Land Reform: 10 Years On

AFRA News No. 57 May 2004

Law have mercy on us - Domini Lewis

The KwaZulu-Natal Land Legal Cluster Project was formed in November 2001 in response to the collapse of the state-sponsored legal service provision to farm dwellers through the Land Aid Board and the urgent need for interventions on behalf of farm dweller clients affected by land rights infringements and evictions. These interventions include both paralegal and land rights litigation support aimed at ensuring that indigent rural farm dwellers receive appropriate and equitable access to legal support in matters impacting on their Constitutional and land rights.

The project is a joint initiative of the following NGOs active in the province:

• Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA), Pietermaritzburg

• Campus Law Clinic (CLC), University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban

• Community Law and Rural Development Centre (CLRDC), Durban

• National Community-Base Paralegal Association (NCBPA), Durban

• Pietermaritzburg Law Clinic, University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

The project has three sub-programmes namely legal services, training and research and advocacy.

The legal services team comprises of ‘point of contact’ paralegals located throughout KwaZulu-Natal, candidate attorneys and qualified attorneys skilled in land law based in Durban and Pietermaritzburg. A client will approach a paralegal (either in the office or during regular district circuit visits) seeking assistance with a land rights problem. These problems include threatened and actual evictions, constructive evictions such as denial of access across servitudes, cattle impounding, denial of family rights such as visitation, denial of on-farm burials and labour disputes.

The paralegal will then take a statement from the client and liaise with the project manager and legal team regarding appropriate action in the interests of the client. Alternative forms of dispute facilitation (such as mediation) are attempted first in order to seek an amicable resolution of the issue in dispute between the farm dweller and the landowner. Where the matter is irresolvable in such a manner, litigation is seen as the next step in affirming and ensuring the protection of the client’s land rights. A candidate attorney together with the paralegal attends to the case with support from a qualified attorney as part of the cluster team.

Training is seen as a critical component of the project - for farm dwellers, stakeholders and role-players at district, regional and provincial levels. The project has a full time training officer whose work focus is dedicated to the development and implementation of a comprehensive training programme aimed at ensuring that farm dwellers and stakeholders have a clear understanding of the land rights legislation and their role in protecting and affirming farm dwellers’ land rights. Training workshops targeting specific sectoral groups are scheduled throughout this year and include members of the South African Police Services, farm dweller communities and community based organisations, municipal officials and councilors, traditional leadership structures, women’s groups, trade unions and Department of Labour officials, amongst others.

Research and advocacy work focuses on key issues affecting the security of tenure and land rights of farm dwellers. These issues are identified by the paralegals, lawyers and the member organisations as wellis through networking with other civil society organisations and government departments.

Focus areas include advocating for an amendment to the current KwaZulu-Natal Crematoria and Cemeteries Act, which prevents farm dwellers burying family members on farms; problems experienced with farm schools; the development of base-line criteria for appropriate compensation when farm dwellers are relocated on or off farms; critiques and written submissions on land-related legislation, policy and systems; liaison with other civil society and community structures on land rights issues and ensuring that farm dweller issues receive the necessary publicity and focus when human and land rights are impinged upon.

In support of the paralegal and legal service provided to farm dwellers, a comprehensive database of land rights cases attended to by project staff has been developed. This database captures all cases and is able to produce statistical analysis of the nature and location of land rights disputes in the project’s operational regions. The database is currently in the process of data verification and once this stage has been finalized, the database will be used for analysis of all cases in support of the project’s research and advocacy objectives.

The project’s objective remains to ensure that the provision of land litigation support and appropriate access to justice and the legal system by farm dwellers once again becomes the state’s responsibility. To this end, the project remains actively engaged with representatives of the Department of Justice and other government officials to ensure that appropriate resources (both financial and human) are directed to building capacity at regional and provincial levels within KwaZulu-Natal.