Browsing by Author "Ukpabi, Obiozo"

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    Comments on the Green Paper on land reform 2011
    (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011) du Toit, Andries; Cousins, Ben; Hall, Ruth; Kleinbooi, Karin; Paradza, Gayno; Ukpabi, Obiozo
    As we have indicated in our earlier press release, the document released as a Green Paper by the Department Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform is a great disappointment. The Green Paper is the product of a drafting process taking two and a half years. This has been a secretive process in which the South African public has been kept largely in the dark. The Ministry and its Department have shown themselves to be unwilling to learn from their mistakes, and unwilling to consult with civil society, stakeholders and expert opinion. Instead of providing a Green Paper based on an honest assessment of the past fifteen years of policy implementation, it has refused to learn from experience, both from its own mistakes and successes, and from encouraging innovations that are taking place on the ground, often despite inadequate or misguided state policy. Instead it has produced a vague document that develops general recommendations on the basis of general principles. The result is a Green Paper that fails to answer the key policy questions facing land reform in South Africa.
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    Workshop Report: Re-thinking rural transformation in South Africa
    (Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2011) Ukpabi, Obiozo
    The Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) and Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) have collaborated to convene a civil society workshop aimed to strengthen strategic engagement around rural development and land reform in South Africa. The workshop purpose was to develop some fresh thinking on these complex and contested issues, and contribute to more inclusive, open and participatory policy processes on rural transformation in South Africa. It intended to create a space for in depth content-oriented discussions while current policy proposals were clarified and debated. The workshop took place in the context of heated policy debates in the media about controversial issues relating to land reform and property rights alongside an unusually secretive and opaque policy process with a Green Paper on rural development and land reform. At the time of writing public consultation on the Green Paper continues to be delayed, and the Land Tenure Security Bill was released for public consultation only in December 2010 with limited time to make submissions.