In this research, I present critical facts about Land Tenure Systems and Poverty Reduction processes in Mafela Resettlement community. I focus mainly on the Post-Fast Track Land Reform (2004 – 2011) period and the interactive processes in this new resettlement area. The research - premised on the rights approach - sought to explore land tenure rights systems and poverty reduction mechanisms seen by the Mafela community to be improving their livelihoods / it also sought to find out if there is evidence linking tenure rights to poverty reduction and how land tenure rights governance systems affect their livelihoods. Suffice to say in both the animal kingdom and human world, territorial space and integrity, its demarcation as well as how resources are used within the space, given the area - calls for a - defined system of rights by the residents themselves. Whilst it is true that there is no one story about Zimbabwe’s land reform (Scoones et al 2011), the contribution of this research towards insights emanating from the newly resettled farmers adds another invaluable contribution in the realm of rural development issues.

<p>In this research, I present critical facts about Land Tenure Systems and Poverty Reduction processes in Mafela Resettlement community. I focus mainly on the Post-Fast Track Land Reform&nbsp / (2004 &ndash / 2011) period and the interactive processes in this new resettlement area. The research - premised on the rights approach - sought to explore land tenure rights systems and poverty&nbsp / reduction mechanisms seen by the Mafela community to be improving their livelihoods / it also sought to find out if there is evidence linking tenure rights to poverty reduction and how land tenure&nbsp / rights governance systems affect their livelihoods. Suffice to say in both the animal kingdom and human world, territorial space and integrity, its demarcation as well as how resources are used&nbsp / within the space, given the area - calls for a - defined&nbsp / system of rights by the residents themselves. Whilst it is true that there is no one story about Zimbabwe&rsquo / s land reform (Scoones et al 2011),&nbsp / the contribution of this research towards insights emanating from the newly resettled farmers adds another invaluable contribution in the realm of rural development issues. The oft rigidified&nbsp / perceptions about the land reform in Zimbabwe as having dismally failed draw contrasting findings from this research. The findings, themselves drawn mainly through interviews, seem to&nbsp / suggest that there are indeed improved livelihoods for resettled farmers more than what is generally believed from a distance. The perception that secure tenure rights (among other myths) determines livelihoods improvement also revealed otherwise with Mafela community. The resettlers&rsquo / dynamic socio-economic milieu presents opportunities and challenges which only the resettled farmers can solve if given adequate support and empowerment in terms of decision making processes. The power basis wielded by the war veterans and the culture of top-down&nbsp / decision making processes as lamented by the resettled farmers suggest that the evolution of resettlements is still far from over. This research therefore hopes to challenge its readers and other&nbsp / stakeholders to engage with issues and recommendations raised here in order for a rethink about land tenure rights and poverty reduction initiatives associated with the new resettlement areas&nbsp / in Zimbabwe in general.</p> <p>&nbsp / </p>

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, 2001.

This study considers the relationships between women and land amongst female land owners in two communities within KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Motivated by the lack of qualitative data surrounding women as land beneficiaries, this study focuses on the extent to which land and land ownership effect women’s livelihood strategies and how such assets contribute to and/or limit women’s practical and strategic needs. Although this study supports data suggesting that women’s access to land and land ownership is slowly increasing, it suggests that the positive effects of land on women’s lives are greatly limited by poor access to basic services and agricultural inputs, and lingering patriarchal cultural norms. Such limitations, combined with low education levels amongst women regarding their land rights, have thus far hindered the South African Department of Land Affairs in meeting its targeted goals of poverty reduction and livelihood improvements. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

The Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation of Namibia is responsible for all land issues. The resettlement of landless farmers, of the previous disadvantaged groups, is one of the issues. The Agricultural (Commercial) Land Reform Act (Act 6 of 1995) applies to the commercial land parts of the country. Under this act the government of Namibia has the first option on the purchase of commercial farms when these are offered for sale. These purchased farms will then be used to resettle the landless farmers from the communal areas. These applicants may obtain a long-term lease over the purchased commercial farms. Long-term leases are legally required to be registered in the Deeds Office. A cadastral lease diagram is required for registration. The government, through the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, has bought approximately 130 farms for resettlement purposes. On June 2003 approximately 13 of these resettlement farms were surveyed and cadastral lease diagrams prepared for registration in the Deeds Office. The author argues that many factors have affected the slow progress of the resettlement in Namibia including the time required for the preparation of the cadastral lease diagram. The current field survey techniques, Total Stations or/and GPS, are very reliable, but are slow. The use of digital orthophotos has been shown to shorten the time to prepare the cadastral lease diagrams. The Author further argues that because digital orthophotos are available at the Surveyor-General's Office means, there are no cost implications. The cost of the cadastral lease diagrams by using digital orthophotos is only a third of the cost of using the current field survey techniques. Replacing current survey techniques with digital orthophotos or including the use of digital orthophotos, as a surveying technique would require the revision of the Land Survey Act (Act 33 of 1993) and the Survey Regulations, under section 5 of the said Land Survey Act - Government Notice No. 58 of 2002. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

No abstract available / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1976.

This research focuses on KwaZulu-Natal case studies of land reform projects that serve as contributors to local economic development (LED). Key stakeholders and role players on LED matters within the KwaZulu-Natal province serve as respondents. The study seeks to answer critical questions regarding the success and viability of land reform projects. “Rural development is one of the the signature projects that swept the African National Congress (ANC) to power. It is supposed to distinguish the new administration from all that has gone before by having a dedicated ministry specifically to look after the forgotten countryside”, (Mabanga 2010, p. 36). For communities operating registered companies, some of the major challenges, amongst others, include a lack of farm management skills, business skills, financial skills and governance skills (including corporate governance). Leadership challenges are experienced between community members that ultimately may lead to the collapse of projects. There are also concerns regarding state support for post settlement. This affects the operation and capitalization of the projects and is required to kick-start projects after land transfers. Other challenges include skills shortage amongst managers and post settlement support for specific industries to ease transfer of skills to beneficiaries. The majority of the post-settlement support from the National Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has no, or limited, skills in specific industries like forestry, sugarcane, crop farming and animal farming. Consequently there is a shortage of proper advice to the community managers from inception and the incumbent official then still has to learn the industry operating systems. Ultimately all the parties rely heavily on consultants to provide assistance to newly emerging farmers or business entrepreneurs within the communities. The transfer of developmental grants is a major headache currently facing the majority of land beneficiaries. The department of rural development still owes communities post-settlement grants or development grants back-dated to the 2008/09 financial period. The objective of this study was to arrive at some guidelines and recommendations that will contribute to the success of land reform projects and thereby contribute to LED within KwaZulu-Natal province. / Thesis (M.Com)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

One of the major policy objectives of the South African government is to reform land tenure and address the current inequitable dispossession of land. A key to the successful implementation of land reform in communal areas will be the recently enacted Communal Land Rights Act. This Act allows communities to be vested with juristic personality, and enables those communities to acquire and hold rights, incur obligations, and encumber the land by mortgage in the name of the community. Communities will now have a legal tenure recognized by and enforceable at law. The Act provides the mechanism for replacing old order rights with new order rights, which, in turn, may be upgraded to freehold title with community consent. While the Communal Land Rights Act is clear in its approach to providing legal security of tenure, the implementation and linking of the internal land rights within these new legal collective ownership structures to the existing formal system is still uncertain. With the flexibility allowed under the Act, this dissertation offers a simple, cost-effective alternative for the registration of land rights using the envisioned Land Clerk of the Department of Land Affairs. This option involves placing suitably equipped Land Clerks into the communities in which they serve, operating as autonomous self-sustaining contractors. Research for this project was conducted in the community of Ekuthuleni (KwaZuluNatal), where two members of the community were equipped with a portable rig and trained to perform as Land Clerks. The author and others from the University trained them in the use of a computer, scanner, printer, handheld GPS receiver, and assorted software. In addition, to allow them to function autonomously, a photovoltaic power system was set up at their residence. To assess their ability as Land Clerks, several field projects were undertaken within the community. Under the guidance of the author, these field tests involved contacting individual landowners, capturing personal and property information, and registering that data into a specially written database programme. Evidence of previous land ownership was noted and rebristered, GPS coordinates were collected and registered in the process of delineating the landowner's property, and a form reflecting all captured data was printed for the landowner's records. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

This research focuses on policy networks as a framework to analyse the implementation of the South African Land Reform (Labour Tenant) Act 3 of 1996 (LTA) and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62 of 1997 (ESTA) more generally. In particular, this research looks at the Association for Rural Advancement’s (AFRA) implementation of the farm dwellers project, specifically, how this organisation has been using the policy networks approach to implement its farm dwellers project. The LTA and the ESTA guide the South African post-apartheid land reform programme. This programme responds to the racially-based system of land access created by colonialism and apartheid. It is against this system of land access that the post-apartheid, democratic government undertook a vast land reform programme, intended to redress the injustices of the past (Drimie 2003:39). The LTA and ESTA are situated within this perspective and their objectives were derived from an understanding that land reform has the potential to make a direct impact on poverty through targeted resource transfers and by addressing the economic and social injustices caused by colonial and apartheid dispossession. However, after sixteen years of democracy and policy implementation of the land reform programme, little progress has been made. This includes an undertaking in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) of 1994, which provided a set of guidelines and principles for the evolving land policy, to redistribute, by 2014 (extended from 1999), 30% of the 80% of commercial farmland (mostly white owned) to black South Africans and to make land reform the driving force of rural development (Drimie 2003:39). By March 2009, a total of 5.2% of the targeted 30% of commercial farmland has been transferred through the various land reform programmes (Kleinbooi 2009:1). Concerns have been raised that attribute this seeming failure of the land reform programme to the government’s market approach (Mkhize 2004). This has been sustained by the government’s shift from the RDP to Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR). AFRA, in its funding proposal of 1998-2000, has identified this shift as “disturbing because it implies that government’s economic and political direction is likely to result in reduced resources for rural and agricultural development, a shift which will impact hard on the already tough conditions of poverty that people live in.” From this understanding, this research hopes to establish that the seeming failure of the implementation of the South African land reform can be improved through a more effective utilisation of policy networks. More particularly, this research hopes to establish how AFRA has been using policy networks to implement its Farm Dwellers project from 1994 until today. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

Zimbabwe is made up of eight provinces, fifty-seven districts and as many Rural District Councils. In each district there is at least one Growth Point although some may have up to two or more. A Growth Point is a 'town or City in the making' and is usually, but not necessarily the capital of a district. Rural District Councils, which form the local administrative authority and have administrative responsibility over the land that falls within their jurisdictions, are often located at these Growth Points. These local authorities liaise and interact closely with central government, which is made up of Ministries and Departments with different functions, which somehow hinge on the administration of the land. This makes the linkages and land information flows, based on land records crucial. The legacy of the history of separate development introduced and left systems of government, which are complex and hinder a free flow of information within central government and also between central and local governments. These linkages and interrelationships are mapped and traced with a view to streamlining information flows in order to eliminate or minimize flaws . While the efforts of decentralisation towards this goal are recognized, the shortcomings have been cited and the thesis makes some recommendations based on a research undertaken with the cooperation of Gokwe Rural District Council at Gokwe Growth Point. The thesis recommends strengthening the local capacity by assisting their efforts to computerise their records and eventually develop that into a fully integrated local Land Information System that should eventually be linked to the National System. / Thesis (M.Sc.Sur.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.