Welcome to the Law, Race & Gender Research Unit

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The work of the Southern Africa Food Lab (SAFL) and the Rural Women's Action Research Project (RWAR) are a good match for UCT's social responsiveness objectives, both in letter and spirit. Their research not only tackled two critical and complex social issues - food insecurity and the effects of customary law and the Traditional Courts Bill on women in rural South Africa, respectively - but also did so with energy and sensitivity, and offered solutions, to boot. Click here to read more...

On 25 November 2011, Sanele Sibanda (Wits School of Law) delivered a seminar titled Not purpose-made! Transformative constitutionalism, post-independence constitutionalism and the struggle to eradicate poverty to an engaging audience in the Criminology Seminar Room. This seminar was the last in the Rural Women's Action Research Project (RWAR) Seminar Series for 2011.

The Law, Race and Gender Research Unit has recently embarked on a research project to explore the "pathways" that rural citizens in KwaZulu-Natal utilise to access justice subsequent to having been a victim of a social contact or property-related crime.

UCT notes with extreme disappointment the fact that members of the South African parliament voted in favour of the proposed Protection of State Information Bill. This is despite the extraordinary strong civic voice that has risen against the proposed Bill. Click here to read more...

The Rural Women's Action Research Project at the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit invites you to a seminar by Sanele Sibanda on 25 November 2011 at 12h30. The title of his presentation will be Not purpose-made! Transformative constitutionalism, post-independence constitutionalism and the struggle to eradicate poverty. All are welcome!

The Rural Women's Action Research Project hosted a workshop about customary marriages at the Mchunu Traditional Council office in Msinga (KwaZulu-Natal) on 3 November 2011 for traditional councillors and community members from the area.

Traditional communities are supposed to have elections in order to reconstitute, with a 40% elected component and a gender component, the traditional councils which are intended to support traditional leaders in their areas. Training on these elections was provided to 80 community members near Rustenberg on the 6th October 2011 by researchers investigating traditional council elections for the LRG.

On 7 October 2011, the Rural Women Action Research Project of the LRG hosted a lunch time seminar by Gavin Capps and Sayi Nindi as part of its Seminar Series.

The seminar was titled Bafokeng vs Bafokeng: Minerals, land identity, ownership and competing rights.

Dates and topics for the next two Rural Women Action Research Project seminars have been finalised.

• 7 October 2011 - Bafokeng vs Bafokeng: Minerals, land identity, ownership and competing rights
• 25 November 2011 - Not purpose made: Post independent constitutionalism and the fight against poverty

Even the Constitutional Court doesn't always get race quite right, Professor Pierre de Vos suggested in his inaugural lecture, The Past is Unpredictable: Race, redress and remembrance in the South African Constitution, delivered at UCT on 14 September. Click here to read more...

On 26 August 2011, the Rural Women Action Research Project of the LRG hosted a seminar by Gino Cocchiaro from Natural Justice and Mariam Mayet from African Centre for Biosafety. Their presentation was titled Traditional knowledge, intellectual property rights, power and benefit-sharing: Case studies/evidence from Pelargonium, Rooibos and Hoodia.

The Rural Women Action Research Project at the Law, Race and Gender Research Unit hosted a seminar by Professor Paulus Zulu, Senior Fellow at the Maurice Webb Race Relations Unit at UKZN, on Friday the 16th of September.

The August/September 2011 edition of the LRG's newsletter Law, Custom & Rights has been released. The edition concentrates on traditional council elections taking place throughout the country, but there are also updates on the Traditional Courts Bill, tribal levies, the disestablishment of community authorities in Limpopo, the 2011 Budget Speech for Traditional Affairs, as well as other important announcements.

In the interests of public debate, the LRG is posting the recently released Green Paper on Land Reform, 2011, as a resource on its website. This Green Paper was tabled in Parliament on 31 August 2011 by the national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.