Farm workers and farm dwellers in Limpopo, South Africa: struggles over tenure, livelihoods and justice

Abstract

In the late 1990s land and agrarian issues remained a barrier to the enjoyment of human rights and justice for millions of South Africans. With funding from the Norwegian government, the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights decided to support collaboration between PLAAS and Noragric to explore human rights in South Africa’s land and agrarian reform. PLAAS is the Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape, and Noragric is the Department of International Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Our collaboration from 1999 to 2010 has involved joint research and graduate training (MA and PhD) in rural areas of South Africa and Norway. Our joint programme ‘Land Rights and Agrarian Change in South Africa’ initiated in 2007 focused on the Limpopo Province and its context of rural poverty and inequality. The programme aimed to enhance the understanding of the problems facing rights-based approaches to land and agrarian reform in South Africa; to influence land reform policy and implementation in a positive way; and to strengthen applied social science research capacity within land and agrarian studies in South Africa. One of the teams in the collaboration from 2007 to 2010 studied farm worker and farm dweller issues on commercial farms in Limpopo, and produced this book.