Background to AFRA

AFRA was formed in 1979 in Pietermaritzburg, to assist rural KwaZulu-Natal communities in their struggle against forced removals. This involved working with farm dwellers and labour tenants who faced eviction from white-owned farms, and also with freehold communities resisting forced removal. Its rôle, approach and methods have adapted over time and, with the election of the country's first democratic government in 1994, AFRA played an active rôle in supporting the new dispensation to develop frameworks and policies for the required land reform programme. Although AFRA initially played a supportive rôle to the new government, its primary target group remained African rural people with insecure land tenure. This rôle has further evolved over the years since 1994 as many of the Land Reform Programmes failed to deliver even a tenth of what they had promised. In recognition of the growing frustrations of communities who remained landless and even of those who had “benefited” from the land reform programme, AFRA shifted its emphasis and energies into supporting these communities to understand their predicaments, to identify the source and nature of the problems they face, and to mobilise and organise to overcome these. It is AFRA’s belief that the current framework for the Land Reform Programme is basically flawed, as it is not premised primarily on addressing, alleviating or reducing the poverty created by colonial and apartheid economic frameworks; that it does not attempt to rectify or transform the skewed power relations created by skewed access to critical resources like land; and that it is guided in the first instance by its impact on the market both nationally and in the global arena. The current programme will need to be challenged for it to be changed. For it to be challenged meaningfully and effectively, landless people themselves will need to drive this process. In recognition of this, AFRA has been working toward refining its rôle and becoming more focused on its area of work. There has therefore been a shift away from implementation toward more of an advocacy and lobbying orientation. AFRA’s approach to working with various communities has shifted toward empowering these communities to have their own voice and to engage more effectively with existing government programmes. Lessons are drawn from these communities for the purposes of improving implementation options in land reform and for lobbying and advocacy on proposing alternatives to the current framework. AFRA has reviewed its communications strategy to more effectively support its lobbying and advocacy orientation. Hence the primary form that that communication will take will be to support advocacy actions on positions and issues, and to draw the public’s attention to the plight of landless people. AFRA is a non-profit organisation, and as such is tax exempt. Financial support for the organisation is received from local and foreign donor agencies, to whom there is account for the work and monies spent.