Beyond populism or paralysis: a real debate on South Africa’s land reform trajectory

Abstract

On 24 October 2011 the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) convened a public dialogue on South Africa’s land reform trajectory at Townhouse Hotel and Conference Centre in Cape Town. Present were a wide range of actors from researchers and academics, social movements and civil society, the private sector and provincial government. The aim of the session was to engage in informed and constructive dialogue around the issues concerning land reform and rural development with an immediate objective to work towards alternative proposals for a new legislative framework on Land Reform in South Africa. An envisaged output in the short term was a joint, or several collaborative formal comments on the Green Paper on Land Reform recently released by the Department for Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), to be submitted before the 25 November deadline.