HSRC Review 21(3). September: 1-37

Abstract

Insecure land tenure continues to be a challenge for black farmers in South Africa. For some women, overcoming the legacy of apartheid restrictions may be further complicated by a customary system that only allows access to land via male heads of households. Growing their enterprises often requires building or upgrading built infrastructure. But what happens to that investment if the lease or land use agreement ends? In this edition of the Review, Sabelo Mpisi advocates for greater policy intervention to bring an end to genderbased discrimination in land ownership and rights. This is based on discussions with young female small-scale farmers during ethnographic fieldwork in KwaZulu-Natal. Previous research has shown that female land ownership has significantly increased crop diversity and has improved households' probability of food security.