Focal point
Location
Levels 3 and 4, All Africa House
Middle Campus, University of Cape Town
Rondebosch, 7701
LARC is a research and advocacy unit within the Law Department of the University of Cape Town concerned with power relations, and the impact of national laws and policy in framing the balance of patriarchal and autocratic power within which rural women and men struggle for democratic change at the local level. There has recently been a push from government to introduce laws and policies giving traditional leaders unaccountable powers over “subjects” living in the former homeland areas of South Africa. The objective is to hold back traditional leadership laws that threaten rural democracy and propose alternative laws and policies that promote rural democracy and are consistent with living law.
LARC grew out out of the Rural Women’s Action Research unit (RWAR) of the Centre for Law and Society (CLS).
Members:
Resources
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4Leadership bill dissolves rather than strengthens power of rural people
The pleas of thousands of rural people who made difficult journeys to attend public hearings across the country are largely ignored in the amended version of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill set to be adopted by the National Assembly this week.
Who owns the land? Half an answer from AgrisSA land audit
Farmers’ interest group AgriSA last week released its own land audit. This filled in a major blank in the land reform and policy field: How many black emerging farmers have bought farms outside government’s land reform programme? We now have a part answer: they bought 4.3 million hectares. Other findings from this study are contested and methodological flaws are highlighted.
Things you should know about land and the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill
This draft law will have a massive impact on the lives of the 18 million people who live in South Africa’s former homelands. This LARC factsheet provides an overview of key implications for rural people.
Four things that rural mining communities need to know about the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill
This LARC factsheet highlights lack of requirements for community consultation, lack of sanction if a Traditional Council does not keep proper records and the inadequate controls on Traditional Council's prerorgative to enter into agreements and partnerships which can facilitate elite capture of mineral resource benefits 'for the benefit of communities'.