Browsing by Author "Claassens, Aninka"

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    The Communal Land Rights Act and women: Does the Act remedy or entrench discrimination and the distortion of the customary?
    (Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2005) Claassens, Aninka
    This paper discusses the likely impact of the Communal Land Rights Act (CLRA) of 2004 on the land rights of rural women. It asks whether the Act is likely to enhance or undermine tenure security, not only for women, but for rural people in general. In the context of declining rates of marriage it focuses particularly on the problems facing single women. It examines two inter-related issues. The first is the content and substance of land rights, including the question of where rights vest. The second relates to power over land, particularly control over the allocation and management of land rights. It begins with an account of the parliamentary process and the last minute changes to previous drafts. The Bill was opposed by all sectors of civil society with the singular exception of traditional leaders. The most vehement opposition came from rural women and women’s organisations who argued that the Bill undermined the principle of equality in favour of an alliance with traditional leaders. By contrast, traditional leaders welcomed the Act as a triumph of tradition and African custom.
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    The Communal Land Rights Bill
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003) Claassens, Aninka
    Tenure legislation is urgently necessary. There are serious problem in the communal areas in the ex-homeland provinces. These areas are characterised by severe poverty, overcrowding and isolation from economic growth and opportunity. One of the issues that inhibits development, is the lack of clarity about the status of land rights in communal areas. Who has what rights? Who must agree to changes? Who has the legal authority to transact land? One of the consequences of this confusion is that the people who actually use and occupy the land are often pushed aside and dispossessed when development and land transactions do take place. Others, purporting to act on their behalf, take the money and run. The underlying confusion about the status of land rights, has been exacerbated by the breakdown of the land administration system in the ex-homeland provinces. In most provinces nobody has the legal power to allocate land rights, and there is no budget or staff to survey sites, maintain grazing camps, enforce dipping regimes or control the plunder of common property resources such as medicinal herbs and forests. Double and disputed land allocations are the order of the day, illegal and informal land sales are increasingly common and stock theft has reached alarming proportions. There is a serious and deepening crisis concerning land rights and land allocations in communal areas, which is impacting negatively on rural poverty. One of the inevitable results is that investors and formal and financial institutions avoid these areas. Local people find it almost impossible to raise loans for businesses, or to access housing subsidies.
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    Community views on the Communal Land Rights Bill
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003) Claassens, Aninka
    The Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) and the National Land Committee (NLC) responded to the lack of effective government consultation with communities on the draft Communal Land Rights Bill (CLRB) by initiating a joint project to broaden civil society participation in the legislative process.
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    Securing land and resource rights in Africa: Pan-African perspectives
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004) Alinon, Koffi; Ayeb, Habib; Claassens, Aninka; Cousins, Ben; Greenberg, Stephen; Ismail, Abdel Mawla; Kameri-Mbote, Patricia; Marongwe, Nelson; Simo, John Mope; Ng’ong’ola, Clement; Odhiambo, Michael; Omoweh, Daniel; Ouédraogo, Hubert; Saruchera, Munyaradzi; Tawfic, Rawia; Wanjala, Smokin
    Across the African continent the land and resource rights of the rural poor are threatened by inappropriate policies and institutions (including global treaties); unequal social, political and economic relations; the actions of powerful vested interests (wealthy national or local elites, international aid organisations, multinational corporations); and the weakness of grassroots organisations. It is against this background that the Pan-African Programme on Land and Resource Rights (PAPLRR) Network’s initiative to analyse, understand and engage with these issues was conceptualised by four African centres of excellence that subsequently developed the programme in 2001. The unique contributions Africa can make are seldom taken seriously in international natural resource policymaking debates. One reason could be that the African voice on land and resource rights is perhaps not as strong in international forums as it should be. By coming together in forums such as PAPLRR, Africans are able to share their concerns and develop capacity to articulate their opinions and influence outcomes in the international arena. Defining an agenda for advocacy and strategic engagement with governments, and building links across divides between scholars, practitioners and advocacy groups, is an emphasis of PAPLRR into the future. A key focus of the programme is the role of land and resource rights in the struggle against poverty, exploitation and oppression as well as their contribution in solving real world problems of African people, not as academic objects to be studied, but as key components of the struggle.