Gender and Land Reform in South Africa

On 03 October 2013, UFH will host an Eastern Cape Regional Students Colloquium. People from different universities will present papers on different themes in light of 100 years of the 1913 Land Act. I will be one of the presenters at the colloquium. The following is the abstract for my paper.





Dedication



This paper is dedicated to the working class women of South Africa and their offspring who continue to be at the receiving end of neoliberal onslaught and domination in South African society. It is the working class suffering, especially women and young children, under the repressive hold of the profit fundamentalism of the neoliberal politicians and their capitalist handlers that keeps me dedicated to essential need for political and socioeconomic transformation.

“Land, Bread and Peace! “



Author : Mr Dinileminyanya Sandile Latha

Occupation : Social Activist

Board Member (Epilepsy South Africa, Eastern Cape)

Student

Theme : Gender issues, Landownership and usage

Abstract Topic : Addressing Gender Question in South Africa’s Land Reform Discourse and Trajectory.



ABSTRACT



The land reform trajectory and discourse in the Republic of South Africa, thus far, has focused on race as its central theme. This has and still happens at the expense of addressing gender inequities in terms of both ownership and control of land (and other means of production). Though racial discrimination is an important historical and political issue, its resolution alone will not usher a just society without the redress of gender and class questions. Gender inequalities in societal development and the accompanying lack of access to the means of production (of which land is arguably the most important) reveal the low status endured by the female species in South Africa.



Gender prejudice, the paper claims, is the oldest kind of discrimination which gave rise to the division of labour and consequently led to the rise of social and economic classes. Females were barred from owning any land (or any kind of the means of production), in consequence of women having previously been practically the property of men. Women were not just dispossessed but systematically excluded from acquiring land due to patriarchal culture, law and traditions. It is in this light that the paper calls for the redress of women’s landlessness which, according to the paper, precedes the meeting of the Bantu people with the European immigrants who colonised the land.



The paper acknowledges the Marxist theory and the concept of National Democratic Revolution (NDR) as valuable tools to be used for the transformation of society. The paper claims that the NDR, which is about building a National Democratic Society (NDS) through the redress of racial, gender and class disparities, should be the central guide to the resolution of the land question and other transformation issues in South Africa. Racial and gender inequalities should be tackled together in order to ensure that land reform leads to real and sustainable development and ultimately reduce class contradictions.



The paper concludes that, for a genuine land reform, racial issues should not be allowed to overrule gender inequities. Resolution of both racial and gender inequities are crucial and a prerequisite for the resolution of the most fundamental issue of class question in South Africa.



By Dinileminyanya Sandile Latha

Eastern Cape

2013