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Our Mission

Postgraduate Diploma in Land Tenancy

To contribute to effective, speedy and just land redistribution to labour tenants who, for generations, lived and worked on white farms under colonialism and apartheid without compensation.

By developing a postgraduate diploma course designed to equip government officials working in the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development with the necessary philosophical, historical, legislative, research and practical skills to expedite the processing of land claim applications of labour tenants, and to facilitate and assist in post-settlement agricultural projects for labour tenants awarded land.

By mobilizing organs of civil society and raising public awareness in support of the struggle of the labour tenants.

Our Vision

Postgraduate Diploma in Land Tenancy

Justice and prosperity for black small-scale farmers that disprove the myth that black people cannot farm and that only white farmers and agribusiness can provide for South Africa’s food security needs.

This will be made possible by agriculture and land reform government departments that are run by selfless state officials who are driven by principles of selfless service delivery in the implementation of land and agrarian reform that eradicates and provides reparation for the injustices of the past.

The resolution of the land and agrarian question for the benefit of all those who work the land including labour tenants.
Civil society including labour, community and non-government organisations that understand and support the struggle for radical land reform

Postgraduate Diploma in Land Tenancy

The ultimate impact of the proposed Post-Graduate Diploma in Land Tenancy:


History, Precarity and Law will be a deepened understanding of the history, plight, living conditions, land reform law, and land ownership aspirations of former labour tenant farm servitude households with outstanding, and unresolved land claims to privately owned farmland..

Such an understanding will be philosophical, methodological, and practical by way of policy influence in land and agrarian reform.
Philosophical in the sense that a postgraduate diploma will be offered to state officials working on labour tenant land claims to farmland as a theoretical contribution against the backdrop of demoralisation on the part of civil servants attached to the wider dynamics of a disabling neoliberal state.
This postgraduate diploma will be delivered by Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, under the auspices of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Nelson Mandela University, and the Office of the Special Master: Labour Tenants.

Target candidates:

This course aims to train 100 state officials working on labour tenant land claims, as well as the lawyers, and land evaluators, who are working on the same claims.

Partners:

A key partner, and Co-Investigator of this project will be Professor Victor Mmbengwa, based at the University of Limpopo, forming part of the core teaching and research team.
The main instructor of the course will be Advocate Thembeka Ngcukaitobi, drawing from his rich legal history of litigation and advocacy for labour tenant land claimants through the courts.

State officials will be trained on three core themes

The Post-Graduate Diploma in Land Tenancy: History, Precarity and Land is anchored upon a Memorandum of Understanding between the Office of the Special Master of Labour Tenants, appointed by the Constitutional Court of South Africa to supervise the administration of labour tenant land claims, after a two-decade stalemate, and the Centre for Sociological Research and Practice, University ofJohannesburg

History

The historical land dispossession that was legitimized by the notorious Natives Land Act of 1913. Within this historical context theme, the Historical Geography of Land Dispossession, which explores intersections of oral history and historical geographic methodology in gauging historical land dispossession towards labour tenants land claims resolution will be dissected.

Precarity

The economic positioning of labour tenant land claimants in relation to the state and land owners. This theme will also unpack dynamics of feminisation of service delivery towards a caring state in deepening democracy to the deepest of rural areas through, firstly land redistribution, and the construction of early childhood centres, schools, installation of crucial water and electricity infrastructure.
Within this theme, a sub-theme of Racialised Capitalism Theory will be dissected, looking into the theorisation of the current macro-economic context of post-apartheid South Africa.
This includes teaching that is grounded within the present moment highlighting the continuities of racialised inequalities as they manifest themselves in the South African land question.

Law

Analysis of the Land Reform (Labour Tenant) Act 3 of 1996, and its progressive elements in ways that deepen constitutionalism for the benefit labour tenant land claimants

Course outcomes

i

State officials and related practitioners will be equipped with fundamental progressive elements of land reform law, historical geography research tools, life history documentation skills and Geographic Information Skills (practical aspects of Geographic Information Systems).

ii

State officials will acquire the motivation, knowledge and skills necessary to implement land claims processes and procedures as they relate to labour tenants thus assisting in achieving the speedy and effective resolution of land claims.

iii

State officials will gain academically directed, supported and monitored practical experience of conducting research into and resolving land claims through a practical assignment that will be an important component of the diploma course and on which they will be assessed. This will generate knowledge about the challenges of processing land claims from the point of view of civil servants.

iv

The academic institutions (University of Johannesburg, University of Limpopo, and Nelson Mandela University) and personnel involved will learn and deepen their knowledge of the land question, land restitution and land redistribution from interacting directly with government officials implementing these important processes. This will inform future curriculum development and the research agenda thus expanding the body of knowledge and improving practice

Concluding remarks

It is urgent that land restitution and redistribution processes are revisited and revised with a view towards speeding up the resolution of land claims of labour tenants and linking the process to a viable developmental vision of empowering small scale marginalized farmers and households.

The envisaged diploma can contribute directly to this process and hopefully help inject a hopeful spirit that can lift the land question in South Africa from out of the doldrums that it finds itself in.

Teaching and learning, research and academic scholarship can contribute to making elements of this vision a reality.

Building skills to our Learning State Officials to help our nation

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Faculty of Excellence

Discover the distinguished members of our faculty, each contributing to the academic excellence of our institution

Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi
Dr Mnqobi Ngubane
Professor Victor Mmbengwa
Dr Luyanda Mtshali
Dr Yvonne Phyllis
Dr Trevor Ngwane
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Advocacy in Supporting Labour Tenants

Land reform law, and land ownership aspirations of former labour tenant farm servitude households with outstanding, and unresolved land claims to privately owned farmland.

The Constitutional Court Republic of South Africa

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa ruled that the state must speed up the processing of applications and land claims by labour tenants.The court found that the state had failed the labour tenants. The case is Mwelase and Others v Director - General for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and Another CCT232/18.

Judgement
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Our Partners

AFRA

An important partner in the development of the land labour tenants diploma is the is the Association for Rural Development (AFRA). This non-governmental organization has played a significant role in assisting labour tenants in their struggle their land. AFRA played a crucial role in challenging the state in court contesting the very slow pace in the processing of the land claims of labour tenants

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The Land Reform

The Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act, 1996, is the main piece of legislation which facilitates the redistribution of land to labour tenants through the process of making land claim applications.

The Act

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