The Community Engagement (CE) Evaluation research team recently held a dialogue session on land reform, at the ML Sultan Campus.

The dialogue session, led by Dr Govender, held a thought provoking discussion on the implications of expropriating land without compensation in South Africa. The CE evaluation team consisted of BTech, Master’s, PhD students and Postdoctoral Fellows from across faculties. It was titled: South Africa in Transition: Land Reform, Radical Economic Transformation and held under the community engagement dialogue series that the Community Engagement Evaluation team holds fortnightly to enhance the University and students to critically engage with some of the most difficult and pertinent issues affecting the communities.

Runyararo Marima, a political scientist and peace studies student from Zimbabwe gave a presentation titled: ‘Land as an object and subject of peace: A look at Zimbabwe’s Land Reform’. Her pictorial presentation stimulated the attendees into a light-hearted dialogue, which allowed a methodical and conversational engagement on economic, social and political issue that South Africa is currently grappling with. Discussants had to grapple with questions which included what processes South Africa should follow to avoid the danger of following Zimbabwe’s ill-fated Fast Track Land Reform Programme, the extent to which regional (AU and SADC) and global factors will impact on the process.

One of the most important outcomes from the dialogue is that participants agreed that it is critical that South Africa engages in the Land reform but should be wary of not making some fatal mistakes that Zimbabwe made.

The convener of the dialogue Dr Mutero, a postdoctoral fellow, said the dialogue provided an opportunity for networking and an experiential platform to embolden the students’ voices as makers and shapers of a better South Africa through engaging with research and conversations.

In his closing remarks at the session Dr Govender emphasised the important role monitoring and evaluation can play in ensuring the success of the much-needed land reform. He said monitoring and evaluation are critical for good governance, quality assurance, learning, knowledge transfer and sustainable management. He cautioned that the dynamic and complex South African environment, the absence of an effective performance monitoring and evaluation system may easily result in poor or in accurate reporting leading to poor quality decision making and policy development thus leading to a chaotic land reform.

Pictured: DUT attendees at the dialogue session.

Dr Tinashe Mutero