Randburg Land Claims fully supports the newly initiated campaign – One Woman, One Hectare of Land – initiated by the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE).
This office, however, does not have enough information regarding the campaign that was launched on 28 October in Parliament.
The campaign seeks to lobby government and other stakeholders, particularly the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, to allocate one hectare of land to one woman.
The campaigners believe this will combat poverty and kick-start economic empowerment.
Randburg Land Claims manager Nditsheni Muridili said, “We are not aware of it. But we are happy that the commission started something like this to empower women who, most of them, do not have access to land.”
Muridili said they are also encouraging women to stand up and claim their own land.
He added that so far, their office which is based on Kent Avenue, has not received any land claims submissions from any woman.
“Give a woman a piece of land, I salute the initiative,” Muridili said.
The CGE spokesperson Javu Baloyi said in South Africa, as is the case with many other countries around the world, women do not have direct access to land, despite the fact that they constitute 70 per cent of the workforce required to maintain the land and make it productive to sustain rural livelihoods.
In response to the gender-sensitive international instruments, Baloyi said the commission decided to initiate One woman, One hectare of Land campaign, to propel the issues of land.
He said the appearance and presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Land Reform and Rural Development will therefore enable the commission to elaborate on the objectives of the campaign, and the expected benefits for rural women and their households.
“The Commission has received support from women’s and land rights advocacy campaigns for this initiative, and hopes to convince members of Parliament to support the campaign and lobby government to introduce the necessary policy and legislative reforms to turn the campaign into reality,” said Baloyi.
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