Launch of Land Divided, Land Restored edited by Ben Cousins and Cherryl Walker

Wednesday, 25 February, 2015 - 17:30

WiSER invites you to the launch and discussion of

Land Divided, Land Restored : Land Reform in South Africa for the 21st Century

[Cover Land Divided]

The event will include a panel discussion on the state of land reform with Ben Cousins, Nomboniso Gasa, Achille Mbembe and Cherryl Walker.

Keith Breckenridge will act as chair and facilitator

Land reform is once again under the spotlight. Amidst calls by some politicians for confiscating land from white farmers without compensation, others claim that the land redistributed to black owners is not being productively farmed. The debate is dangerously polarised, the stakes high. At the same time new challenges confront policy-makers: climate change, threats to bio-diversity, urbanisation, high unemployment, food security, and global economic uncertainties. 2013 was the centenary of South Africa’s notorious Natives Land Act, whose effects are still evident in the country’s divided countryside and deeply racialised inequalities. 2014 is the deadline that the ANC government set for itself for redistributing 30 per cent of commercial agricultural land into black ownership. All agree that the target cannot be met, but there is little agreement on what is the best way forward. 2014 is also the twentieth anniversary of the founding of democracy. Building on the public debates generated by the centenary of the 1913 Land Act, this book presents a major opportunity to review the contemporary significance of land as a social, economic and natural resource in South Africa – to pose new questions and search for new answers. The book is illustrated with photographs from the acclaimed Iziko National Gallery exhibition “Umhlaba 1913–2013: Commemorating the 1913 Land Act”, curated by David Goldblatt, Paul Weinberg, Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa and Pam Warne.

Tuesday, February 24th at 5:30pm for 6:00pm.   The event will end at 7:15pm

WiSER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building,
East Campus, Wits University

Drinks and Refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP: Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za