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Mail & Guardian

Land Reform

latest news & developments

Land is back but prosperity isn't

Thirty years into South Africa's land reform, millions of hectares remain underused due to governance failures in Communal Property Associations. Reforming these structures is…

The keys are not the finish line

Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Tasneem Motara reflects on the department's annual performance, explaining why true housing delivery goes far beyond counting roofs to dismantling…

Lengthy legal process EFF secretary general Godrich Gardee said on Tuesday that the party’s attorneys of record had not received notice from the sheriff of the court. (Paul Botes/M&G)

Gardee takes aim at AfriForum: "We won’t be distracted by lizards; We have a crocodile to face."

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy president Godrich Gardee has dismissed AfriForum as a distraction, stating the party is focused on its election campaign for November 4th.…

Road to success: South Africa needs to drive a long-term shift from land transfer to land activation. Photo Delwyn Verasamy

Measure land reform the right way

The debate around land reform in South Africa often focuses on statistics, but the true measure of success lies in whether land is restored with dignity, activated productively,…

Bone of contention: The Western Cape provincial government wants to sell the Main Road site in Sea Point to a private concern but activists demand it be used for social housing instead.

Tafelberg saga lands up in Concourt

After 10 years and four court battles, the Constitutional Court has finally ruled the 2015 sale of the old Tafelberg School site in Sea Point illegal. This landmark decision has…

A crisis in restitution cases: an imbalance in the scales of justice

South Africa's land restitution landscape is plagued by a three-decade-long crisis in the Land Court, where justice often depends on available resources rather than the merits of…

Land reform and rural development: A budget for South Africa’s bold agenda for land reform and rural renewal

The Department of Land Reform and Rural Development tabled an ambitious Budget Vote for 2026/27, supported by legislation, investment and a clear vision for equitable land access…

Unresolved: Spokes Sithole, who was born in the same year as Nelson Mandela, 1918, is one of the original
claimants in the R1 billion Mala Mala land claim. He died at 108. Photos. Lucas Ledwaba

Fruit of freedom withers under broken land deal

The death of Spokes Sithole at 108 exposes the broken promise of one of South Africa’s largest land restitution settlements, where freedom and land ownership have not translated…

Namibia’s Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform Minister Inge Zaamwani

Namibia tables sweeping land bill to expand farm expropriation powers

The proposed legislature represents the most far-reaching change in Namibia’s land governance framework since independence

Rural people are dispossessed and displaced by companies that collect awards for ESG credentials, corporate social investment and sector excellence.
(Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Award-winning exploitation: South Africa’s sustainability façade unmasked

Rural people are dispossessed and displaced by companies that collect awards for ESG credentials, corporate social investment and sector excellence

The Moravian Church
has congregations around the world, with more than a million members. South Africa, with 103  000 members, has one of the largest congregations. (Photos: Jonathan Hendricks)

Moravian Church legal battle at heart of indigenous land rights

Descendants of the indigenous people who lived on the land, predominantly Khoi and slaves, want to be able to control and govern the land their forefathers worked

For the many who rightly feel abandoned by the government, and are sick of the state’s failures, the private sector stepping in to solve problems with energy, water and logistics might appear rational and necessary. (John McCann/MG)

The privatisation agenda will not save South Africa

The state has tried the neoliberalism model in various forms for 31 years, and it has not worked

EFF leader Julius Malema. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

EFF to use ‘kill the boer’ as part of 2026 election strategy

The Economic Freedom Fighters insist on the use of the struggle song as a rallying cry ahead of the polls

The struggle to reclaim or protect land is fundamentally a struggle to restore human dignity. Photo: Lucky Nxumalo/City Press/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Land and dignity: A global reflection anchored in Palestine

Land is more than a physical resource — it is the foundation of identity, freedom and dignity in places as far-flung as North America, Australia and New Zealand to Gaza, India…

(constitutionhill.org.za)

Mafora’s ‘legal fictions’ nullify constitutional supremacy

In systems of constitutional supremacy, constitutions may introduce legal fictions, but legal fictions may not be introduced into constitutions, like the Expropriation Act does