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29 March 2018 Photo Rulanzen Martin
UWC environmental researchers unpack land restitution
Mr Lindokuhle Khumalo with Dr Stephanie Cawood, CGAS Acting Director, and Prof Shirley Brooks.
The Centre for Gender and Africa Studies (CGAS) recently hosted Prof Shirley Brooks and Mr Lindokuhle Khumalo from the Department of Geography, Environmental Studies and Tourism at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), as part their seminar series. 

The subject of the talk was Environmental justice and Land Reform: Unpacking power and privilege in the context of KwaZulu-Natal’s Biodiversity Stewardship Programme. The seminar was held on the Bloemfontein Campus on 22 March 2018.

Research focus on land restitution 
Discussion on land reform is often isolated from questions about environmental justice. In addition, “Environmental justice debates have tended to focus on questions of environmental quality, especially in urban areas, such as the location of toxic waste sites near poor communities.” Their work attempts to bring these two areas of interest together.

Their work focuses on land restitution. This is the process which follows after a successful land claim. “In the case we presented, the state purchased a private game reserve, and in terms of the settlement, the land beneficiaries became the new land owners. Ownership is now vested in the community trust.” However, in terms of the settlement, a management company runs the reserve. In effect, the former land owners continue to run the operations of the company as a private game reserve. “Our work raises questions about the environmental justice of this agreement,” Mr Khumalo said. 

It is also a sad reality that many members of the beneficiary community have never set foot on the reserve; it is therefore difficult to establish how this outcome achieves true environmental justice.

What is the Biodiversity Stewardship Programme?
“The Biodiversity Stewardship Programme (BSP) is an approach to extend biodiversity conservation beyond formal protected areas such as national or provincial parks,” Prof Brooks said. It is achieved by entering into legal agreements between private and communal landowners. In KwaZulu-Natal, the programme is led and facilitated by the provincial conservation authorities; it is also supported by environmental NGOs such as the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlands Trust. 

News Archive

Kovsie TV Launched
2015-05-06

Victor Ngubeni, Grace Thoabala, Nangamso Dlatu, Aisha Poswa, Lesego Maakamedi, Nothando Hlope, Aldene vd Merwe and Lawrence Siyoko

“We have to change our university before we can change our country.”

 

There is a revolution at hand, and students are requesting new and exciting platforms on which they can voice themselves. Kovsie TV aims to do just that for Kovsie students. 

 

As a student initiative, the steam behind it is SRC Student Development and Environmental Affairs, Victor Ngubeni. He says that it is only right that it be by the students themselves. The launch saw many from the campus community gathered out of curiosity and excitement for the new venture. The evening started out as quite a classy frenzy, which had attendees clearly prepared for the level of broadcasting that the launch would showcase.

 

The initial idea is to increase the number of platforms where students can receive information. The Student Media portfolio, which oversees the functioning of student media platforms, aims to make Kovsie TV as autonomous as possible. As an introductory initiative, it will aid in the sharing and telling of students’ stories.

 

It is important to mention the preparation process that was endured by the many hopefuls who auditioned, hoping to make it as one of the Kovsie TV presenters. For more than three weeks, the panel of judges sieved through the contestants until they had just six rough diamonds. Then, for the first time, the audience met the faces that they would become familiar with from this point.

 

As Ngubeni stressed during his speech, Kovsie TV would not serve as propaganda machine for the SRC, as many might have asked about the relationship that could be expected between the two. The architects of Kovsie TV hope that, as a student initiative, it will inspire a new era in student activism.

 

When asked about the concept behind this new platform, Ngubeni informed us that, “the concept is to have a twenty-minute campus TV show highlighting what goes on around campus so that students know, and so that we can get them participating in campus life activities.”

 

This is a student initiative whose future will depend solely on the students themselves.

 

Presenters:

Nangamso Dlathu – Studio presenter

Grace Thoabala – Studio presenter

Lesego Maakamedi – Social events

Nothando Hlophe – Current affairs

Aldine van der Merwe – Culture events and Vox-Pop

Mbulelo Siyoko – Culture and Vox-Pop

Aisha Phoswa ? Sports

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