KB.L enables you to stay abreast of land related news and analysis. We are working to develop KB.L into the definitive site covering land issues both in South Africa and across the Southern, Central and Eastern African regions. Our site curator collects and organises news by content and theme.
Dr Rick de Satgé, senior research associate of Phuhlisani NPC curates this website. He also works as a researcher for the Land Portal Foundation as part of the Knowledge Engagement team to compile peer reviewed land governance profiles for a range of African countries. Those researched by the team to date include:
See the Land Portal countries page for a growing range of country profiles across the global South.
See also the data story Double dispossession? A history of land and mining in South Africa’s former homelands
The Land Portal also has a large and comprehensive online land library with over 66,000 resources including reports, journal articles, research papers, peer-reviewed publications, legal documents, videos and much more.
KB.L seeks to bring to life all aspects of the ‘land issue’, recognising that land is a deeply important aspect of our collected colonial and post-colonial history, and an emotive issue which influences the shaping of our political landscape.
KB.L seeks to develop a comprehensive sense of this history, heritage and memory through a combination of news, commissioned articles, links to research and a repository of documentary photographs providing multiple perspectives on rural and urban land.
KB.L exists to deepen the conversation about the urban and rural land issues and to advance critical analysis of the policy and practice of land reform in South Africa and across the region. It aims to contribute to an expanding national and regional knowledge base that illuminates different narratives about land and land reform implementation to help us better understand our past and make informed, evidence led decisions to shape an equitable and sustainable future.
With the onset on Covid-19 land reform was put on hold in South Africa. The supplementary budget (June 2020) reflected the deep economic crisis in South Africa that was already unfolding prior to the impacts of the pandemic which have further amplified and deepened this crisis. The Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development budget was slashed by R2.4 billion, and Environment, Forestry and Fisheries by R766 million – some of the largest cuts experienced by any department. This resulted in a hold on new land acquisition and reduced funding for farmer support – all this in a context of mounting risk due to global heating and a food system that fails to adequately meet the needs of the majority of poor and vulnerable households in South Africa. During the current financial year – 2024/2025, the department has budgeted a total figure of R 466 million to acquire and allocate 46 767 hectares of land for redistribution. However inadequate support for land reform beneficiaries has meant that much of the land acquired remains significantly underutilised.
In the run up to the public hearings on expropriation Phuhlisani NPC was contracted by Absa to prepare a series of open access research reports to contribute to a reliable knowledge base on land reform in South Africa. These reports informed submissions made to the Constitutional Review Committee tasked with investigation the necessity of amending Section 25 of the Constitution. While the Covid-19 crisis diluted the focus on land reform, the land question will not go away. As can be seen from our urban land page there are major struggles going on to access well located land in the city and address spatial inequality. Likewise, our food security content highlights the urgent need to rethink our agriculture policy, redesign food systems and repurpose smallholder support.
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KB.L seeks to serve the needs of diverse groupings with interests in land and land reform. These include:
Our original plan was that KB:L content would be rolled out in three phases. We had planned for a site which would offer a much wider range of content but to date have not succeeded in attracting funding support to realise this vision. Follow the link below to read more about what was planned for Phase 2 and 3.
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We strive to assist rural citizens to secure their rights and facilitate engagement to combat poverty, landlessness and tenure insecurity. We are part of the civil society Section 25 initiative to advocate for a land reform programme that prioritises the needs of the rural and urban poor. We seek to develop practical alternatives to failed policies and practices based on co-learning and joint action for change. In this we aim to strengthen essential policy literacies and implementation capabilities required to meet South Africa’s land related challenges in the 21st century. Our aim is to further develop content and services which contribute to applied thinking about what needs to be done to redesign and implement a sustainable land reform programme that serves the needs of the many and not the few.
More broadly we seek to contribute to a more informed conversation about land rights, equitable access and sustainable resource use across the region.
Phuhlisani NPC acknowledges the contribution of Absa to launch the first phase of KB.L. However apart from an initial startup grant KB.L receives no funding from any source. It has been curated on a voluntary basis for the past three years.
If you think KB.L is worth supporting and would like to partner with us, we would very much like to hear from you. Our contact information can be found on the Phuhlisani NPC website.
All photos used on this site are open source. Thumbnail images accompanying news articles may be subject to copyright.
A project of Phuhlisani NPC supported by Absa. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. International License.