Topics and Regions
Rick has over 40 years experience working in the land sector in Southern Africa. He is part of the Land Portal knowledge engagement team working to research and develop knowledge resources including data stories, blogs and in-depth country profiles for Southern, Central and Eastern Africa.
Rick is also a Senior Research Associate with Phuhlisani NPC - a South African land sector NGO and the curator of specialist Southern African land news and analysis website https://knowledgebase.land
He tweets on land related issues Twitter account https://twitter.com/KnowledgebaseL
He has a PhD from the University of Cape Town. His research in Langa, Cape Town features as the central case study in a recent book Urban Planning in the Global South (2018), co-authored with the late Vanessa Watson, which examines the on-going contestations over land and housing in the rapidly growing cities of the global South.
Details
Location
KB.L Land News Digest South Africa and region 19 November - 31 December 2020
KB.L South and Southern Africa Land News Digest: 19 October - 18 November 2020
Land News and Analysis
Weeks 43 – 46
South Africa
Southern, Central and Eastern Africa
19th October – 18th November 2020
News curated via knowledgebase.land
Land News: Sept - 18 Oct 2020 South Africa and region
KB.L seeks to bring to life all aspects of the ‘land issue’, recognizing that land is both a deeply important aspect of our history, and an emotive issue shaping our political landscape. KB.L seeks to develop a comprehensive sense of this history, heritage and memory through a combination of news, commissioned articles and links to research. We aim to be recognised as a trusted site providing a wide range of land related news content and research links both nationally and within Southern Africa.
Land News: Weeks 33-38 2020 South Africa, Southern Central and Eastern Africa
A compilation of land related news curated by knowledgebase.land - a website maintained by Phuhlisani NPC, a land sector NPO in South Africa. KB.L seeks to bring to life all aspects of the 'land issue', recognising that land is both a deeply important aspect of our history which simultaneously shapes the contemporary political landscape. KB.L aspires to be recognised as a trusted site providing a wide range of land related news content and research links in the South Africa and the sub continent.
Land News South Africa 27 July - 11 August 2020
In this land news update from South Africa we focus on:
- Our changing Covid 19 context
- The unresolved problem of farm worker evictions
- Budget cuts and food insecurity
- Contestation over land administration in communal areas in KwaZulu-Natal province
- The need for a digital deeds registry platform
- Unresolved land restitution disputes
- The complex backstory behind mounting land occupations in Cape Town
- A selection of land related news from Southern Central and Eastern Africa
Kingdom of Lesotho: Land reform and rural transformation
The government of Lesotho’s (GOL) land reform efforts, enacted in the Land Act 2010, principally seek to create an environment that is favourable to agricultural development and economic investment.3 For years, Lesotho has lacked efficient land markets in which foreign investors could participate. The limitations on foreign landholding by the 1979 Land Act have presented impediments to improving the commercial use of land.
Lesotho housing profile
The formal private sector in Lesotho concentrates on housing at the very top of the market leaving the majority unserved by formal housing supply.
Recycled fable or immutable truth? Reflections on the 1973 land tenure reform project in Lesotho and lessons for the future
State efforts to reform the customary land tenure system of Lesotho have failed to produce intended outcomes. An explanation given for this failure is customary chiefs' opposition to state-sponsored reforms, as these were purportedly meant to curtail their power over land. This explanation initially appeared in 1974 connection with the Administration of Lands Act of 1973, and has since been handed down through generations of academics and policy analysts in Lesotho and outside and uncritically accepted as immutable truth.
The state of poverty and food insecurity in Maseru, Lesotho
Lesotho regularly features in the African and international media as a country blighted by drought, hunger and food insecurity. Much of the discussion about the causes and remedies for food insecurity, including within Lesotho itself, focuses on the rural population and the precipitous decline in domestic food production in recent decades. This report argues that the rural bias of both donors and government ignores the fact that poverty and food insecurity are increasingly important urban issues as well.