To challenge the domination of commercial agriculture and strengthen food sovereignty SCLC works with formations of farmers and food producers who have organized themselves into municipal structures to lobby for access to land, resources, and markets. SCLC enhances capacity to strengthen negotiations and links farmers to local, provincial, and national campaigns and networks.
Towards spatial equity SCLC supports people living on the periphery of urban towns who are struggling for secure tenure, housing, and services. SCLC supports people in organizing themselves into action committees to lead the negotiations and campaigns.
SCLC faciliated an awareness and information session with small scale farmers / producers from Hessequa and the Central Karoo who use Municipal Commonage land. Commonage users understand their rights to Municipal Commonage land as a land reform mechanism to promote food security. Today leaders from small scale farmers engaged with the Hessequa Municipality on farmer support, commonage policy and equity.
A Memorandum of Concerns had been submitted to the municipal officials to
(1) Develop an Agricultural policy that specifies their role in small scale farmer suport
(2) Develop a Commonage Policy that recognises unbalanced power relations and
(3) Request a dialogue with the newly elected concillors on a
Commonage programme that is fair, transparent, realistic and equitable. Small scale farmer leaders need to keep the momentum as this process will be challenging.
Powertown informal settlement
The marginalised community of Klein Brak, currently residing at the site of the old Powerstation, have reached the end of their tether, and say it has been nearly three decades of struggle that needs to end. “We believe that the only reason we are not being listened to is because the Municipality of Mossel Bay are pursuing spatial development in a similar vein as the Apartheid governments”
Thirty years ago the National Party government started removing people from Kleinbrak to Mossel Bay. No consideration was given to the aspirations of the people being removed in this manner, despite many of them having lived for generations in the area. At the same time many of the community, who were previously forced onto farms, where they supplied cheap labour, were evicted from these farms in a blatant clearing by owners who were unsure of the land policies under the new ANC government. Whilst some of the people were moved to Mossel Bay, many resisted and settled at the site of the abandoned Power Station. “That is where we have been living for the past thirty years and this is where we will remain until provision are made for land for settlement for the community. Just as we resisted then, we will resist forced removals now!”
Some of the community has managed to remain on the farms in the area, where they are still living today under extremely insecure conditions. Our community is therefore not restricted to the families currently residing at Powertown, but also includes those who are still living on farms.
In 1997 the municipality undertook that to allow settlement at the current site but this plan never materialised. Thus far we have seen the surrounding areas of Rheebok/Kleinbrak new settlement and houses but we cannot get houses. We are told that the area is environmentally sensitive however we have not seen one development stopped. Including development plans for the current site we are occupying for conversion into a resort. There has been land on the market, however the municipality has shown itself to be a reluctant partner in negotiating with will sellers, a clear abrogation of the injunction that Municipalities need to create.
Instead community members of Kleinbrak are forced off their land through draconian measures that will leave people no option but to relocate. The community has been living on the site for 27 years. Young adults that want to start their own families are prevented from erecting houses, or even extent existing houses to accommodate their new families. The small spaces are also compromising the privacy of family members, including the necessary space between adults and children in the home. Instead of a humane approach, the municipality has responded inhumanely by tearing down these efforts, at great economic costs to community members. In spite of the municipality intransigence and inhumanity, the community will not relocate from the site.
Our vision as a community is that we can settle in this place of our birth. We therefore demand:
We reject any proposals to move us out of Klein Brak, whether it be Mossel Bay town or Sonskynvallei. We want to be accommodated in the place of our birth. We are not just asking for the people currently in Powertown, but it includes those that are still living on farms under precarious tenure.
Land for settlement. This land should make provision for housing, but it should also be sufficient to allow the community to grow and sustain itself as envisaged in the agri-villages as introduced by DRDLR in 2012(?).
Kleinbrak is a community that used to be an agricultural community. In line with the National Development Plan process of enabling morepeople to participate in the agricultural sector, we therefore demand land both for household and commercial production.
We do not think that our demands are extravagant, but it is an assertion of the basic rights promised to citizens encapsulated in the South African Constitution. We call on the Mossel Bay Municipality to change its approach.
Producers Platform
SCLC hosted its 9th Annual Producers' Platform from 15 - 17 October 2021 in Graaff-Reinet. The platform coincided with World Food Day on 16th October, under the theme: "The future of food is in our hands. Our actions are our future - better production, better nutrition, better environment and a better life”.
The Producers' Platform focused on the politics of food production in South Africa and its linkages to climate change and understanding the connection between the climate crises and the food system. As part of World Food Day, comrades participated in local demonstrations as part of raising awareness.
As part of the program the participants visited two sites in the Graaff-Reinet area which exposed the inequality that exists in the SA Food system and highlighted the importance of creating localized and sustainable food systems.
Vrygronde
SCLC's work is based on and grounded in research. To ensure that the organisation effectively achieves its mission, analysis and research of the current context is essential. SCLC's guiding principle for research is participation rather than extraction, only as people participate and share their experiences will we be able to establish the true context and effects thereof on people's lives.
SCLC has been supporting Vrygronde, an informal settlement in Graaff-Reinet since 2019. The Vrygronde Informal Settlement's history is not documented and the economic and social impact of natural disasters and the Covid-19 pandemic has never been measured. During this week, SCLC met with the leaders of the Vrygronde Informal dwellers to start with the process. This research is to build on existing knowledge, taking leaders back in history and to use as a tool to engage the municipality for security of tenure and to inform the youth around the struggles.
The Rise of Redust
The rise of the red dust: Peaceful demonstration by the Graaff-Reinet Action Committee, March 2020 - Residents demanding water, ownership of houses/property and fail electricity billing systems. The life of a poor person revolves around the struggle for dignity. After 26 years of democracy, socio-economic rights in South Africa remain problematic as citizen's continuous demand services delivery to fulfil basis needs are ignored by those in power.
Elizabeth Maarman
Has apartheid ended? This is the powerful question posed by Elizabeth Maarman, who says she still lives “in die verdukking” - under oppression - making her living collecting rubbish for recycling. She remembers a youth in Adendorp where her family at least enough money had to put food on the table. Now she sees children growing up, going to school, and not getting work.
