Rural development

Africa News, 2 July 2007.

A recent study conducted by The Bench Marks Foundation on the corporate social responsibility programmes of the platinum mining companies in the North West, reveals that communities in this region are being cheated in transformation initiatives by the mines concerned.

AllAfrica.com, 2 July 2007.

At a recent conference called by the South African Council of Churches, faith-based organisations and NGOs voiced their disappointment with the lack of progress in land reform as mapped by the government’s National Land Summit two years ago.

The conference was attended by the Human Rights Commission and more that 50 community based organisations who called for a review of the Extension of Security Tenure Act.

IRIN, 19 June 2007.

The Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney Mufamadi has described the rash of service delivery protests throughout the country since 2004 as a consequence of the successes of the government, not its failures.

Mufamadi was responding to a recent report by the Centre for Development Enterprise (CDE) which blamed an allegedly insensitive and unresponsive political elite for the often violent  protests over service delivery.

The Sunday Independent, 18 June 2007.

Rural NGOs and unions have walked out of land-reform negotiations set up in the wake of the 2005 National Land Summit, accusing the government of marginalising them.

In a strongly worded report to the Department of Land Affairs (DLA), land and rural community organisations argue that the processes set up last year to give effect to the Land Summit’ resolutions and fast-track land reform have collapsed.

TAC Newsletter, 12 June 2007. 

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says it is appalled by the dismissal of public sector workers,  especially nurses  and appeals to authorities to reverse the decision.

In a letter addressed to the Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and Western Cape MEC for Health Pierre Uys, the organisation argues that the dismissals are unlawful. 

AllAfrica.com, 11 June 2007.

The confusion sown by the dispute between government and residents of Khutsong regarding the incorporation of Khutsong from one province to another has blocked the funding of an NGO which relies predominantly on state support for food.

The Star, 11 June 2007.

In the effort to ensure that lack of infrastructure does not make them fall behind in technology, one rural community has converted tin cans into antennas which enable local villagers who have computers to access the internet free of charge.

Through the use of these converted tin cans, the rural community living in the Peebles Valley, outside White River in Mpumalanga, has also enabled a small rural Aids hospice and a clinic to cut their monthly phone bills from R3 000 to R0.

IRIN News, 30 May 2007. 

Zimbabwe’s urban residents have to grease the palms of officials to ensure they can get access to even dysfunctional services.

The residents, who besides having to contend with leaking water pipes and frequent power outages, say they are facing the twin evil of a continuously deteriorating service delivery system and corrupt officials.

IPS, 24 April 2007.

As part of "Indigenous April" and the Campaign for Land Reform led by the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the indigenous and rural people of Brazil took the streets to express their demands for land, better healthcare and justice.