media, Molatelo Mohale: Rest in power Vasco – man of the people – click to read
Prof Tinyiko Maluleke (YouTube): In Memory of Famandha Dlhamini Vasco Mabunda – click to watch
