Supporting people's struggles towards agrarian and societal transformation.
The Support Centre for Land Change is a land rights and land justice organisation, working with primarily rural communities in the Garden Route, Central Karoo and western regions of the Eastern Cape.
We focus on key issues that include labour-and tenure rights of farm and forestry workers and dwellers, access to and sustainable use of land and resources for small-scale subsistence farmers and producers, in support and solidarity for communities resisting land “developments “that threaten their homes, livelihoods, health and heritage. The work is rooted in human and constitutional rights with land justice as the point of departure.
Our Programmes
The Extended Farm Worker Program (EFWP)
The Karoo Anti-Fracking campaign is consolidated and advanced in a national campaign calling for a ban on fracking.
Southern Cape Against Removals (SCAR) was established in 1987, at the height of the Apartheid repression, in support and solidarity of communities resisting forced removals. SCAR had her roots clearly vested in Lawaaikamp, an informal settlement in George.
In 2017 after being in existence for 30 years, the name changed to the Support Centre for Land Change.
Covid 19-pandemic expose and compound societal inequalities. The lockdown impact harshly on the poor with growing levels of poverty and hunger, failures in service delivery while government is juggled, between corruption and fraud and intense pressure to have policies approved.
South Africa faces interconnected social, economic, climate and ecological crises, which require urgent and immediate action to transform our archaic and harmful energy and mining sector.
Yet, Minister Mantashe and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) repeatedly block, delay and inhibit Eskom's just transition to renewable energy, approve polluting projects, ignore and exclude communities most affected by energy planning decisions and leave many people without access to basic electricity. Mantashe and the DMRE therefore stand in the way of a rapid, broad, inclusive and transformative socio-economically and environmentally just energy and mining future.
The Support Centre for Land Change (SCLC) with its community advice offices in rural parts of the Eastern and Western Cape, focuses on informal settlement dwellers facing socio-economic rights violations. The SCLC further focuses on tenure and human rights of farm- and forestry workers and dwellers, access to land and resources for small-scale/subsistence farmers and producers, and support and solidarity for communities resisting land development which threatens their homes, livelihoods, health and heritage(https://www.landportal.org).
The SCLC specifically call on the DMRE to #BanFracking in the Karoo Basin. They plan to outline their concerns relating to the current research that is being conducted in the Beaufort West area and the relentless push for gas exploration and extraction in the Karoo and the adverse impact that fracking will have on the lives and livelihoods of Karoo communities who are already bearing the brunt of the climate and ecological crisis.
Here follows our summarised demands in bullet points. These and our fuller list of demands, which CJC members of the undersigned partner organisations and groups in labour, mining affected communities, youth, energy and environmental justice have co-developed, will be delivered to the national offices of the DMRE in Tshwane and sent per email to Ms Thandiwe Biyela (Eastern Cape Regional Manager of the DMRE) as part of the Climate Justice Coalition's #UprootTheDMRE mobilisations happening across the country.
1. The DMRE leadership and structures must be transformed to fulfil a mandate for an inclusive socially, economically, and ecologically just energy and mining future. Mantashe must step aside to allow for new progressive leadership.
2. A rapid and just transition to a more socially owned, renewable energy powered economy, providing clean, safe, and affordable energy for all, with no worker and community left behind in the transition
3. No to new polluting, corrupt and expensive coal, oil, and gas projects. DMRE Officials must be investigated around irregular deals and reject the corrupt, costly and unnecessary Powership program, for example, at the Port of Ngqura 20 km northeast of Gqeberha. We demand One Million Climate Jobs instead.
4. Communities must have the right to say no to mining projects, that right includes free, prior informed consent, the upholding of social labour plans, and the right to sustainable alternative modes of development.
5. Minister Mantashe and the DMRE must stop blocking and inhibiting Eskom's transition to renewables. We demand a Green New Eskom driving a just transition to a more socially owned, renewable energy future.
Here follows some protest action of #UprootTheDMRE
Mobilising for a just energy and mining future! #Banfracking
The #UprootTheDMRE mobilisation occurred across all 9 provinces to protest the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE). SCLC and XR NMB are staged a protest action at the DMRE offices in Gqeberha on 22 September
Continue with the #UprootTheDMRE
As part of the ongoing #UprootTheDMRE mobilisation movement, and the #Banfracking campaign, SCLC & The Green Connection, together with activists from the Central Karoo and the Eastern Cape, gathered at the drilling site in Beaufort West on Monday, 27 September, to protest the relentless push for gas exploration and extraction in the Karoo. We believe that fracking will have an adverse impact on the lives and livelihoods of Karoo communities who are already bearing the brunt of the climate and ecological crisis.
After the protest action, the comrades met with the Mayor and Municipal Manager of the Central Karoo District Municipality to hand over a Memorandum of Demands. The Mayor and MM undertook to discuss the demands of the memorandum with their counterparts from the Beaufort West Municipality and will respond to the comrades soon. They promised to be transparent and keep the people informed.
Transformation, Restructuring, Recommissioning... For Whom?
Community leaders from forestry ex-worker villages from the Southern Cape and Boland have embarked on a mobilization campaign to demand their human rights and livelihoods. They have come together on Saturday, 28 September 2021 in Albertinia to join forces to engage government given the myriad of challenges they are facing. The theme for their campaign is Transformation, Restructuring, Recommissioning … for whom ? as these forestry communities do not benefit from transformation, restructuring and recommissioning in the forestry sector. The new political dispensation promised a range of redress mechanisms that includes community forestry, community based natural resource management and enterprise development. Forestry communities, however, continue to be marginalized. Government perceives them as workers only, not giving them any opportunity for development and empowerment.
Residents in these forestry locations are tenure insecure - they do not own the houses and land. There are plans to relocate residents - a practice that had been applied during years of apartheid. Houses have become unsafe, water quality has deteriorated, residents are unemployed. These villages and its residents - previously the pride of the forestry department - has become forgotten. These declines can all be attributed to privatization within the forestry sector. Government exited from industrial forestry operations and private companies took over the functions of planting, maintenance, harvesting, etc. Privatization led to retrenchments of workers, casualization of labour, deterioration of service delivery and decline of village infrastructure (houses, halls, roads, water, etc). Forestry is seen as an important source for revenue with two big companies having the monopoly in plantation forestry in the Western Cape. Communities are seen as second-class citizens. No programmes of community forestry, community natural resource management and enterprise development are implemented. It appears that the communities from the Western Cape suffers in particular. In other provinces, communities from historically disadvantaged groups run a range of forestry enterprises and own businesses in forestry.
Forestry communities have become frustrated with how they are treated and have organized locally and regionally to engage government. Both community forums from the Southern Cape and Boland submitted their Memoranda of Concerns and Demands to the Forestry Department during June 2021. The Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) responded last week indicating that an Intergovernmental Task Team had been established to respond to the concerns and demands listed.
The meeting at Albertinia strategized and established a plan on how they will engage the Department. A Task Team was established representing both forums to drive this process. The women in Forestry have become strong leaders and replaced the older men who initially engaged government. They understand their complexed reality as they have to care for their families and loved ones. They are persistent and articulate. Viva, the women in Forestry!
Transformation, Restructuring, Recommissioning... For Whom?
Community leaders from forestry ex-worker villages from the Southern Cape and Boland have embarked on a mobilization campaign to demand their human rights and livelihoods. They have come together on Saturday, 28 September 2021 in Albertinia to join forces to engage government given the myriad of challenges they are facing. The theme for their campaign is "Transformation, Restructuring, Recommissioning... for whom?"" as these forestry communities do not benefit from transformation, restructuring and recommissioning in the forestry sector. The new political dispensation promised a range of redress mechanisms that includes community forestry, community based natural resource management and enterprise development. Forestry communities, however, continue to be marginalized. Government perceives them as workers only, not giving them any opportunity for development and empowerment.
Residents in these forestry locations are tenure insecure - they do not own the houses and land. There are plans to relocate residents - a practice that had been applied during years of apartheid. Houses have become unsafe, water quality has deteriorated, residents are unemployed. These villages and its residents - previously the pride of the forestry department - has become forgotten. These declines can all be attributed to privatization within the forestry sector. Government exited from industrial forestry operations and private companies took over the functions of planting, maintenance, harvesting, etc. Privatization led to retrenchments of workers, casualization of labour, deterioration of service delivery and decline of village infrastructure (houses, halls, roads, water, etc). Forestry is seen as an important source for revenue with two big companies having the monopoly in plantation forestry in the Western Cape. Communities are seen as second-class citizens. No programmes of community forestry, community natural resource management and enterprise development are implemented. It appears that the communities from the Western Cape suffers in particular. In other provinces, communities from historically disadvantaged groups run a range of forestry enterprises and own businesses in forestry.
Forestry communities have become frustrated with how they are treated and have organized locally and regionally to engage government. Both community forums from the Southern Cape and Boland submitted their Memoranda of Concerns and Demands to the Forestry Department during June 2021. The Minister of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) responded last week indicating that an Intergovernmental Task Team had been established to respond to the concerns and demands listed.
The meeting at Albertinia strategized and established a plan on how they will engage the Department. A Task Team was established representing both forums to drive this process. The women in Forestry have become strong leaders and replaced the older men who initially engaged government. They understand their complexed reality as they have to care for their families and loved ones. They are persistent and articulate. Viva, the women in Forestry!
Land Access and Land Use Platform
More information coming soon.
Workers Platform
More information coming soon.
SCLC Area of Operation
SCLC's work is undertaken in the following Districts and Local Municipalities of the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces
Western Cape Province
Central Karoo District Municipality
Beaufort West
Laingsburg
Prince Albert
Garden Route District Municipality
Bitou
Knysna
George
Oudtshoorn
Kannaland
Mossel Bay
Hessequa
Overberg District Municipality
Swellendam
Eastern Cape Province
Chris Hani District Municipality
Inxuba Yethemba
Sarah Baartman
Dr Beyers Naude
Koukamma
Kouga
The Context in which SCLC operates
Covid 19-pandemic expose and compound societal inequalities. The lockdown impact harshly on the poor with growing levels of poverty and hunger, failures in service delivery while government is juggled between corruption and fraud and intense pressure to have policies approved. Civil Society remained relevant to ensure that those who will be affected are included in the processes.
Women bear the brunt of hunger and poverty and during 2020, there was a renewed plague of GBV, aggravated by lockdown restrictions. Perpetrators are no longer strangers, but relatives or friends. Figures of GBV during this period cannot be trusted as many cases were not reported.
Land reform continues to meet the demand and need for land. Promises of expropriation is still in the process of legislation. The capturing of land and infrastructure remains with the elite and the agro-cultural model exclude small scale farmers and producers. It is still believed that the hunger need can only be addressed through commercial agriculture and this system is thus prioritized.
While lockdown restrictions included a moratorium on farm evictions, cases of evictions were reported as a sign that the tenure rights of farm workers and dwellers remain insecure.
As lockdown restriction eased out, many frustrated communities took to the streets with harsh repression by law enforcement. This has led to rise in anger as the levels of inequality continue to grow resulting in violent protest actions.
The impact of climate change is felt by poor and vulnerable communities. Droughts and floods are the ignored realities when Government's is pushing to promote fossil fuels.
